5 Tips for Your Family’s Epic Learning Journey
With the return of travel, and many parts of the world opening up to post-pandemic travelers and their families, we have had much interest from millennials in understanding how we took off for a year and half to unschool our daughters by curating educational experiences around the globe.
A large proportion of millennials who had so far dedicated themselves to building financial assets, now have children. They want the best for them and the best parenting experience for themselves too. No trade-offs, please. Sabbaticals are being contemplated and bucket lists are being finalised. Much advice is out there for families wanting to go on that epic journey of their lives and having their children learn on-the-road (or boat, or space-ship… well, soon!) However, very little of this is about focussing on the education of the young minds, and much more on having a good time.
Quest-based learning through travel
Our approach was radically different. In 2019, my husband Shashank and I took tandem sabbaticals from our jobs, pulled our kindergartener and pre-schooler from “school” and left on a journey that would allow our kids to learn from the world that lay outside the four walls of their classroom, instead of the one which was inside. At that time, we had no idea that worldschooling was a thing or was about to become one. What we did know was that a tantalising educational journey was calling out to us from the future. All we had to do was to heed it, and be open to emerging on the other side, wherever in the world it would be! So we did.
Some part of you is probably itching to go on your own quest, your family’s unique epic journey. There is a certain romance to throwing caution to the winds and taking off. Yet, quest-based learning is a more conscious way of, well, casting off the sails. Through being led by our children’s curiosity emerged a whole way of learning and a model for designing such learning for other families. Let me share a few principles that shaped our family’s first-hand experience. I believe they will enrich your own!
#1 Parents are facilitators, the environment is the teacher.
Quest-based learning is not essential. It is neither a must, nor a fit for every family. The rewards if you are able to do it are infinite. And still, there is no chance of succeeding unless you think you will enjoy being an observer of your kids’ learning. Observer only, with an occassional nudge. Alright, I’ll let you be a facilitator. No more control than that.
Quest-based learning is not about planning to the “t”, it’s about letting go of control instead. Yes, you read that right — you are not in-charge, your child and her curiosity is. But you get to do the most fun part — choose her teacher, and enjoy the ride. And before you feel disappointed, here’s the secret — the teacher is not a person (usually), it is the environment you pick to place your child in.
This enviroment is the back-drop for a journey you may have never imagined. So choose the environment correctly and assess if you would enjoy being the facilitator. As much as it is considered noble in our family for parents, esp. moms to be the stewards of everything from their baby’s first poop to their last college degree, the reality is not all of us are cut out to be homeschoolers, worldschoolers or any-schoolers. That is fine and perfectly normal, too.
#2 Detours are the real plan. Embrace them.
We plan the quest so that we can arrive at detours. Then we remain open, and allow them to happen. That is the seat of real learning.
Originally, we set out with the notion that we would research and curate experiences beforehand and then take our kids to them, wherever they are in the world. While we continue to design and curate experiences as planned, we have also learnt to improvise and welcome intellectual twists.
When mundane events have caught the girls’ attention unexpectedly, we have had to abandon our planned activity and take a detour along the path of curiosity with the kids leading our minds. For example, read our story of how our family watched a crab-fight and in the process missed a surreal, bucket-list worthy sunset in Tahiti. And why we still felt it was worth it!
#3 Learning is not incidental to travel, it is the very reason why we travel.
This is a key difference in the mindset of a worldschooling family and that of a family pursuing quest-based learning. Many worldschooling families prefer to have their kids travel with them, and trust that they are learning from their environment and the travel experience. There is truth to it. However, if you, like us, would like the thrill of participating in the children’s learning consciously, it is important to design the learning journey in a way that observations can be made, learning can be documented and most importantly, so that learning itself (and not just the travel) becomes a collective experience for the family. In my experience, bonding over learning is one of the most profound ways of bonding as a family.
#4 Keep a social media fast during the journey. You’ll see why.
Thsi is going to be difficult, guys. Very, very difficult. But if we could do it, so can you. It was painful to not be sharing glamorous, exotic moments as they happened. It will be excruciating when your friends were getting ten thousand likes for their recent visit to St. Lawrence Market when you have been swimming with whales somewhere exotic.
And yet, you’ll realise soon after this social media fast that you begin to notice that your children instead of posing for the camera are busy digging or observing things without a care for who’s watching or how it looks to anyone. And in that moment, may be, you’ll see that proverbial twinkle in her eye as a circuit of neurons fires up with that precious, ephemeral thing — true wonder.
We did.
#5 Travel is totally optional. It is a fantastic option though.
Travel was the ambient experience in our quest-based learning journey. Both Shashank and I enjoyed traveling much before our kids came. In fact, that common love of traveling the world may have been one of the things that brought us together. And yet, if we weren’t travelers and instead loved pottery, we would have designed quests within the wider environment of pottery. Our kids would have explored their curiosities through mud-play and visits to local kilns. Instead of finding Moana, they would be sculpting Moana-shaped pottery instead and that would be totally worthwhile.
Bonus tip: Exhaustion is a fact of human life. Take breaks.
Many parents who are imagining embarking on such a journey are planning to take a year off and make the most of that one year of freedom. The truth is, after five weeks of traveling, we were exhausted. Our kids weren't, they were really enjoying it. Yet, Shashank and I couldn’t wait to get over with Auckland, the last city on our five-week pilot journey, so that we could return home. Our big learning was that let us not forget we are humans, and even if we are not working at a job right now, being the facilitator of your child’s quest-based learning journey is a job that requires presence and adulting, often in unfamiliar new places. So, plan lots of breaks between your trips. Money paid for accomodation in places where you wind down is not money wasted.
Terrific Resources to get you thinking about your own Questbased Learning™ journey:
Read about our journey — Our Worldschooling Journey, With A Twist
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Book a FREE consultation call with us to explore a Questbased™ approach to your family’s learning!
