World Schooling: How to Revolutionize Your Child’s Education Through Family Travel by Ashley Dymock de Tello condenses months of research into an easy to read compendium of reasons to just go for it!

I was slightly disappointed to discover in the Forward that the author had not actually tried World Schooling yet herself.

WHY AM I READING THIS THEN?! I thought angrily.

But actually, I’ve decided that it is still a useful book, because instead of trawling through lots of research online and contacting families who have tried it before, you can just read this book because she’s already done all that for you. The interviews from families who have done it already, or in many cases are still doing it, were particularly helpful and interesting- more interesting in some ways than if this had been a simple account of her own experience because it offered a number of perspectives.

Different families world school for different reasons and in as many different ways as there are different children. Some eschew all formal curriculum in favour of simply exploring the here and now, using life and travel as the made curriculum and all the people they meet along the way as tutors in their own specific areas of interest. Others use iPads, kindles, workbooks etc to stay ‘on track’ with a formal curriculum, either one from back home or one they have subscribed to, such as Waldorf or Charlotte Mason style curriculums you can purchase online. For this reason, it was fascinating to hear from different families about their experiences, how they manage it and what their kids get from it.

I was particularly excited to get to the section about how to World School from a practical standpoint- not necessarily the education side, but the financial and practical side. How can you travel and work and have your kids along? Just how?! This section was a little disappointing as it involved options like saving (yeah duh) and getting world that can be done remotely (well ideally yeah.) It was just a little too obvious.

However, two sections I loved where, firstly, the section on how to ‘world school’ from home. That is, how to feel like a world schooler if you cannot actually be travelling the world most of the year. Reading through, I become enthused to create a global vision for my children by incorporating different cultures into our days at home. Chinese New Year is an excuse to decorate the house with red and gold, to research their customs, to eat Chinese takeaway (as if we need an excuse), learn some basic phrases and watch a subtitled film. I’m sure that a little research whenever the kids are interested can help us to add many more ‘holiday’ dates to our calendar and create some personal family rituals around them that bring us together as well as increasing their global awareness.

Then we can use our summer holidays (when my husband is taking a break from teaching) to travel to places where we can join their celebrations locally. For example, the summer solstice is barely noted in the UK, but in many Scandinavian counties there are festivals we could attend, to listen to their music, eat local food and broaden our horizons.

The other section I really appreciated was the resources chapter, in which she has listed many books and online resources that I had not come across before and that may well be very helpful in the future depending on what direction J’s interest takes us.

In summary, a worthwhile read and another recommendation for anyone interested in looking at an alternative direction for their schooling.