Are you thinking about roadschooling your children or becoming a world-traveling family but are concerned that your kids might lose educational progress? Or maybe you are considering becoming a young snowbird family with school-age kids like us, and are intimidated by homeschooling.
Either way, this article will explain all the ways that children benefit and learn through traveling.
Different Climates
Traveling can bring up lots of educational discussions about climates. Since we’ve headed south, we have been able to discuss the effects of being closer to the equator and how it affects the temperature and climates of different areas.
Different Cultures
World travelers get to experience all types of different cultures. By choosing to study the culture before leaving for your trip, your kids will be much more ready to embrace and understand the culture when they arrive. I recommend the book Countries of the World to help your kids learn about the next adventure before leaving.
It’s important to discuss what can be viewed as offensive to different cultures, how to greet strangers, and understand religious differences.
Talk to people who have traveled to that location before or even jump on some online forums to read about the culture.
Different Terrain
Leaving your home state can really open your eyes to the different types of landscape and terrain of other places. For example, the Midwest United States tends to be flat with farmland, while the west coast tends to be hilly with mountains or deserts. If you visit some states, you’ll be surprised to see sand dunes, canyons, mountains, and caves.
Kids can explore all different types of terrain that they’ve never seen before. Talk about a fun science class! Seeing something firsthand is much more likely to be remembered rather than reading about it from a textbook.
Getting Out of Their Comfort Zone
Kids who travel tend to get out of their comfort zone more because they don’t have as much of a routine and they are consistently trying new things. Meeting new people, eating different types of food, making new friends, experiencing different adventures, and so much more.
It definitely tends to expand their comfort zones.
Different Types of People
While exploring different areas, it’s important to submerge yourself into the culture of the area and meet different types of people. It’s a great way to get the most from the experience.
Kids become more tolerant, open-minded, and excited to learn about the different types of people for the places they visit. It’s amazing how kids can make friends in seconds.
A few days ago, we were exploring a new area, and my son ran ahead of us. We were only 20 seconds behind him, but by the time we caught up with him, he had already befriended another little boy. We ended up exploring the area with the family of that little boy, all because my son was willing to meet different types of people!
Different Foods
Kids tend to be picky eaters, but when you are traveling, they may not have the option of eating chicken nuggets and macaroni.
Try the local cuisine. You might be surprised that your kids love Indian food or seafood. At 10 months old, my son was eating crab legs and oysters!
Learn Different Languages
Kids are sponges. If you are able to take kids to countries that speak different languages, you might be surprised at the words they pick up from hearing the other languages being spoken.
I recommend getting a translating dictionary and learning the basics before arriving. Although many countries speak English, it is great to show respect to the people of the area by attempting to communicate in their native tongue.
Here are some common translation dictionaries for English speakers:
Different Currency
Learning currency exchange rates is an excellent way to practice math while traveling! Of course, Google is our friend when it comes to fast and easy calculations, but it’s definitely a great way to practice math skills and submerge yourself into the ways of the country you are visiting.
I remember traveling as a child and converting my English dollar to the Euro and thinking how cool it was! It’s been 23 years and I still remember it well. My memory would not be the same if I had read about currencies in history class.
Different Hobbies
We have become a much more outdoorsy family now that we are a traveling homeschool family. We’ve visited the Everglades and seen alligators up close, spend a ton of time exploring nature (especially in Florida), started a seashell collection from all the amazing seashells in Sanibel, started painting ceramics, watched pelicans dive into the water to catch their dinner, and enjoyed trying different foods.
You’ll notice that your hobbies change too once you start traveling! It’s so fun to learn new things!
Different Ways to Live
Traveling more has definitely opened my eyes to all the different ways people live. From beach bums to farmers to off-grid lifestyles, the ways to live are endless. If you stay in the same place all your life, you’ll only know one way to live. But if you hit the road and explore other areas, your mind will be opened and you may decide to change your entire life!
How to Budget
Traveling can be expensive! It can also be done on a budget, but you have to learn how to budget first! Learning budgeting and money management is not often taught in traditional school settings, but this isn’t the case for traveling families.
Include your kids on the money coming in and the best way to spend, save, and invest. Let them help you decide how much money you have and how the amount of money will impact your travel accommodations, grocery allowance, and travel destinations!
Not only will it be an excellent bonding opportunity for your family, but it will also prepare your children to be successful in their adult lives and how to live within their means and stay out of debt.
How to Plan
Some opt to be freestyle travelers, but we like to plan where we’re going next. Planning is an important skill that kids need to learn.
What route will we take? Should we fly, drive, or take our camper? How long should we stay? Are there any important events or holidays we should be considering when planning our trip? How many outfits do we need to pack?
Include your kids in this process. They will learn an invaluable skill that will suit them in whatever they choose to do as an adult.
Time Management Skills
When homeschooling on the road, it’s important to learn time management skills. We like to get as much of our book learning done while traveling, so we can focus on science and history through exploration when we read our destination.
I let my son know how long we have left in the car, and help him decide what to focus on and how long each lesson should take so he can learn time management skills.
I have a homeschooling friend who lets her sons plan their week. As long as they get through their lessons, they can do their schoolwork whenever they please. It’s working out great for their family!
How to Read a Map
I know that technology has many options for navigating, but what about when you lose service on your cell phone and you’re in the middle of nowhere?
I’ll never forget when my husband and I were on our honeymoon in the mountains. We lost cell phone service for 2 hours and didn’t have a map. My husband just kept heading in the direction we thought we should be going. Once we got reception back, we hadn’t lost any time! He had stayed on course – I was impressed!
Kids should learn how to read a map and help you navigate on your adventures. It’s a necessary skill for adult life.
How to Make Friends
Somewhere along the way as adults, we lose the ability to make friends easily. At least, it becomes more difficult. We have to be more intentional about making friends while traveling because it’s just the 3 of us on the road most of the time.
My son has no trouble in this area. He makes friends wherever he goes. We actually learn from him in this area!
I love that my son will play with anyone, regardless of age, gender, status, or race. I think traveling has brought this out in him.
How to Be Grateful
I’ll never forget visiting San Francisco and seeing so many homeless people. It was so eye-opening and made me appreciate the small things in life.
We actually ended up buying dinner for people and even saw others placing sandwiches on the streets for others to come by and grab.
It’s an amazing way to teach your kids empathy, among other life lessons.
It’s also very refreshing to see how resilient and content kids are in other countries. They are happy to play with sticks and 1 ball all day, while here in America, we tend to be spoiled and unappreciative if we aren’t careful.
Kids can learn a lot from other children.
How to Live with Less
Traveling alone teaches you how to live with less. We bring only a few toys and books when traveling. We spend most of our time outside exploring, so it’s really unnecessary to bring much. Plus, we don’t want to crowd our small spaces.
But in another way, we can learn how to live with less by watching other children and how little they have, but how happy they are. What an amazing quality.
Different Skills
Traveling helps kids and adults learn new skills that they hadn’t been putting into practice while at home. Things such as couponing, how to fix an RV, travel planning, research skills, problem-solving skills, social skills, teamwork, organization, and so much more.
We have even taught our son some construction skills at 5 years old because we travel to purchase real estate and do renovations.
Different Mindset
I don’t know about you but traveling puts me into a different mindset. I tend to be pretty rigid (something I’m working on changing). Traveling helps me become more flexible and adaptable.
You learn patience, creativity, the importance of family, and how to go with the flow.
Different Ways to Educate
Educating our son on the road has definitely changed my view on all the different ways to teach and learn.
We do not use a formal curriculum for science, geography, history, music, or art. Rather, we let the areas we visit teach us. We climb trees, swim in the ocean, and walk along creek beds!
For English Language Arts and Math, we use a curriculum or writing worksheets, but that’s it!
History
You’ll definitely learn all about the different historical sites when traveling if you are intentional and plan to. Visit the Alamo, Pearl Harbor, and tons of other places while traveling in the United States. If you visit Europe, make sure you take your kids to all the historical places – The Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, the Colosseum in Rome, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, war sites, and Anne Frank’s House in the Netherlands.
Different Traditions
Traveling helps kids learn the traditions of other countries. For example, in America, we put up a Christmas tree for Christmas. In Japan, they eat Kentucky Fried Chicken and New Zealanders have a seafood barbeque. Norwegians hide their broomsticks on Christmas Eve.
No matter where you travel, your kids will learn about the traditions of other countries.
Geography
As I mentioned before, we don’t any formal curriculum for learning geography. We feel that we can teach enough through experience and travel.
There are a few fun ways to encourage learning geography. When traveling in the United States, you can play the Guess in 10 States of America game. If you’re traveling the world, you can play The World Game.
Kids love learning through games, and the games I’ve suggested are fun for the whole family!
How to Bargain
Bargaining is a skill that is not practiced much in the United States. When we visited the Bahamas, we learned how to bargain at the street markets. It was so much fun!
Most People are Good
There are so many scary stories in the news, that we tend to believe that the world is a scary place. Traveling helps you realize that most people are good.
I have a friend who recently had a medical emergency in a European country. Strangers helped him get to a hospital. My sister had a medical emergency at a park as a child. Strangers helped my parents get her cleaned up and even offered to watch the other siblings while they tended to her.
If you get lost, there are many wonderful people offering to help.
Traveling helps you realize how many good people there are in the world.
How to Entertain Yourself
Traveling teaches kids how to entertain themselves. There are lots of days we are traveling to our next destination. It’s up to my son to figure out how to entertain himself with a few toys and books. He plays with small action figures, toy cars, and practices writing and drawing on his writing tablet.
At home, he tends to be more bored, but traveling has taught him how to keep himself entertained.
Motivation
Coming back home after traveling gives us a revitalized sense of motivation. We are still excited about all the things we experienced while traveling and cannot wait to plan our next adventure. We start researching new places with a new zest for life.
You will too!
How to Save Money
When we are home, we are in frugal mode. We save money and so does our son. He is learning how much money to save versus spend.
We are watching Jack Hartmann’s videos on counting money so he can learn the value of each coin.
I also highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s Smart Money, Smart Kids book.
Different Ways to Earn a Living
When we decided to homeschool our son, one of the big factors that played into our decision was teaching our son the entrepreneurial lifestyle, as opposed to a regular 9-5 job with little freedom.
We want our son to have the opportunity to see all the different ways of earning a living and making money so he can decide how he wants to live.
Here are several ways you can earn money on the road as a traveling family.
Conclusion
So, if you are on the fence about traveling with your kids or starting to homeschool so you can travel the world – rest assured that there is no need for concern. Kids learn in different ways and through many different experiences while on the road. They will come back not only smarter but also more cultured, experienced, and worldly than ever before.
I hope that after reading this article you feel more confident and excited to get out there and explore the world. There are so many amazing things for kids to learn while traveling – it’s a shame not to take advantage of that!
We believe wholeheartedly in the power of travel to change lives for the better and hope that you will consider joining us as we explore our beautiful world!
What an amazing opportunity to give your children! Have you started planning your family’s next big adventure?
