When families start worldschooling, they need to make sure they have the right resources for their adventure. It isn’t much fun if you don’t have the right stuff to get through the days. Although there are a lot of gadgets you don’t need, there are a few essentials. This page is full of resources that my family and I have used during our worldschooling adventures.
Here are some of my favourite essentials for a worldschooling family:
Backpack: When you are traveling and backpacking it is important to have the right backpack that suits you. One of my favourite backpacks that my mom and I recently bought and love, is the Osprey Faireview Travel Pack 55. The Osprey fairview even comes with a day pack that attaches and zips off the big bag.
Kindle: You don’t want to be lugging around a bunch of books with you. It’s much easier to have all your books on the kindle! You can buy as many books as you want for pretty cheap, and you can even rent books from the library on a kindle. The kindle is probably one of my families most important essentials when traveling.
Day pack: You need to have a good day pack for short day and long day trips while worldschooling. It makes everything so much easier, especially if you have young kids and need to carry around snacks or things for them. There are lots of great day packs out there, but I recommend getting camelbacks. They are good quality backpacks, with water dispensers, and have a different backpack for every type of sport from running to just walking around the city. They have great kids camelbacks that are small, fit a water pack and a few snacks, which I highly recommend.
Hiking shoes: Hiking shoes or even running shoes are important to have especially if you want to do lots of hiking.
Travel Towel: When you are traveling you are not always going to be sure where you will have access to towels. So bringing a small travel towel will not only ensure that, but you will probably also want a towel for swimming. My family and I have been using the MEC compact towel for over 5 years, it is small, compact-able and dries easily.
Packing cubes: Packing cubes are another essential thing for organizing your backpacks/suitcases. We use the MEC light packing cubes, which have been great, but I’m sure any type of packing cube works.
Power adapter/converter: It is important to be able to charge your devices from anywhere, and most countries have different power outlets than the U.S. and Canada. So you will need a power adapter, preferably with multiple adapters on it so you can use it in multiple countries.
Travel Sized Games: Games are what my family and I love most on our nights in while we are traveling. You don’t want to be carrying a big monopoly board with you, so you will have to find some travel sized games to bring. Some of our favourites to bring on our trips are Dutch Blitz, Canasta (just 2 decks of cards), Kings, SET, and travel sized Backgammon.
Rain jackets: Everyone in the family needs a good rain jacket that pack up small. Everyone in my family have been loving the North Face rain jackets.
Sun hat: In most countries you will need a sun hat, they protect you from sun burns, and heat stroke, so they are pretty important. I suggest getting the full brimmed travel hats that fold up.
Computer or tablet: You will probably need to have a larger device at some point during your trip. Having a computer or tablet opens up a lot of opportunity for your children too. They can do many types of projects on a computer like PowerPoints, research projects, starting a blog or website etc. Plus they can take some online classes and learn more information about the destination you are headed. I suggest getting the lightest and smallest option, so that it is not a pain to carry with you.