Worldschooling didn’t just come out of nowhere, it slowly started becoming more popular because of some families that started it.
It all started around 2008, a few families decided individually to sell everything they had and travel using the world as a source of education for their kids. Now these families lead the worldschooling movement bringing awareness to it.
Find out who these incredible families are, what made them want to travel and how they have brought awareness to worldschooling below.
Worldschoolers that started the worldschooling movement
Here are some of the worldschoolers that I come across often that helped start the worldschooling movement. The Dennings, Lainie and Miro, The Millers, the Pearces, the Kings and the Jenkins.
The Dennings are a family of 9 (7 kids) who spent over 12 years worldschooling. They’ve been in many interviews, and helped spread information about worldschooling across the world. This family has proven that you don’t need to be rich to worldschool as they have lived off $5000 a month while traveling! They are now helping other worldschooling kids and parents with their online course and meetups around the world.
Lainie and her son Miro, the founders of raising miro started their worldschooling journey in 2009, after they became worried about Lainie’s small business when the california economy crashed. They’ve been super successful and have even done a TED talk. Miro, now 21, and Lainie have started their own business called project worldschool, where they plan trips for worldschool families or teens. Their goal is to grow the worldschooling community and meet bring together families from all around the world.
The Millers, started worldschooling when they sold all their stuff in 2008. The family of 6 were just planning on taking a gap year, but evidently it turned into much longer than that. They traveled a lot by bike and camped along their way. They’ve got a blog but haven’t posted in a few years on it. Their kids are now in universities or have gone on their own path. The Millers have done lots of interviews, and Jenn (mom) is one of the co-founders of Family Summit Adventure, a 5 day event/meetup with other homeschoolers or worldschoolers for families who like to travel.
The Pearces started traveling also in 2009 with their 3 daughters. They wanted to travel when had a wake up call and realized life how short life can be. Now they’ve been to over 45 countries on their journey. They are a very artsy family, Brandon (dad) and Emily (oldest daughter) both write music and have songs on Spotify and iTunes, and the whole family is into art. They have a blog called Pearce on Earth. They’re still on the road as their kids are 8, 14 and 16. Brandon is the founder of Family Summit Adventure, which has been very successful bringing worldschoolers together.
The Kings are have been worldschooling since 2016. They realized that they were not enjoying life because they were working too much and then they found out what worldschooling is and decided to try it out. They started Worldschooling Central Travel which is their company that helps get worldschoolers together. They’ve planned lots of trips, and met lots of worldschoolers along their joruney.
They are about to launch their new Worldschooling Central website, which is going to be exciting. As a part of it, they are going to interview worldschooling families to help families who are new to worldschooling learn the steps of becoming successful doing it.
The Jenkins, are a family of 4 who have been slow traveling since 2013. Now they have proven that all types of worldschooling works as they have done all types of it, from staying in a school in another country to homeschooling while slow traveling and fast traveling. Jason, the dad, has a very popular podcast called epic education radio where he interviews families that travel or worldschool. The family also has a blog, called an epic education that has a lot of worldschooling resources.
There are so many worldschoolers out there and these are just the ones I know of and follow.
Worldschooling Communities
If you’re a worldschooler or want to become one you might be wondering, where can I meet other worldschooling families. Well you’re in luck because the worldschooling community is quite strong for the past several years.
I mentioned this earlier, but Family Summit Adventure, founded by Brandon Pearce, is a pretty cool meetup for worldschoolers or homeschoolers who enjoy travel. It is a one week convention with up to 400 families where they do fun activities and presentations celebrating family connection, enjoying life to its fullest and travel. The location changes every year, it has been in Bali, Mexico and Canada. There is a teen group, kid group and parent group, and they split up and have activities and learning opportunities to get know the other worldschoolers and the location you are in.
Project Worldschool, founded by Lainie and Miro, have retreats for families or teens who are worldschooled, homeschooled or unschooled. They focus on discovery, culture and experience. They’ve got everything planned and you can find the schedules on their site. In each retreat they have a minimum of 8 families. The retreats are multi-day ranging from 9 to 30 days focusing on experiencial and social learning.
Worldschooling Central is another great company that does retreats, they recently started them and have unique destinations like Kenya, Antarctica, Lapland and Egypt. The Dennings also have a company called Worldschool Academy with retreats, and some are even just for adults. They also have very unique adventures like trekking in Mongolia and Kilimanjaro summit. Both retreats are similar to Project Worldschool.
Facebook. Now this one is kind of general, but there are tons of worldschooling groups on facebook. If you look up worldschooling groups on the facebook search bar you’ll find them. On the groups people ask lots of questions, give tips about worldschooling and education. They even ask where people are in the world. So you might find someone who is in the same area that you’re in, and maybe you can meet up.
Worldschooling Cost
Worldschooling costs can range so much depending on where you are. Some countries like Australia, New Zealand and Iceland. But then some are cheaper like India, Argentina and Morocco. There is a great budget map on what rent costs around the world according to worldschoolers.
In a budget you’ll need to think about accommodation, transportation, flights, food, activities and other costs.
Rent in countries like Argentina, Indonesia, Uganda and Croatia are all under $350 a month. But some countries like the United States, China, the United Kingdom and Australia it can be up to $4,500 a month. On average it’s going to be around $800 a month.
The family of 4 behind the blog World Travel Family blogged about how much they spent in a year of traveling. They spent the first 6 months in Asia and the second 6 months in the Western Hemisphere. They traveled to 12 countries, and 4 continents. Their spendings was only $30,000 (USD) for the entire year, which includes flights, car rentals, food and drinks, insurance, pre-trip and unexpected costs!
Another family of 4 left to travel the world with a budget of $50,000. They traveled through Europe, China, Southeast Asia and Hawaii. The ended up spending $9,000 on flights, $2,000 on transport, $7,500 on accommodation, $3,300 on schooling and $17,750 on food and activities. In total it added up to be around $39,550 (USD).
As I mentioned above, the Dennings, family of 9, lived off $5,000 per month when they were traveling full time. That’s around $6,666 per person per year. There are a lot of reasons they can travel for so cheap. They do slow travel, staying in one place for a few weeks to months, and they usually stay in an AirBnb or VRBO. They say you shouldn’t think like a tourist to make budget travel happen, you need to think like a local.
It really depends on what type of travel you and your family prefer and want to do too. Slow travel tends to be cheaper because you’re not paying as much for transportation and you could get discounts on accommodation for staying in one home for a longer amount of time. Maybe you would prefer a more luxurious trip but go for a short amount of time, instead of going budget for a year. Other worldschooler budgets I found ranged from $7,500 per month to $1,500 per month.