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Here at Location Independent Parents, we stress that there is no ‘best’ way to educate all children; there is no magic formula of curriculum material + free play + project work + educational outing + socialisation = best education ever!

There is no one-size fits all approach, and we will never recommend one to you…

Because the truth is that there are as many ‘best’ ways to educate your child as there are children.  Now, I completely understand that when you start out home-educating your child, this can seem bewildering at best, and downright chaotic at worst.

When my husband and I started to investigate the possibility of home-education, what I really wanted was someone to swoop in and say, ‘This is the way that you’re supposed to do it, and if you follow my example, you’ll have happy, intelligent, independent, free-thinking children!’

Now, I’m not saying that no-one did swoop in to say that – there are an awful lot of people out there that believe that they know best – but what I am saying is that if someone does tell you that, please don’t fall for it.

Only you will know what is best for your child.

You know the way that they learn.  You know the rhythm of their energy flows, their need for variety, their capacity to absorb information.  As a switched on parent, who is engaged with their child’s development, you are best placed to devise an approach that will best suit your child.

And I should add here, coming from my perspective as a mother of 3, you may find (in fact, you’ll probably find!) that what works for one of your kids does not work for the other. Flexibility is one of the greatest gifts that we give ourselves and our children when we choose home-education, so don’t lock yourself into rigidly applying an approach to your entire family, as it may not work.

So what kinds of approach can you take?

The Home School

This is when the rhythms, curricula, ethos of a school are transplanted from a school environment and replicated at home. This can be good for kids who respond well to this kind of structure, who are planning to reintegrate back into an educational system after a period of away time, or who struggle to find focus when the structure is removed entirely, as it is with autonomous education (unschooling).

Autonomous Education

This is the opposite extreme of the home-school where there is no structure whatsoever, and the child is allowed to determine their own route through their education. In this case the parent takes the role of supporter, facilitator and co-learner. It’s a very free-form of education that places emphasis of the importance of free-play and which actively avoids the imposition of structure.

Somewhere In Between

To be honest very few families adopt either of these extremes. In my experience, and maybe you will tell me different, most home-educating families choose something somewhere in between.

The approach that we have chosen to take with our own children has been a combination of curricula for maths, project work for language skills (based on whatever their current passion is), music lessons, foreign language lessons (currently Hungarian) and then a healthy dose of free play.

It’s an approach that works for us on many levels, as we have some structure so both the kids and I gain confidence in their progression, we have some child-led learning so the kids can develop independent study skills, and free play so we can enjoy creativity, spontaneity, serendipity. This is the way that works best for my family, but I will never tell you that it’s the best way for your family.

The best way for your family, will be unique to your children, and the way you will figure it out, will be through trial and error. Have fun exploring what works best – it’s truly a great adventure where the learning for both parent & child never really ends!

Image by HckySo

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Eva Gill from Gill Adventures

As I began this journey of planning for living location independent as a family, I found many bloggers who had left a breadcrumb trail I’ve been able to follow. For many questions, this made answers magically appear with little effort on my part, and I am extremely grateful. One path that was not so clearly marked as I set off was choosing home school curriculum for our teenager…

Many of the families I found who had home schooled on the road had younger children. Others with older children had no intention of stepping back into the life they left behind, or returning to a public school system at the end of their travels.What we needed was a curriculum that would allow our children to learn independently throughout our travels, before transitioning back into traditional education when we return.

Researching Our Options

Our first step was to look at any state provision of off-campus education. Oregon, like many states, offers an online public school. Although I understand that some states will allow a child to enroll if they have been attending school in that state and plan to return at the end of travels. Oregon does not. The requirement here is that the materials be used physically in the house to which they are sent; domicile and tax status notwithstanding.

I would suggest that any parent from the USA planning a limited time, location independent experience look into the availability and requirements in their state.

After surfing around unsuccessfully online, I turned to my sister-in-law, who had home schooled her children while living in Japan for seven years. Her experience looked much different than ours would, as she had a permanent home where the boys could keep stacks of textbooks and desktop computers were set up at three stations in the living room.

From her came the first and probably most important piece of advice: start with the school your child will be returning to. Contact the counselor there and find out exactly what they will accept.

From the counselor at our local high school, we found that the best way to assure that Hannah could step back into class with her peers was to choose an accredited program that will issue transcripts. This is not so important for elementary and middle school, as they have more flexibility.

Refining the Search

An online search for home school curriculum and private online schools produces a flood of results, which I found overwhelming. Comparing programs based on company websites was sort of like buying a car by looking at it through a keyhole. Hannah and I made a list of our priorities:

• No books - As we will be living from one suitcase and one carry-on per person, we won’t have room to lug books around. The girls must be able to access what they need electronically, via computer or Kindle.

• Teacher support - If Hannah does not understand something, there needs to be someone available who can help. We understand that this may not be 24 hour availability. After all, we’ll be in a different time zone, and sleeping during “school hours” back home. But, at least, someone available that we can e-mail or chat with through a forum.

• Accredited – To be able to return without worrying about testing or the need to repeat anything.

• Mid-year start – We are leaving in February, so will need to start for the second semester. As Hannah is currently in the 8th grade taking both high school Spanish and Algebra 1, we will need to enroll her in these two courses to finish the school year, and full time as a freshman in the fall.

We found a couple of online private schools that look like great programs. In Ojai, California, is a private prep school called Laurel Springs which specializes in expatriates and families who are traveling extensively. They can offer a lot of support and even customize curriculum to learn about places we would be visiting.

We could enroll at any time, classes are on the schedule of the student. This is a very attractive program, and, sadly, expensive. Not by private school standards, but for those of us accustomed to free public schooling. It would be a great fit for a family with a bigger budget.

Another private online school is offered by k12.com, with either a complete package or individual classes. This program seems to have a little less support and is not as customizable as Laurel Springs. I understand that this company is actually the service provider for several of the public online school programs.

They also offer their program via private school for those of us who do not qualify for online public school. This also translates to private school tuition, albeit a bit less than Lauren Springs.

So, we added another priority to our list:

• Cost – We need to be able to afford the schooling without choking. Although keeping up with schoolwork and not falling behind is a priority, much of the learning over the next two years will come through the experience, not the curriculum. We don’t have to pay for “the best,” we just don’t want to lose any ground.

Even with the list, sifting through websites was a huge undertaking. I turned to an association I am a member of, which has a special interest group for home schooling families. I posted the question on their forum, explaining our plans and what we needed. Connecting with people who have been homeschooling and know some of the programs available was very helpful.

Curriculum Options

There are several very good curriculum options out there, some of the non-accredited are even offered by accredited schools, such as Aleks Math and Thinkwell. For families who don’t mind going through the process of home school testing, these are outstanding. For us, we want the simplicity of transcripts from an accredited school.

Finally, we settled on Compuhigh, which is an online division of an accredited high school. It is fully portable, and teacher support is available as we need it. They will provide transcripts in the end, so returning to public school will be simple. Enrollment and completion dates are flexible. And, comparatively, it was a decent value for the price.

There are great improvements on their way that will change the face of schooling on the road. Current programs are one-way. Interactivity with instructors through the programs themselves is working its way into online college curriculum, and will trickle down into high school and younger. Huge libraries are being digitized to be made available online. Between Google, Gutenberg, Kindle, and Nook, we will have access to much more information from anywhere.

Yet, even today there is so much more available than a couple of years ago. So, as we head out, I’m casting a few of my own breadcrumbs, hoping that they’ll make the trail a little easier to find for the next family.

Image by Soultravelers3

One of the things we hope to convey with this site is the fact that there is no single *best* way to be location independent parents, travel the world nor educate your child. We all choose to do different things, based upon what works for each of us. So with that in mind, we have interviewed a wide range of location independent parents (of all types – nomadic or not) to demonstrate this!

We also have found it useful to be able to point to others living this lifestyle, when faced with questions and challenges from friends and family – so with this series, we’re hoping to give you plenty of social proof for this very purpose!

In the first of these interviews, we feature Soultravelers3 – a family of 3 who travel full-time around the globe together…

What type of location independent parent are you? Please give us a brief overview of what you do & how it allows you to be location independent.

We are a digital nomadic family on an open-ended world tour. Since 2006 we have traveled over 175,000 miles to 32 countries on 4 continents so far.

We use every mode of transportation from camels to cargo ship and stay in many places from 5 star hotels to pensions, but our primary mode is slow, green, frugal travel via small motorhome for 6 or 7 months of good weather and then wintering in a lux but cheap rental home in a warm location. Thus far it has been the same beautiful white village in Southern Spain where our daughter goes to the local school in her 2nd language (1st thru 4th grade), but next winter it will be in Malaysia where our daughter will immerse in Mandarin.

Please give us an overview of the benefits you feel that being location independent brings to you & your family?

There are so many…including:

• Greater bonding as a family
• More time together
• Best possible education for our child as a 21st century global citizen
• We can travel the world MUCH cheaper than living at home
• Wonderful shared experiences
• Meeting amazing people
• Seeing and experiencing untold beauty of this earth
• Total freedom
• Living the dream

What about schooling? How do you do it on the road?

We homeschool all year round in English. We have it down to a science on the move, an easy habit like brushing teeth,  so it only takes an hour or two a day for basic work & we can carry homeschool supplies with us even when we go off for months of travel with just a small day pack each. Our child is doing school work many years ahead of age peers in school.

It truly is much easier than most people realize and a perfect combination with travel. We find that we can get much more education out of much less time put into it. Life as a family global field trip is an awesome education!

We homeschool a small amount daily at her level in English all year round and also use the local school in Spain for 5/6 months out of the year for deep immersion into her 2nd language, literature & culture. Next year she will start immersing in Mandarin in Malaysia while she is still young enough for her brain to be more open to learning languages.

Immersing in a language deeply allows one to immerse more deeply into a culture and the literature. Based on demographics, we think knowing Mandarin Chinese and Spanish well will be assets to our child’s future, so we started exposure while she was in the womb. We personally find that going to a local school and living in an area where the language is dominant is one of the best possible & easiest ways to learn a language.

Much of our daughter’s  homeschooling is done through her reading – books are and always have been the mainstay of our homeschooling. Raise a reader and life becomes easy because they learn so much on their own just having fun!