One definition is "a form of education through travel, global experiences, and real-world learning." When we go to Japan, we won't be lugging over a bunch of textbooks and workbooks. Instead we'll embrace the educational philosophy, "The learning is in the living." We'll be learning the Japanese language and the Japanese culture and gaining worldview-shifting experiences. The main writing they'll be doing is keeping a journal to help preserve their memories (and maybe occasionally being a guest writer on this blog!)
When we first started dreaming of going to Japan, I was still teaching in a traditional classroom. We figured I'd quit my job for a year to homeschool in Japan for a year before coming back. But now that we homeschool, we are even more freed up. We aren't doing a co-op this year, and Carter won't be doing any dual-credit classes until spring semester.
The agency that we booked our cruise with is called Worldschooling Journeys. I had joined their Facebook group several years ago and had a case of wanderlust at all the options available! Many cruises and also land trips. On their trips, they don't schedule set-aside "learning time." They leave it up to the parents' discretion, but many don't force any workbooks on the kids during the trip. And for some, this isn't a one-and-done trip -- many have sold their homes and "worldschool" full-time. I don't necessarily think that is in our future, but I'm looking forward to conversations on the cruise about how families do this. Financially? Sanity-wise? Educationally? There will be several from the cruise who are going to Osaka for several weeks afterward, like us. At least two families are heading to Vietnam for January - May (who does that?!). And at least three families are staying for a month in Japan then flying south to Auckland to hop on a transpacific cruise back to America. We may not be THAT crazy (yet!), but we are prioritizing something that most people only dream about.
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