In an era where conventional education is being challenged, several families have chosen to embrace a nomadic lifestyle, traveling the globe while educating their children through “worldschooling.” Josy and Joe Davis, along with other families like Melissa Wiringi’s, have taken significant steps to redefine family life and learning experiences.
Josy and Joe Davis were ready to take a bigger, more definitive plunge. They resigned from their careers, sold their house and withdrew their two young daughters from school—all to travel the globe. Right now their daughters are “five to ten times more excited — absolutely buzzing” to get ready for the voyage, which awaits them. The pair established an intuitive target for their journeys. They wanted to set a budget of £80 a night for accommodation and £30 for spending money as they moved between countries.
To travel with her four children Melissa Wiringi took to the road in 2020. Having started her journey amid the global pandemic, Ms. Her four kids—18, 16, nine, and three—have undergone very different trajectories through our fractured educational system. Though her eldest was homeschooled starting in 2016, the younger two have never set foot inside an established school. “People thought I was nuts for a while, going on about how I was going to travel the world with my kids,” said Wiringi.
The youngest of Wiringi’s children was born during their travels in Spain, illustrating the family’s commitment to a nomadic lifestyle from the very beginning. Melissa reflects on this experience, stating, “Making that happen – it was a slow process.”
As families work through the challenges of worldschooling, they are faced with the struggles of introducing children to different cultures and peoples. Josy and Joe Davis, who experienced racism on their journey. Their younger daughter, now six, has struggled with change since she was an infant. Even with all these hurdles, Josy feels that “kids are kids, no matter where you go.”
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic led to more frustrating delays for the Davis family. As a consequence, they were subjected to years-long separation from Vietnam. This sudden break from routine gave them a chance to look back at their path and revise their direction for the future of education on the road.
Policy wonks Sharon Ward and her husband Mike went all-in on the nomadic lifestyle. To do so, they signed up for a month-long homestay on a date farm in California’s Colorado desert. They were provided with a salt house—a traditional mud-brick dwelling—in return for three hours of labor five days a week. Sharon shared her thoughts on their nomadic adventure: “The challenges are hard, but at the same time the rewards are even bigger.” She humorously noted, “I often blame my nomadic ways on my mum and dad.”