#182: They Left Germany Because Homeschooling Was Illegal | Worldschooling Across Europe

Can you really homeschool while traveling the world? What if homeschooling was actually illegal where you lived?

In this episode of The Homeschool How To Podcast, Cheryl sits down with Stacy, a homeschooling mom, worldschooler, and resilience coach whose family made the life-changing decision to leave Germany after discovering homeschooling wasn't legally allowed there.

Today, their family travels throughout Europe while homeschooling their three children through a blend of worldschooling, roadschooling, self-directed learning, and unschooling. They share what daily life really looks like, how they afford long-term travel, why they chose this lifestyle, and what their children have gained by learning from the world instead of a traditional classroom.

We also discuss:
 ✔️ Why homeschooling is illegal in Germany
 ✔️ What worldschooling and roadschooling actually look like
 ✔️ Waldorf (Steiner) education vs. homeschooling
 ✔️ How WWOOF and Workaway help families travel affordably
 ✔️ Helping children discover their strengths through interest-led learning
 ✔️ Building resilience in homeschooling families
 ✔️ Finding community while living a nomadic lifestyle
 ✔️ Common fears parents have before homeschooling — and why it doesn't have to be all or nothing

If you've ever wondered whether homeschooling could look completely different than the traditional model — or if you've dreamed of traveling with your kids while giving them an incredible education — this conversation will inspire you to think outside the box.

Resources mentioned:

• WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms)
• Workaway
• Stacy's resilience coaching information-Instagram- @resiliencewithstacy
  www.resiliencewithstacy.com

Ready to homeschool but wondering where to start?

📘 Grab my book, So You Want to Homeschool? Everything You Need to Know Before You Start

🎓 Need a step-by-step plan? Check out Cheryl's mini-course, How to Work and Homeschool 

📚 Still wondering, "What do I actually teach?" My guide walks you through exactly what homeschool families focus on by age and subject.

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Transcript

Why I Chose Homeschooling

SPEAKER_03 0:02

I didn't plan to homeschool. I started asking hard questions, realized how little control parents actually have, and made the hard decision to leave a government job to homeschool my kids. Now I interview other homeschooling parents to learn how this all works. I'm Cheryl, and this is the Homeschool How to Podcast. Let's learn this together. Before we jump in, if you have ever thought homeschooling sounds amazing, but there is no way I could actually make this work, this episode is going to challenge that belief. Stacy's family left Germany where homeschooling is actually illegal and now they travel while educating their three kids. It looks completely different than most homeschooling families, but it proves that there is just not one way to homeschool. And if your biggest question is, how would I actually make this work with real life, a job, and everything else on my plate, be sure to check out my course. Homeschool Your Kids and Still Pay the Bills. I'll leave that link in the show notes. Alright, let's get into today's episode.

Meet Stacy In Norway

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Welcome. And with us today, I have Stacy, who is in Norway. Stacy, thank you for being here. Hi, thank you for having me. Now I'm gonna have to take the globe out and uh have my kids find Norway on the globe, right? That's what a typical homeschooler would do.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yep, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Alright, so how many kids do you have? I have three. Three kiddos. And what are their ages?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, so my youngest is my only girl. She's 10. Then I have two boys that are 14 and almost 16.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Okay, fun ages. So you're past that, like, where I just had to come in saying, I'm so sorry I'm late. My my toddler just woke up and I had to get her in the bathroom before I'll have her sit down with a snack. Snacks probably still work even for teenagers. So what what got you into homeschooling in the first place?

Waking Up To School Problems

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Have you always homeschooled?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Have not always homeschooled. I always kind of didn't like school, let's say, just generally speaking. But we sent our children for the first few years to a Waldorf or Steiner school. My husband is German. We lived in Germany. So that was kind of like the uh for me kind of lesser of all evils. To put it bluntly, but we loved that time. It was a useful time and an amazing school. Um, but we just had like a rude awakening about four years ago where we just kind of woke up and and I was working in different schools, sitting in a classroom, seeing what what these teachers were doing with the kids, reflecting on my school experience, thinking about my children sitting in school, and and my husband was already let's say further than me. When I finally kind of woke up, he was like, Yeah, we should take them out of school. So that was how we yeah, kind of woke up to not wanting someone telling our kids what to do and when to do it. Me also like full in kind of resilience research and learning about how the brain is wired and how it's not wired to learn if you're not interested. And as I said, reflecting on my own school time, like how I don't, even through university. I don't know, like 90% of what I learned, I don't use, I don't need, I didn't I don't remember. So just that all kind of like crescendoed into for us it was really like a how can we get out? Because in Germany it's illegal to homeschool. So then it started the ball rolling, like, wait a minute, but but we can't, and how? And and so that that opened up a whole new door for us to to figure out. Amazing. Where did you grow up? I'm American, so you can hear it.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Um I No, you ha you totally have an accent.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Okay, wait, what kind of accent?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

I would have said uh Australian or English or something.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Okay, okay. Well, yeah, being in Europe, living in Europe for the past 15 years, I feel like the Americann-ness comes out when talking to another American. So born in Wisconsin, lived the majority of my like after I was 10, we moved to Indiana, went to college in Indiana. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Okay, all right, that's so funny. My aunt lives in Wisconsin, but I feel like some even they kind of get like the Canadian accent seeping in. So maybe maybe that's what it is. Yeah. All right, so cool. And I agree with you. I look back at like my time in school, I'm like, I don't remember 90% of it. And it's funny because the other day I was looking up books from this author, because I just finished the book The Women, which is like Vietnam War era, and I was like, oh yeah, what other books did um Kristen Hannah write? And I'm like, Oh yeah, the Nightingale, I loved that book. And I'm like, I don't remember it though. Like I couldn't, if you asked me for a synopsis, it would take me a while to even think about like this book that I loved, what it was about. And I loved it. So when you think back to like 18 years of schooling, even if something was like a fun science project in school, do we even remember it? Like, is that playing a role, some like stepping stone in our life today? Probably not. And I think we put so much emphasis on like they have to get in these labs and all this math and learning the phonics, every little, you know, every little nuance to it. But it's like, does it

Waldorf School And Its Limits

SPEAKER_03 5:25

really matter? Yeah, what did you can you explain quickly too for the people that are new to homeschooling listening about the Waldorf school or the Steiner school, like what that model looks like.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, of course. It really is. I love that they have this very strong philosophy, almost like religiously, that they follow. So it's I think for Americans it's easy to understand if you compare it to Montessori, because Montessori is also kind of this like private school that is using maybe natural materials and just teaches differently, so that's similar. Um, it's based on Rudolf Steinar's work and philosophy. He developed the very first one of these schools, of course. And just looking at the whole child, they have certain, let's say, subjects that other schools don't. They have more, they have uh a lot more like workshop time and working with maybe sewing and clay and more artsy kind of things, but also in Germany they have to follow the normal school curriculum, so they have even more that the kids kind of have to learn and do during their experience. It's hard for me to kind of put it in a nutshell in like a 30-second bit because it is quite a bit. They're their philosophy and what they believe about the child and how there are certain times for certain things. They they learn certain things in a certain order, for example, the kindergarten. You know, there's no homework, it's really just playing, it's a lot of natural materials like silk and wool and wood, less plastic, and then as you get to school, yeah, they they take it slower than a normal school. It's not like you're already reading before you go into first grade. You take, I want to say, a day or a week for each letter of the alphabet, you know. So I loved that part of it, you know, just honoring the child and where it is developmentally. I have a bachelor's in developmental psychology, so that was for me like, oh good, you know, at least they're at least they're doing that. But there's still some pressure, there's still the homework that comes. I had one kid that had a teacher that gave homework, you know, more and more, and another kid who's the teacher didn't like homework and didn't do homework, which I loved. But then I had this contrast of the oldest one pressuring himself to do homework, the middle child kind of like, I don't have any homework. Yeah, and it was just like uh so the everything played into us kind of being like, no, it's it's for us now evolved after four years of no school, three or four, to what we've realized is the best is self-directed, a little bit of unschooling, and we're traveling, so a little bit of road schooling. Where are we? Who's around us? What uh abilities, capabilities, what tools are available to us, and seeing what the kids are interested in and trying to support them to learn about that.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

Yeah, I and I love that idea of the road schooling, and I was my jaw dropped when I started learning about these families that actually do this. So take me from the jump from you're in Germany and it is illegal there to homeschool to you're now moving where?

Going Nomadic To Homeschool

SPEAKER_01 8:56

We are nomadic, so we travel around right now. I mean, basically also world schooling is what we're doing, but we've just been doing Europe so far. So our first step, you said the jump, you know, was logistics. So getting rid of like 90% of our earthly belongings. My husband and I had met while traveling, so kind of like the traveling bit was for us like we got this, we're it's gonna be okay, like we know how to do this. So it was, you know, a huge step, a huge leap of faith, but with the the essence behind it, knowing that it was the right thing to do, made it easier and made it flow and made it happen in a way that wasn't like completely overwhelming, because it was sometimes completely overwhelming. So we started with exploring woofing and workaway as a way for us to be on primarily farms with other families or communities or multi-generational places because of the school aspect. Like our kids love animals and the boys love to drive a tractor around, and so we thought we would all learn a lot from that.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

But also woofing and what? What are they? Are they apps or community groups?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

I'm sure there's apps for them. I I'm old, so I use the internet, the web pages. Woofing is WWOF, Worldwide Organization of Organic Farms. So that is solely farms for homeschoolers to come to. I'll get there. So there's also workaway. It's all good. I know. Like if you haven't heard it, I'm like, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

I've never heard of this one.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Workaway is a cultural exchange of it, could be a farm, it could be a boat, it could be a community, it could be someone out living in the middle of nowhere. And both have the foundation of let's learn together, let's work together, let's exchange. And we, mom and dad, work four to five hours a day in exchange for room and board. So this is a cost saver, this is a learning experience. We've we've met and gotten to know really amazing life-changing families and and farms that we feel we might actually settle down with one day once we're kind of done with this traveling bit. So that is an amazing if if a homeschooler is thinking like maybe let's do some traveling, but the budget's tight, which is let's say, I don't know, everyone, then that would be something to look into because you can filter for families, you can filter for a farm with horses, you can get to know them on their profile, they get to know you on your profile. You talk to them ahead of time, you get a good feeling for what it's gonna be like. You know, I did this before kids, and you know, like like 18 to 25 year olds, you can kind of just go someplace and it'll just work out. With kids, I was like, ooh, like let's make sure these are good people and good places, and you can really do that with these things. You can contact them beforehand, do a phone call, do a video call, look at their feedback and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Yeah, yeah. So it's not like uh what would we have the Craigslist killer here where they were meeting up for old DVDs and whack. But this is a much safer world now. We we have ways to to find reviews. This is amazing. I have not heard of all of the world schooling and road schooling people I've talked to, which I I you know it's a handful. I I would say out of 200 interviews, maybe it's 10. But I hadn't heard of these programs before.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

This is also it just popped in my head, so I have to share. If you have a 15, 16, 17-year-old homeschooler who wants to, yeah, go away, explore something new, travel, but still kind of have that safety of maybe being with a host family, you know, that that is a definite option that they're they're in the states as well. Both are worldwide, so you can find it literally almost anywhere on the planet. If they've always been interested in Namibia, it's there, you know, like this is something that they could also use to learn more about a culture, to live with the family and learn the the cooking dishes or language. That's amazing.

Kids’ Reactions And Slowing Down

SPEAKER_03 13:33

What differences have you seen in your kids from when they were in school, even though it was, you know, the Waldorf type schooling, to now what they're experiencing in the world? Did were they Were they sad that they had to leave friends?

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah. So we have three kids and we had three very different reactions when we were sharing with them our plans. Oldest was basically like, no more school, thumbs up, I'm good. Middle one was like, no, I'm gonna miss my friends. What are you guys talking about? Like shock, which I have to say, five minutes later turned to, oh, this will be cool. Uh youngest was seven at the time, and you know, like all she wants is mom and dad. So she just crawled up on on Papa's lap and was like, We're gonna go together. And we were like, Yeah, we're gonna go together. And she's like, Okay, then I come too. So we have this we but we do have like we had like let's say the first six months to year where we were kind of like, let's get out, let's explore, this is an adventure. And then we kind of realized the constant change. We were traveling maybe one month per location. We went back to Germany for a bit, you know, for the holidays, for whatever they could see their friends and have the family time with my husband's family. And then we kind of evolved into like a back and forth because we also had to figure out the legal part of it. We can go back to Germany, but we can always only visit. So we always have to be there for only three to six weeks, and then we have to move on. So that was it for a while. They got to see their friends more, and now we're doing like three we're even slowing down even more our travel. We're here in Norway for the whole summer. We're we're we're growing a little bit of roots, we're getting to know the community better, we're working more together, and then a little stop in Germany, and then the next spot for the fall or winter. So, so a mix of it all without the kind of almost yeah, not constant adventure, but more change. Yeah.

Unschooling With Light Academics

SPEAKER_03 15:46

What does your typical day look like? Are you doing any any sort of bookwork? Are are we doing those like fractions and pre-calc and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do uh I say unschooling, we're not radically, you know, just like letting them play chess all day because for a while that's what they wanted to do. We are saying, I mean, now it's summer, I have to say, so it's like summer break, but they have an hour minimum of some kind of workbook, reading, writing, math. My almost 16-year-old has a tenth grade workbook for math that he's working through. So we do have that, but we don't kind of stress that. That's kind of like the come let's just pick something because it is important, and then the rest of the day is just getting to know because that's my my big thing with with the the resilience coach part of my life wants them to figure out what they're good at. So especially this age of 10, 14, almost 16, you know, they should kinda know, I should kinda know where their strengths are, and they should be allowed to go in that direction. My boys were in school for four and six years approximately. They have the basics, they have multiplication, you know, they have that stuff. So if they want to go more into it, yeah, let's do some pre-calculus. But you know, what what else? What else do you want to do? And I have to say the first period kind of getting out, it it was like an adjustment, you know. They were like, Can't you just give me something to do? You know, it was really like, Okay, like, but but what do you want to do? I don't know. So it it took really like months for them to kind of like relax out of this schooling programming, let's call it, and start to realize like what they want to do, which is something that reflects my school experience. I'm 43 and I'm just kind of figuring out what I want to be when I grow up, and I think a lot of it played into my school time. Like you're asked what you want to be when you grow up, right? But you're not really allowed to yeah, do just art if you're really, really good at art, right? You kind of have to do everything you have to do.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

You're not even given all of your options. Yeah. It was always my problem. I was like, how can I pick when I've only seen what teachers do and government workers do, which was in school or my parents.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah. Yeah, so not like what do you want to be when you grow up? Like, can we just look at what they are right now and what they can do good right now and support support that so that they can experiment with it and and know this interest-led learning as it is. Yeah, to me is like super, super important.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Agree with you. Um coming from being a government worker for 16 years myself and seeing my parents live that and just who I was around for 16 years in those cubicles. I it was so normal to not even know what you wanna do, like you said. And I'm 42, so you said before you're old, you are not. Although I do feel old, so maybe we're both old. But yeah, I when I actually left my government job to homeschool, one of my biggest fears was like, what are we gonna do all day? Like, we don't whittle, which actually my son does know how you know he learned it in his like little forest school, and it's super cool. But I didn't know that before. I was just like, what are we gonna do all day? Whittle and sew? I don't I don't want to do that. But it now that you're actually like living it, like for instance, yesterday, one of the moms in the area she puts on a maker's market every single year for homeschoolers. And my son didn't actually make anything. This was our first year attending it, but it was so much fun to see there was probably a hundred homeschooling families there whose kids were made their own products and were selling them. And like one of the moms was telling me, she's like, Yeah, my daughter made these masks last year. They were like kind of like paper mache looking masks. She was she didn't sell any, but that was a cool learning experience for her because she realized that the market doesn't want that. So this year it was like, Oh, what can we make? We can make kombucha because it's hot out in the summer when we do these, so people are paying for kombucha to drink. And it it's just all around such a neat idea. And I just think back to like working for the government or like even my mom now, who's 79, like she still doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, so she just goes and works at a library because she doesn't know what else she could possibly do other than play poker. So it's like you know, it's so sad that school always tells us where we have to be and when and what we have to learn and really doesn't allow us that boredom time to discover what we love.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah, that's so important. You're exactly right. Boredom is important. Staring off and and not having anything to do, which you know we can also be aware of with our kids because then they maybe go to a screen or go to No, they have their go-to's, which is also okay to kind of just be busy, but we need the board as well, of course.

Homeschool Resources In The US

SPEAKER_01 21:04

And I just have to say what you mentioned with this big market, America has so many resources for homeschooling. Like you would not imagine, you cannot imagine how when we told our German friends and family that this is what we were going to do, like this just does not exist in their world. They're it they're like, what? Like how, like, can you do that? You know, like and I'm like, there's just so much yes, you can do that, there's so much out there, and yeah, we do a lot of online things because we don't have the homeschooling community locally because it doesn't exist, it's not legal. Although I have to preface that with here in Norway, it is allowed. So we are here tapping into the local groups and inviting the homeschooling families for for little gatherings and get togethers and stuff that is so valuable. Like, let's take a second. It to just be grateful for the resources that are out there for homeschooling families.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

Yeah, and that surprised me. My friend is from Poland, but she lived in Germany for a long time and did her schooling there and before she moved to America. And she homeschools her three kids. And she said the same thing that her family in Europe is like, what are you doing? Like nobody does that. That's insane. Where I would have thought in America, we're more like just go about, like, kind of blindly, do what you're told. And Europe would be more like, no, we want our kids to like be one with nature and be more organic about everything. That kind of shocked me, but I I wonder if their schooling is a little bit different, or does the German schools, although they're probably pretty rigid there, right? Like they want they want them coming out smart.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

The Germans are very thorough and like to control things. And I thought American bureaucracy was a lot, but German bureaucracy is like that on steroids. So it's an amazing system. It's an amazing. I mean, don't get me started. The healthcare system, you get support from the government per child. You get like a hundred, two hundred bucks a month till they're 18. Like the support, the resources. I've never paid for a doctor visit of any kind for any child whatsoever, any prescription, nothing like it. It's just extremely different and extremely supportive. And for me, a no-brainer that we kind of raised our children in in Germany for that reason. So many people are kind of like, Why don't you guys go to America? And we actually want to go and travel in America, but for the young child period, we were so much more supported. But with that support of the system comes the the control aspect, the having to tick all the boxes, and we were never people to really tick all the boxes. We kind of don't fit in the mold. So to leave that also kind of felt good to be like, okay, like we're taking a little break from the the system in that way.

Life Rhythm On Farms

SPEAKER_03 24:11

What does your day look like where you guys are? You said that only the adults will work on the farms and and you know with this program. So what do the kids do?

SPEAKER_01 24:19

So they love to help. You know, it's not like we don't allow them. Like right now there is a excavator, rocks being delivered, and so my boys are like, Can we help? You know, like they they've driven around tractors before with, you know, sitting next to the farmer and stuff like that. And it just depends, Cheryl. Like everywhere we are, it's a bit different. So if they want to join in, they do. And especially when we're places with animals, like my daughter is in love with horses, so she will take over with the or come join us for the morning round, for feeding, for whatever. Cats, they've they've had jobs, you know, to like feed the cats or collect the eggs from the chickens and stuff, but it's all I try to think of like when we when we had a home, um what kind of jobs they would have because responsibility is also important and especially teenagers, they need to feel like useful. So we they do have like chores, jobs. Empty the dishwasher, you know, that kind of stuff. But and most places have a rhythm. Most places we're up. We maybe do our five hours, Sebastian and I, from eight to one or whatever it is, and then we have an afternoon off together. We do something together, we explore. Other places I get to do homeschooling with the kids in the morning. That's how it is here. And then after that I can start my work and projects that I'm contributing here. So I also like that actually. I never really liked this life. Ah, this life we had where we woke up every morning super early, no one wanted to get up, no one wanted to go where they were supposed to go, and we were all forced to, and then maybe a couple hours in the afternoon together, and the same thing every day. I kind of like the the variety, the flexibility. That's also something I've learned about resilience, how we need to learn to be flexible, and my kids are definitely learning that. So I think that's super valuable.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

Yeah, and then you said it's it's room and board. Do they like cook for you guys there, the people that own the place, or do you or give you a stipend so that you can buy food, or do you have to sort of have money going in?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

No, that that's that's also different place to place, but that is like cleared up beforehand. We have like our couple questions that we always ask about. That's definitely one of them, right? Like you gotta wrap your mind around that. Sometimes meals and shopping and food are completely separate. We do our own shopping, they just cover the bill, we cook and eat on our own. Sometimes it's all together. They do all the shopping, we harvest the potatoes together, everybody takes a turn cooking lunch, something like that. So it's it's just different depending on

Building A Village And Community

SPEAKER_01 27:18

the the host that we are at.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Cool. Such a neat way to to live. I can't imagine the stories, the the memories your kids are making along the way. Just in the family bonding. Right. Do you see that your family dynamic is different? The closeness between your kids, you and your kids doing this sort of lifestyle versus everybody goes off in a different direction in the day?

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Yeah, well, I can only compare it to how it was when they were younger and when we had this kind of other life, let's call it, and now as well as compare or hear from others, right? So we're around other families and other uh communities and people and we do hear a lot like, oh my gosh, your kids are so great, and I also see that my kids, my teenagers, aren't maybe like the overtypical moody, negative, annoyed teenagers. I don't see that actually at all in them. Like we all have our moments, of course. But maybe when you're not forced to do homework and and go to soccer practice if you don't want to and practice violin or or have this full day doing stuff you don't really want to do, maybe that opens up the space to be a little bit more relaxed. There's there's room, like you said, for this connection. I really, really value that and I really think it's important. I really I just felt how wrong it was as a mom to just be alone at home with my kids all day. Like I loved it, do not get me wrong. Oh my gosh. I got to be home with my children for their first three years of life. For ten years I was home with these beautiful children. But the whole time I was kind of like, shouldn't there be like a an auntie, a neighbor, my mom? Like shouldn't we like and I realized it was this whole village, you need the village, right? That's what was missing. Like we need, and whenever we settle down one day, we need a community, we need generation multiple generations, we need a farm with lots of people. That's so important for our development as parents, like to support ourselves, but also yeah, for the kids to have these relationships and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Yeah, I know there's been books written on that, and it's so true. It used to be the village, and that's why harvesting the potatoes or or whatever else it was that you were doing with the garden or the food or the or the animals, it wasn't so bad because you had the community of people doing it with you. So maybe you could sit and talk and you know, do the the girl thing, and well the kids were all playing and you know the guys were out hunting and fishing, like that doesn't sound so bad either. I mean, let's go hunt and fish every day. Okay. I know it's a lot harder than it sounds because when your family's you know survival depends on it. But you're right, it was that sort of community that we have completely it's been just stripped of us. And I know that here in America, but I didn't realize that it was also stripped in other countries. I just again, like maybe it's the persona, but like Europe seems to just have more of like it have it together more, you know, like less superficial and more, but maybe that's yeah, just my image of it.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

I mean, as you know, we could make stereotypes, and there could be some truth to those stereotypes, of course. And there are places in Europe where the place where we're at right now is a community, there are families, we work together, so it's not like it doesn't exist, you know, but I feel like to be a quote unquote normal person, you have to search for it, you have to create it yourself. It's not automatic. So let's take that village, hunting, gathering, like you spoke about with the women and children, whatever it is, and let's include and transform it into something that works with this modern technology, with the tools we have, with with all this other stuff, so that we can still have that feeling of community and support. But in this day and age, that's kind of my goal at the moment to find or help create and found that.

What Kids Miss And What They Gain

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Yeah. And before I started homeschooling, a big fear of mine was that my kids were gonna miss out on these traditional things and resent me for it, like the prom, the football games, that sort of silly stuff. But at the time, I can say silly now. I mean, I know we can recreate it in the homeschool community. I know it's not even that important. It it's uh, you know, just kind of a tradition or ritual. But uh, how do you or did you, you know, think about that stuff? Because you you took even more of a giant leap where hey, we're gonna like uproot all the time. So like they might not have that best friend to play with, you know, every weekend or in the evenings, you know. How how did you rationalize that?

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Well, that is a big, big topic of ours for the past year or so. I have two teenagers, they need to hang out with other teenagers and do stupid stuff, you know, like that's what you do. So, so how do we, while being able to live in the way we feel we need to live with unschooling and traveling and this kind of freedom aspect, with also, like you said, not being uprooted all the time. That's why we slowed down the travel. We try to make sure we're places with other families, and we're now kind of just going back to those places so that we can create more connections, more relationships, more bonds, and grow deeper together that way. That is huge. I am I know you're you're very into homeschooling and you've heard a little bit about the world schooling. I'm kind of the opposite coming from our start. I'm very aware of the world schooling, like lots of families I work together with too in coaching are world schoolers that are like asking exactly this question, Cheryl, because it is so important. You need those kind of stable connections. And if you're a world schooler going from Japan to South Africa to Canada, you don't have that. So maybe it's okay. Younger kids under three anyway, all they need is mom and dad. After that, yeah, some peers, some some cousins and friends and grandma and grandpa, super important. So, how do we combine this freedom of traveling and still have these these constant important stable connections and relationships? It's a big, big question that we are currently trying to solve. So you're definitely right, it's important.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Yeah, and I try to say too, like, all right, there's the homesteader that will never be a world schooler, and there's the world schooler that can't have a homestead because you know you're you're off on the road, there's no one to take care of the animals. Yet both lifestyles are amazing, each in their own right, and offer so many wonderful things to the children. And I think we have to be okay with saying, like, yeah, there's some things that they'll miss out on, but there's so many things that they're gaining. As humans, even if you're in the traditional school system, you still can't have every experience that exists in the world. No human can. So you have to be okay with like, yeah, that that's meant to be for their existence, and my existence is a little bit different. And you can do what you want with your own kids as you get older, or like, you know, as you graduate and they don't have to follow you around the world. If they wanted to settle down, they can. It's not that like, well, they'll never have a serious relationship ever. It's that this is a period of time, a season of our life, and you know, it's it's for a different purpose. So I think like we do have to be okay with like, yeah, there if they I had somebody say that on a podcast a couple weeks ago. Like, yeah, your kids will miss out on some things. I'm a lot of the things that they'll miss out on from school, you want them to miss out on anyway. But yeah, we just have to be okay with like not like I don't know what it's like to fly around in a private jet. I probably never will, and that's okay. Like, I'll still I'll be alright.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yep, definitely. It's we're we're we all feel sometimes like we're missing out or not kind of offering our kids enough. But I also want to say that if you are a homesteader and you're happy with that and you're homeschooling, maybe you have the space and capacity to open up for a workaway or woofer. You can we've been so many places where um they were kind of like, yeah, we traveled when we were younger, now we're settling down, and they bring the travelers then to them. You know, you can have someone from China help out for two weeks when you're planting your potatoes, you know, to go back to the potato analogy, but that is also a possibility that would then obviously let your kids know what it's like in China if the person is from China, you know, and and have that kind of an exchange as well. That's also super valuable.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Yeah, it's like having a study abroad program, you know, just with the whole family. And actually, that I just talked to a neighbor the other day, someone that lives around the corner, and they homeschool. And I said, Oh, you know, could we get our kids together? I realize that the little ones are the same age. And um, he's like, Yeah. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday though, um, we have a foreign exchange student and she helps with our kids, so it'd be better to do it off the and I'm like, that's an amazing, like, I mean, I'm sure they talked about it before the foreign exchange student came, but as people who are like, Oh, I want to work, but I home or I want to homeschool, but I work, there's no way I could make this work. Like, right there is a great exchange here. Yes, you can live in our house, room and board free. They'll probably do you know, schoolwork of their own and whatnot, but like, could you watch our kids in exchange for maybe I don't know, whatever. Part of the the deal. I was like, Well, that's a that's such a cool concept, and I have to spread that more. Share that little idea more.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Was it called au pair? Au pair. There there's also this thing called You know, I don't know. I didn't know I didn't ask 'em. Like it's it's basically like uh I'd have to ask, that's so cool. Livin' babysitter or a nanny, but it's normally like young women that are doing it just for a year, which I'm kinda like my kids create a big bond with this person and then they go. But you know, it can be an amazing experience. And it's I don't know all the details, but it is like what you're talking about. It's help at home, it's help with the kids, and some kind of exchange. I don't think there's money involved, although some might, you know, if it's full time, I would think so. I don't know all the details, but all pair is also a an option for people.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Okay, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, I hadn't even thought of that one yet. That is so cool. Um, all right, as we wrap up, what are some of the things that you wanted to make sure we talked about? What are you working on? You said that you were working on some stuff too, beyond just the traveling.

Resilience Coaching And Final Advice

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Yeah, I you're doing coaching. I'm doing coaching, so I'm a resilience coach, which a lot of people don't really know like what that means. So basically I just help families to stay calm, connected, and confident, even when life is uncertain. Like that's all that resilience is about, right? Like getting back to center, standing back up, getting back on the horse. And a lot of us, I mean, anyone I would think, living somewhat alternative life, whether it be homeschooling or traveling or whatever, we just face different challenges, maybe than like a quote unquote normal person. So how to adapt, how to adjust, how to grow together, how to connect with your kids. Because resilience is like has so many different levels to it. You have to know about yourself more, you have to know how to cope, you have to have hope and optimism, which is not automatic for a lot of us. Healthy relationships, like we were talking about, growing those relationships, being around others, having meaning, purpose. And for me it's a lot about growing this intuition and this connection we have to to like our gut feeling or our heart's wisdom. That's a big piece of the puzzle for me too. So I throw all that together and in coaching programs and and help families. Lots of moms. Oh, I love my moms. Like we all we know what it's like. Like when you said at the very beginning, oh, your kids are out of this, you know, kind of young kid phase that's just so intense and so difficult on so many levels. To be able to help moms like that is just like, yeah, like I said, I like finally found found out what I want to be when I grow up, and I'm I'm loving it. I'm loving supporting other women, other families, to grow that connection, to be regulated. It's a lot about nervous system regulation, but also communication. And yeah, it's a whole it's on the one hand super kind of easy and straightforward, and on the other hand, you can really go like down the rabbit hole and and and work on a lot of stuff like your personality type, your parenting style, communication, validation, nervous system, self-regulation, co-regulation, like it's a whole very interesting thing that I've found I'm thankfully naturally resilient, but had a hardship as we all have at times in life, where I realized, whoa, like even I need help, I need tools, I need resources. So to be able to kind of teach those to others is just extremely valuable to me.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

Oh, I love that. I'll put your contact information in the show's description. So if people, you know, want to find out more about that, they can definitely get a hold of you and and learn more. Any other advice that you maybe wanted to give that parent that's thinking about homeschooling but has not yet taken the leap? It just seems like a crazy lifestyle. Family will judge them and what if they fail their kids, are going through all of that thought process? What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Oh that's such a good question. I have so much to say to them.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

I would say if you look at the whole child and you have a reason to even be questioning it and thinking about it, then it's probably the right thing to do and there will be a way. Right? Like you don't have to have it all perfectly planned out and thought through and every single detail known ahead of time. If you know it's the right thing to do, and even if you just want to try it, like let's do it for a year and see what happens, then try it because things will unfold. You'll find the resources, you'll find the network of people in your area and all that stuff, and maybe it'll work out, and maybe it'll be fantastic. And maybe you just learn from the experience and realize, well, that's not for us right now. We could maybe try it again in the future. My kid really misses school, all that kind of stuff. Like if you're hesitating, of course, there's probably a reason for that hesitation that you could try to name and look at and talk about with your partner, with your neighbor, with your best friend. But otherwise, just try it. It it's possible. Even low budget, even traveling and world schooling. You don't have to have like ten thousand dollars a month. You can do it as we talked about with all these resources that are out there. It's possible. Like just do it, just try it if you're thinking about doing it.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Yeah, and I'm gonna put the links for you said it was Woofies and Workaway. I'll put those in the show's description too, so people can click on them, have them readily available. It is great. Yes, uh, my my last podcast guest said it's not like selling a kidney, you can send them back, they can go back to school if it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

I listened to that and I love that. I was like, that is so true. Like it it is something that maybe needs to be explored if you're thinking about it, but you can always go back.

SPEAKER_03 43:42

Yeah, that is so true. It's not like a failure. It's just oh no, we want to just see, we want freedom for a year, and I don't know. I it's pretty nice. I don't I hope my kids never want to go into the school system. This is it is so nice, and and especially right now being August, it's like, oh, I'm so happy that we don't have to have that battle over like let's get your bedtimes, you know, adjusted so that you're going to sleep earlier and waking up earlier. It's like, nope, we can just go to bed when they're tired and wake up when they're not tired anymore.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Yeah, and I I'll tell you what, Cheryl, when you have teenagers, you'll notice it even more because their bedtime naturally moves back as it should be. This is a biological thing. Like, let's honor that. And then my boys sleep in another hour. If they were in school, they would naturally go to sleep later. They can't force themselves to go to sleep at nine o'clock. Their body is changing and it shifts. So then they're losing chronically the teenagers in school this first hour that they have to be there, whatever, eight o'clock, eight thirty. They're losing this extra sleep that they need, and we can honor that. So also like being connected with your kids and being able to have that, like you said, not this rigidity of we have to go to school, we have to buy your books, we have to, have to, have to. You can kind of more go with the flow and honor their individual needs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

I love that. And and using the term honoring them. It is it really makes it about them. And yeah, so true. Stacey, thank you for being here today. This has been so fun to talk to you.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

Thank you so much, Cheryl. I love

Closing Thanks And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 45:22

it.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

Thank you for listening to the Homeschool How To Podcast. If today's episode helped you, please be sure to follow the show and leave a review. It's the best way to support the podcast. And if you're just getting started or need a reset, head to thehomeschoolhow.com and grab my free 30-day homeschool quick start guide. Until next time, keep learning, keep questioning, and thank you for your love of the next generation.