Worldschooling in Europe

Worldschooling in Europe | Heritage Mom

source: https://heritagemom.com/index.php/2020/03/02/worldschooling-in-europe/

Today is Day 1 of our next Worldschooling trip. We'll be traveling around Europe for three months while studying local customs, food, language, history, and culture. We're on the flight now, and what a difference 2 years makes!

We returned from our last Worldschooling adventure in Bolivia, South America two years ago nearly to the day, and that flight was crazy. Well, my kids were crazy on the flight is a better way to put it.

But this time?

I feel like I'm cashing in on the deal of the century.

I have a bag of play doh and Paw Patrol toys under my seat. The kids each have their own in-flight screen with tons of very sweet kid-friendly TV shows and movies. The flight attendants have offered up more drinks and tasty food than we can consume so no one is claiming to be hungry, and it'll be my kids' normal bedtime soon so they'll all start drifting off the sleep. No one has said a peep.

And I'm relaxing with my laptop. When I get done with this, I'm going to delight myself with a little Jane Austen as the airline is offering Emma as a free audiobook on the flight. Yes, I'm fully committed to enjoying this flight and this glass of wine because I recognize that this is probably the calm before the storm.

Traipsing around another continent alone with 4 young kids is not going to be easy. I feel like I know what I've signed up for, and I'm all in, but there is also a consistent voice in my head asking,

"ARE YOU INSANE???"

And my answer is, "Probably. Most likely. OK, for sure. I am a bit bonkers."

My kids are now 10, 8, 6, and 4 years old, and our European journey will take us to Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy ( Coronavirus hot spot!), United Kingdom, and France. My husband is with us and will remain until he exhausts his vacation time. Then he'll fly back to the States while we remain behind and carry on with the trip for another 2 ½ months without him.

As I think of the questions I received leading up to this trip, most of the Worldschooling FAQ answers I gave during our last trip still apply. However, there are a few that are worth answering or updating:

How can the kids miss so much school? We homeschool, so they're not missing school. The things that we'll be doing on this trip will account for much of their schooling - in fact that's the whole point of the trip - but we have books, paper, and pencils packed as well.

How did you plan everything? The truth is not glamorous. We found cheap flights because we were flexible about location and timing. I searched Airbnb for 22 hours (not all at one time) and scoured through reviews to find good places in nice locations that we could afford, and I booked them. And now we're on the plane. I don't have any other concrete plans, but I will figure out what life will be like in each city when I get there. I expect to rely a lot on Google searches of "What to do with kids in XYZ city" and go from there.

A more detailed answer...

We decided to go to Europe because we wanted to visit a different continent than last time, and we want to save Asia and Africa for when the kids are a little older. My hubby traveled extensively before we were married, so we decided to begin the trip in a place he hadn't been. We took that list and started watching flights. Eventually, a good deal popped up to Athens, and we booked it that night as great flight deals rarely last.

For the other cities, I thought about what we've studied in school or what the kids have seemed particularly interested in. My completely random and unimpressive thought process rolled out like this:

We want to continue practicing Spanish, so we'll go to Spain. Madrid sounds as good as any other spot so Madrid it is. We talked about the Iberian Peninsula during geography and heard from church friends that Portugal was beautiful, so we added Lisbon. We're reading Stories from the History of Rome and one of my daughters is fascinated with aqueducts, so we added Rome. We were going to include Venice, but it was flooded when we made these plans, so it got nixed. My kids have talked about London since they received a 3D Big Ben puzzle in their Little Passports box, and England has come up nearly every day this year as we've been studying WWI and WWII, so London got rolled into the mix. And finally, my kids watched my friend live from the Eiffel Tower back when Periscope was all the rage, and I promised I would take them to see it. Then I doubled-up on that promise while we studied Monet for picture study last year. Mamas everywhere know that kids never forget promises, so I added Paris in order to keep my word.

No special plan or interesting story to go with the pretty random location selections. My kids have never been to Europe, so I just picked places they could connect with more easily. I aimed for large cities where finding plenty to do without a car wouldn't be an issue.

How can we afford it? We are just a "regular schmegular" family, but we prioritize these trips over other things we could be spending money on and find ways to fund international travel. In addition, it's not as expensive as it seems. I mean, don't get me wrong. I have heart palpitations any time I really sit and think of how much we're spending, but I feel the same way at Chick-fil-a so that's probably not saying much.

We travel frugally, so this trip isn't insanely different than other pricey-ish vacations that people take. For example, one friend was really surprised when I pointed out that our housing for 3 months will cost less than the Disney cruise she took for a week.

For a family of four, a six-night [Disney] cruise from Port Canaveral sailing to Mexico and Castaway Cay will cost $7,819 for an interior room. The price per person, per night, including food, activities, and other amenities will be $325.79.

For my family, at that daily rate, the six-night Disney Cruise would be $11,728 though we were quoted $8,000+ when we previously inquired about a trip. Granted, this ain't Disney, but it's three months vs. one week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Amber. But for real. How are you paying for this trip?

$4300. 5 roundtrip plane tickets from Atlanta, GA to Athens, Greece in late February and from Paris, France back to Atlanta in late May. We used credit card points for these tickets, so we didn't pay anything. The points were accrued on an American Express card that I use to pay for everything. Literally, every.single.thing. I will pay for a popsicle with this AMEX if they let me. And we saved the points up for a very long time. I love this card more than others because it's a charge card instead of a credit card, so it must be paid in full each month. That helps ensure that we never put more on there than we have the cash to cover.

$515. One roundtrip plane ticket from Atlanta, GA to Athens, Greece and back for my husband. We paid for this from the money we saved for the trip.

$5985*. 12 weeks of Airbnb housing across six cities. So far, we've only paid 50% for most of the Airbnb locations, though a couple have been paid in full as requirements vary based on the listing.We'll automatically be charged for the balances as we near each location. More AMEX points!

* Note: If we skipped our week in London with its impossibly high lodging costs and replaced it with an additional week in a less expensive city, we'd shave $1000 of this total.

Other possible expenses that we're not incurring (or that don't count):

Immunizations: We didn't need any new immunizations for this trip. This was a big wonderful hairy deal because we were hit with an unexpected $1600 for shots last time. Passports & Visas: Everyone already had valid passports, so we didn't incur any charges here. For our next trip in two years, God willing, we'll need to renew the kids' passports because they're only good for 5 years. We're not traveling places that require visas for Americans which is nice because we dropped $850 on those last time. Food: I don't expect our food bill to be much higher than it is at home because I plan to cook most of our meals. We must eat no matter where we are, and if we don't rely too much on restaurants, the expense should be negligible. Though, I readily admit, feeding young kids in a foreign country could throw me a curveball, as I humbly discovered in Bolivia. Activities: Admission fees for visiting historic sites, taking tours, perusing museums, etc. will add up quickly. But we're also not paying for ballet, volleyball, random classes, and field trips back home. We'll be spending hundreds a month on activities in Europe, and we're saving hundreds on the nickel and diming we do with activities back home. So, I'll call this one Even Steven for now. If I'm wrong, we'll run out of money and be hanging out at a ton of parks towards the end of the trip. Haha!

So basically, housing is the budget killer for this trip ( which is totally different than last time). I'd say that our housing costs are middle-of-the-road. I certainly didn't pick the spots I'd really love to stay in because they're too costly. On the other hand, I'm not going to take my children into shady areas in order to save a few bucks. We are generally staying in well-populated nice enough areas outside of the tourist zones but very close (generally within one block) to solid public transportation.

We have a finite amount of cash and that helps guide all decision-making. We won't have any top-notch accommodations, but we aren't sleeping in a gutter either.

That's the nitty gritty.

Now you know as much about this trip as I do, my friends. I'll write more soon! The night is young, and I have a date with a girl named Emma.

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