They were-a-hoopin-and-a-hollering! The kids just love Skoolbo. What’s Skoolbo? It’s a very cool little site allowing kids to compete in numeracy and literacy games with other kids across the planet. They can even customise the appearance of their lifelike cartoon profiles. Watching them search for the right shade of hair is priceless.
It made me think about global learning. Our trip will bring the girls a real world learning experience in geography and history that a text book (or app) could never quite replicate. Nothing speaks Antoni Gaudi like standing at the foot of La Sagrada Familia. But today I realised there is so much more. We’ll be able to follow the New Zealand curriculum with only our travelling devices and a friendly internet connection to assist.
Schooling for six months you ask? Let me backtrack.
This year, I’ve been lucky enough to spend an hour a week in Ruby’s Year 2 classroom. Ruby seems to like Mum having some involvement in her school life and this time is like gold when it comes to picking up the requisite skills to home-school your children – something I’ll need to think about for two terms of next year.
Much to my relief there’s still a lot of play that goes on. Learning is wrapped around games, drawing, and the inevitable tapping away on devices. I’m feeling confident that we’ll be able to nail the formal education component of our sabbatical in a couple of hours each day. The rest I’ll leave in the hands of spontaneous travel experience. Finding the right change before reaching for a fresh baguette in a rustic French bakery will be a great maths lesson too.
The next step is a bit more formal. There’s a bit of paperwork in applying to take children out of state school for six months and cover that teaching ourselves. It’s going to be challenging. It’s going to be fun. But mostly I’m excited to think there will be a global learning community following us on our journey.
Sandcastles & Scribbles 