It was when Hannah was only six-month-old that her parents, Anna and Thomas decided to concretize their dream of a life filled with travels and adventures and went on a 6-month road trip around the Black Sea. Shortly after, Anna gave birth to Mila, but that did not prevent this worldly couple, authors of the biggest family travel blog in Europe, The Family Without Borders, to keep going. When Mila was half-a-year-old, the whole Family went on a 4-month trip around Central America. Since then, they went on extensive trips through Bosnia and Herzegovina and New Zealand and the South Pacific.
Photo: The Family Without Borders
This Traveling Family Decided to Settle Down for Their Daughter's First Year in School. Here's Why.
Photo: The Family Without Borders
But all of this is going to change very soon.
Hannah has reached the age to attend her first year at school and her parents are not willing to homeschool her. Why settle down and put aside their cool nomadic lifestyle when they could teach their kids on the road and keep traveling? Well, Thomas and Anna have thought about it long and hard:
We simply think that the school is so much more than just studying biology, geography, and English (all those things could easily be taught while travelling). School is not only about getting up early, being on time, and being forced to learn things you may never need. It’s a big lesson on social life, life between many different people and yourself. Meeting people you maybe wouldn’t meet where your parents take you. Meeting people you would not choose to meet on your own. Meeting the good teachers and the bad teachers. And learning to face it.
We want our children to meet the real world: all of what the world is offering. All the difficult kids, all the unfair teachers.
But we also don’t want to combine two roles: of being a parent and being a teacher. Kids need a lot of adult examples of behaviours, to watch and respect.
The Family Without Borders will then stay put in Berlin where Hannah will be going to two different schools, a German one and a Polish one (Anna is Polish, Thomas is German). The six-year-old girl is very excited about the upcoming change and carries her school backpack everywhere she goes! Even now as she is traveling through Scotland with her parents before the big day.
Photo: The Family Without Borders
Her parents will have to adapt to this new lifestyle, but they have already planned to keep traveling for shorter periods of time and manage their lives differently to be able to combine Hannah’s schedule and their dream.
It will be not easy. It’s the first time ever we will have to respect some dates and deadlines. We are travelling through the wilderness of Scotland at the moment and we realize that we have to come back home before September 5th. That we cannot stay longer, whatever happens. That we MUST be back. It feels a bit strange, that’s true. But it’s just another trip! Another life lesson.
