Category — Preparation

Now it gets serious. We’ve got 196 days (more or less) until our planned departure. While that may sound far away, I know it will come fast. April is going to be here in a flash – and June won’t be far behind.

Throughout the fall as we talked and planned and talked more, it felt like we had plenty of time to prepare. The trip was “next year.” Well, next year’s here – and the time for talk is over.

It’s overwhelming to think of the things we have to do before we can leave for a year. Vaccinations. Renting our house. Renewing our passports. Gathering and organizing roadschool materials. Putting a plan in place to manage our finances. Committing to an itinerary. And the point of no return: Buying airline tickets.

I think I can speak for my family when I say that we all find the idea of this trip very exciting – and the reality just a bit frightening. We’ll be stepping into the unknown and venturing a bit outside our comfort zones. More than a bit, actually.

John Higham, who journeyed with his family on a trip around the world, sent me a supportive email a few months ago. In it he said, “The hardest thing you will do is to get on that first plane.”I have no doubt that he is right.

This week I feel as though we are taking the first step down a long jetway leading to the first plane.

I didn’t know what to say as a fellow parent pressed her point.

“You’ll be putting your kids at a great disadvantage, you know, pulling them out of school for a year. What’s it going to do to your daughter’s transcript when she applies to college?”

Well. I had to admit I hadn’t thought about that. School was an issue we needed to figure out.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, there is a well-worn path to success that leads through demanding private schools or public school magnet programs, SAT prep classes and extensive college application engineering.

There’s little time for just being a kid, not when there’s another advanced placement class, enrichment activity or volunteer opportunity to add to the resume.

Given its reputation as having one of the best public school systems in the country, I was surprised and pleased to find Montgomery County was rather broad-minded about homeschooling.

Aside from the hole in our daughter’s transcript, Dani and I felt we could figure out a way to make homeschooling roadschooling work and ultimately our kids would be able to graduate high school with their peers.

As we began to investigate how to do it, we were amazed at the educational resources available on the Internet. From Indian tutors online to free college lectures, there was no shortage of educational materials that would allow us to focus on the places we planned to visit.

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So, once you’ve decided to take your family on a trip around the world, what’s your next move? It’s great when you think the universe is talking to you – but it’s not like you’re getting specific instructions from a travel planner.

In a situation like this, there’s only one place to turn.

Google.

Surely we weren’t the first family to think of this. Not by a long shot, as it turns out.

Google “Family RTW” or “Family Trip Around the World.” It’s amazing how many families have done it, are doing it, are planning it.

First we found the Canadian Carlsons, David Carlson, Sarah James and their three kids aged 13, 10 and 8. They left on their trip on August 11, 2001. They kept a web-based account of their trip long before blogging was ubiquitous.

More searching led us to Grooms Globe Trek, Carlton and Deborah Grooms’ trip around the world with their two kids. The Grooms are professional photographers, and as a result of their trip, they are producing a book, Portraits of our World. The Grooms have pledged to use the profits from their book to support children’s causes worldwide.

The more we looked, the more families we found.

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