Elizabeth’s Blog

Go For It

Well, it is hard to believe that our year on the road is over. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience with more memories and adventures packed in than we could ever have expected. It is hard to figure out how to share our experiences with everyone. Just picking a few special memories seems too shallow.

What I would like to do is encourage everyone to get out there and create your own adventure in whatever way you can and to create your own family bond and treasured moments. At least in our case, our trip got us to break out of our routine life and stretch the limits of our imagination and comfort zone.  No matter how exotic or mundane our destination, it has been the bonding time and new experiences that matter the most.

On The Road Again

Currently I am traveling again bringing the kids to camp. There are several differences with this jaunt than our longer trip. While traveling this past year (except in August before we left) we did not have the packing up hassle of choosing what to pack every time we moved or crunch time that last few days before you take a trip is always a rush clearing up loose ends before leaving. The other thing I have noticed is how packed the US airports and how much more hassle there is to traveling. Originally we thought traveling out of the US would be more cumbersome but I think traveling here is more difficult.

Reality Strikes

The ability to spend ten months with my family not worrying about broken dishwashers, car pools, charity work, team sports, volunteering at the kids school, paying bills and managing a house was an incredible and highly unusual experience. What I found was the ability to focus on the kids, enjoy the moment with them and have relatively few distractions that pull me from the things that I love.  Being with my family and sharing time and experiences with them was truly special. What I realized is that all too often my life before was centered on managing activities which as often as not did not directly benefit my family.  Although the volunteer work was productive and helpful, it all too often it took me away from my family. I realize that there will always be pulls but I feel like I have been blessed with a treasured family-only time and now feel like I do not want to readily relinquish that bond. It will be interesting to see if we can simplify and streamline our hectic and busy life in a meaningful way.

Stuff

One think that has shocked me be back in Jamestown is all the ?stuff? we have. I have spent much of the summer cleaning out closets, cupboards etc. to eliminate the masses of clutter that seem to be part of our life. It never bothered me before we left but it since living out of eight suitcases I feel the excess to a much greater degree.

Somehow, the scale of things in the United States seems like a ?Super Size Me? from McDonald?s issue. Everything is too excess. I keep thinking about the houses we saw in Africa and India which are the size of my laundry room. They were 8×8 or 10×10 maximum. I walk up our staircase at our house and think about the fact that none of those houses even had staircases. The walls and roof were tin with holes, no heat or toilet was to be found and often they had no ventilation for smoke. In the US they talk about the ?family bed? but in those countries there are only one or two beds for the whole household. The contrast in material items is dramatic but how different are we really as human beings?

Education

Having gone into this trip with grave concerns about our ability to home school our children, I am exiting the year feeling exhilarated about what we did as teachers and how much the kids learned. Don?t get me wrong.  We had a few whining days where it was hard to get everyone motivated, but for the most part Gibson and Sterling were wonderful. I learned so much about each of their learning styles and interests. I have to say it almost inspires me to do another year. There are such great learning tools out there and if I had more time and more space (books were our heaviest and bulkiest item) I think there could be lots of other fun and educational topics to cover and interesting methods of teaching.

Who would have guessed that I would enjoy teaching? The schooling also kept the children and me busy and provided a wide variety of activities to do while we were in transit or on planes. They thus did not get bored just reading; they could jump from one thing to another and the time would pass quickly. It was also an intellectual challenge to me to figure out the upcoming assignments and correct the completed work. However, contrary to most people?s belief, the time entailed doing that was not overwhelming at all. Everyday they had several workbook assignments such as math and vocabulary that they did independently while I dealt with travel issues or prepared their other work for them. To my surprise it was not an arduous task. It did not take hours and it was fun to think up projects and figure out what would motivate them and strengthen their skills in various areas.

To sum up the teaching aspect of the trip I feel like the children learned things on a multitude of levels. They learned:

+ about the different ways people live, their cultures and life styles, houses, jobs, expectations and challenges

+ about the huge variety in the landscapes and land forms in this small world of ours along with changes that are altering it both by humans and by mother nature.

+to gain an appreciation of the animal kingdom, and their actions and habitat

+ to acquired a perspective of where the world is going, how it is changing and where it has been both culturally and politically.

+ lessons from history about where civilization broke down and kaios ensued.

+ to ask questions and become passionate about a subject.

+ from literature and how it can relate to where you are and enhance your learning.

+ a global perspective on issues and developed a person interest and relationship or reaction to current events.

+ flexibility and transition is ok and that the constant thing that is important is your love for family and the caring bond the provides security.

+ that other materialistic things are not necessary. You don?t need a house full of stuff to survive and that we actually need very little.

How my kids are different now ? they have a love and passion for nature, finding animals, and learning about them. Gibson has expanded his passion for research on animals and identifying them. Sterling continues to be the collector / gatherer of all things in nature. She has become even more of a voracious reader and can read with focus through any travel situation. Although my kids are shy when they first meet people, they are able to open up to others and ask lots of questions. They are curious and not afraid to ask tough and often technical questions. On the other hand they have not spent a lot of time with their peers and may be a bit behind socially. They are currently an interesting mix of highly aware of the world but less in touch with the newest toys, interests and activities of their peers. Unfortunately, to some extent, I am sure that they will catch up all too quickly.

How I am Different? My perspective on the world has changed drastically but I wonder if those who know me best will see how my soul has altered what a blossoming year this was for me. I want to thank my divine and loving husband for sharing this journey with energy, enthusiasm and wisdom.

Xoxo

Elizabeth