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Why Do I Blog?
Hi, I'm Rachel! These articles are my reflection on the communities we create and the life my family lives as a fulltime worldschooling family (nomadic since 2018). I share insights, personal stories, and lessons learned from our long-term travels, self-directed learning, and efforts to build community on the road. Some posts focus on our pop-up gatherings and the importance of connecting with worldschooling families. Others discuss the realities, challenges, and everyday moments of worldschooling life. Together, they’re meant to help families understand what this lifestyle looks like in practice.
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Humankind: Be Both... When Adolescent Humor Hurts
Teens/tweens need to be aware when humor crosses the boundaries. Here is how to have a conversation when their jokes undermine diversity.
Rachel Carlson
Nov 18, 20249 min read
Brilliantly Organize Your Digital Travel Documents
I’ve found a super-efficient way to organize and share border control paperwork... and it’s through a WhatsApp Community.
Rachel Carlson
Oct 6, 20248 min read
Challenges of Worldschooling Part 1: Goodbyes and Societal Confines
I glanced into the back seat and saw tears rolling down my 13-year-old’s face. My momma heart sank. Honestly, I had been pushing down these feelings of loss and separation because I know how important this travel is to my nomadic family. Yet seeing my youngest feeling all the feels reminded me that goodbyes are also part of our story and deserve to be honored. Salem -- such a good sport in the cage! Like anyone who travels extensively, we’ve had our fair share of farewells… w
Rachel Carlson
Nov 10, 202314 min read
Traveling Fulltime with Teens
We began our nomadic lifestyle when our kids were 8, 11, and 13… clearly in the tween stage, but in 2022 they leveled up into triple teenagers! And I must tell you, this has been my favorite stage with my children. Salem, Jasper, Kemaya, & Rachel. One teen is in a stage of intentionally closing eyes for photos 🤣 Why do I love this stage so much? I’m not sleep deprived; I don’t need to micromanage their days; I love seeing the world through their eyes; and I'm super excited t
Rachel Carlson
Jul 25, 202313 min read
Broken Bone: Triple Country Care Plan
Here's how we navigated a bone broken in the UK, surgically set in Greece, and final pin removal in Turkey. It can be done!
Rachel Carlson
Feb 12, 202319 min read
Pop-Up Recap: London 2022
When we first scheduled our London event, we seriously wondered if anyone would come. Who exactly goes to London… in November? Apparently, LOTS of people! We had 26 families (including 5 returning families) join us with a total of 116 participants. Our guests hailed from Poland, England, Austria, Australia, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, the Cayman Islands, and all across the US. *We never got a full group photo, but here is a portion of us on the Thames River Cruise These are
Rachel Carlson
Dec 22, 20225 min read
The Gift of Community
Sometimes we don’t know what we’re missing until we stumble into it. This happens all the time in our lives – think of the stories of people adopting rescue dogs, picking up a new hobby, finding a compatible partner, trying a unique cuisine, visiting a new culture, converting religions… we never really know when we’ll make a connection, no matter how big or small. For the Carlson Family, we traveled fulltime for nearly two years before we landed in our first worldschool gathe
Rachel Carlson
Nov 1, 202212 min read
Navigating the Needs of Nomadic Adolescents
When they were young: The Carlson kids started traveling when they were infants, sometimes just a few days old on their first road trip. By ages 4-mos, 9-mos, and 4-months-old, they all had taken their first long flight (Hawaii, Argentina, Dominican Republic)! We’ve always traveled with our kids, way before we homeschooled or gave up our residence. It was not uncommon for us to pull the kids out of school for a few weeks each winter to get out of the cold and explore Central
Rachel Carlson
May 12, 20226 min read
The Day I Sent Everyone to a Strip Mall
Seasoned travelers know that not everything goes to plan, even when you have done your research and plotted out the perfect schedule. For example, sometimes businesses are unexpectedly closed…or prices increase…or the address isn’t correct…or a pandemic interrupts local festivals and celebrations. The more we travel, the more we learn to expect these unexpected snags in our plans. However, even the most seasoned travelers are bound to make mistakes which is why I want to tell
Rachel Carlson
Mar 3, 20223 min read
Tips & Tricks on How to Use WhatsApp’s Communication Platform
The WhatsApp platform is used worldwide for phone calls, text messages, photo/video sharing and business operations...and it's packed with nifty features for effective group communication. The biggest advantage of WhatsApp is that both android and apple phones can send long messages without truncation or getting the pieces of the messages jumbled. However, some users are new to the platform and don’t know about the neat features which make this app ideal for our popup communi
Rachel Carlson
Jan 13, 20224 min read
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