Month: May 2019

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What about school?

The second most commonly asked question we get is “what about school?” This question comes in two flavors:

  • What is our general educational philosophy?
  • How exactly are we going to do it?

To answer the first question about philosophy, we see that our approach falls into three core tenants:

  • Intention
  • Play
  • Wisdom

The poet Mary Oliver asks the question we want at the heart of all our educational endeavors (both for the adults and the kids):

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
– Mary Oliver

And by “plan to do” we don’t think Mary Oliver is talking about the plan of “what you want to be when you grow up.” To us she is talking about intention and choice… inviting us to be active participants in our one-time, magical, precious journey on this planet. Even this blog post has become documentation of our intentions for this educational journey.

In the book “Essentialism” author Greg Mckeown reminds us that school didn’t start out being serious, full of hard work, or about competition and pressure. He says:

“The word school is derived from the Greek word schole, meaning “leisure.””
– Greg Mckeown

We have learned a lot about the concept of “playful inquiry” from Opal School (our elementary school) and we see the importance of continuing to learn, explore, and understand the world with a sense of joy, flow, and ease that comes when you play.

The older the kids get, the more pressure there is to make sure we fill their heads with information that they “should” know. And while we want them to know a lot of things, we also wish for them to have a deeper wisdom about what is important in life and how to create a life well lived. This quote from Lao-tzu reminded us that our ongoing efforts of deliberate subtraction are important for more than just our “stuff”… we need to apply this to our educational approach as well:

To attain knowledge, add things every day.
To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.
– Lao-tzu

As we subtract, we hope what remains is lots of room to be present to life, to be aware of and share our emotions, to hone our creativity and imaginations, to practice our adaptability and courage, to respond to injustice or calls for assistance, to process and problem solve, and to see where we can use our privilege to improve life for all beings. These seem like the best educational experiences we can provide to support the next generation, and the best ways we can be in service to the emerging future.

So this leads us to the second flavor of this question: “How are we going to do it?”

How? We’re going to have a lot of fun!

We’re going to visit museums, observatories, nature centers, and national parks. We’re going to read great books as a family. We’re going to ask people we meet about what they find most interesting about a place, or their job, or something they’re learning, or something they care about. We’re going to play cards, and track our expenses, and play math games online. We’re going to visit the places we read about. We’re going to volunteer. We’re going to cook, clean, do laundry, fill up our water tanks, empty our waste, check the tires, set up and take down, navigate, research our next stop, and find cool things to do. We’re going to practice typing, using spreadsheets, create presentations, and document our progress. We’re going to see shows and plays, art fairs, and festivals. We’re going to send postcards, and compose blog posts and magazine articles, and write long fantasy fiction stories. We’re going to hike, swim, paddle, bike, explore caves, and walk along the beach. We are going to keep our hearts open for what calls to us to serve.

And all the while, we’ll be turning life learning into “education-ese,” tracking it in Evernote, and categorizing it according to Washington State’s homeschooling subjects: reading, writing, spelling, language, math, science, social studies, history, health, occupational education, and art and music appreciation. To meet the homeschooling laws, we have to keep these records and get the kids either tested or evaluated each year (and keep those results).

Will they know how to study and take tests? Will they know how to buckle down and do three hours of homework every night? Will they be prepared for competition, performance expectations, testing rigor, ringing bells, peer pressure, or other aspects of traditional schooling life?

No, probably not. But hopefully they will have a deep wisdom that comes from a solid relationship with their own internal drive, their passions, their motivations, their interests, their yes and their no, their autonomy, their creativity, and their pleasure and they can apply these things to navigate their path in the future. And maybe they’ll use those skills to find a way to create a life that doesn’t have so much stress, and pressure, and unpleasantness for themselves and for others…

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Going For It

The idea of being nomadic, pulling our kids out of school, traveling around the globe, not working 9-5 jobs… was something we’d dreamed into for years. But there was always something in the way… a career goal, or an amazing school, or being with family, or the kids were too young, or the financial resources weren’t there, or, or….

We told ourselves that middle school would be the time to go — the kids would be independent, but would still want to be with us. They would be able to remember the trip, and we could spare them the bully- and busywork laden experience of (many) middle schools. [Or were we fooling ourselves with the idea that spending extended periods of time with two pre-pubescent teens was a good idea!?]

And all of a sudden, the middle school years were upon us. And a huge goal Mark had been working towards in his career was achieved (and exceeded!). And we said goodbye to our furry first child at the ripe age of 13 (RIP Kihei!). And all the small decisions we’d made over the years, to downsize, simplify, and tread lightly on the earth, meant we were in a position to make a radical change.

Over the winter, as we sat writing notes in our holiday card to our many friends scattered across the country, we got a clear sense that we wanted to travel and re-establish these connections. To see long lost friends, and soon to be friends, and business friends, and to meet new friends along the way. To deepen our relationships with the sunset, and the moon cycle, and the stars in the sky. To create new relationships with the natural beauty of this country, particularly the national parks, and the lakes, and the wildlife. To deepen our relationship as a family unit.

And so it was decided, we would start domestically — traverse this beautiful country (and our neighbor to the north) and we would embrace the essentialism required by “van life” by doing so in a small RV. Extensive research, touring a friend’s rig, and visiting the RV show led us to Leisure Travel Vans.

Because we are pragmatic virgos who are overly responsible and plan everything out in advance, we decided to rent a Leisure Travel Van before going ahead and buying one. Our inaugural trip happened over spring break in March, where we spent 5 days in the van, visiting Yosemite, the Giant Sequoias, gold rush towns, caverns, and more. On the last evening in the van, we told the kids that we had to turn it in the next day, and we took their response as a good sign: “What?! Already?!”

We returned from the trip excited to move forward and to purchase our very own Serenity model Leisure Travel Van. We placed an order for a new unit with all the upgraded bells and whistles on the Sprinter chassis (yeah for apple car play and adaptive cruise control).



(Here’s the outside view — just under 25 feet long)



(The interior layout — the back bed also makes into an L shaped couch, and the mid-seating turns into a second full size bed.)

Our van should be built and delivered before the end of the summer, which is perfect timing. We love spending the summer in the Northwest, not to mention we have a lot of unwinding work to do.

The question we’re most often asked once people hear of our news, is “where are you going to go?” And interestingly, we have made no decisions yet. There are lots of places we want to go, and lots of people we want to see, but we’re waiting to see where the wind takes us. Maybe we’ll start north in BC and Vancouver Island? Or we’ll zoom out to the east coast and enjoy time there before winter sets in? Or maybe we’ll head south and spend the winter in Florida or Arizona or New Mexico? I actually love that we don’t know, and that it’s not all mapped out. That feels so un-virgo and like the start of a new chapter of life for us.

The fourth most often asked question is “will you keep a blog?” Hopefully this post answers that question. We’ll keep a blog mostly for ourself and if anyone else enjoys reading it too, that’ll be great. And in future posts, I’ll address the second and third most asked questions!

For now, I’m enjoying walks in the arboretum several times a week with Mark as we relish in the gorgeous spring weather, and we talk through the myriad of decisions, nuances, and details that are going into this transition.