Home-schooling... The answer to your health issues?
- Ann Camargo
- Mar 16
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 1
World-schooling is educating your child(ren) whilst travelling the world, learning through life experiences, immersion in diverse cultures, and interacting with local communities. Many home-schooling families with the travel bug have discovered this can enrich a child's education in ways they hadn't anticipated. Some have chosen this as a permanent way of life, living on the road all year round, perhaps moving country every 3 months according to visa restrictions ("road-schoolers"). Others, who perhaps cannot break the ties of home completely, take advantage of cheaper term-time travel to spend a month or more in one location, sometimes joining a "Hub".
Most world-schooling parents are working remotely, running their own business or still employed in their country of citizenship. Digital nomad life is not as complicated as you first might think - and is surprisingly cost effective if you're willing to pack up and sell up, or at least rent out your home. Travelling on a budget has never been easier with schemes such as home exchange, pet sitting, work-away, etc. where no money changes hands.
So what has this got to do with mental health and workplace wellbeing?
Well, for newcomers to my blog, let's do a quick recap: I've written before about my experiences with workplace stress - anxiety/panic attacks and general poor health - typically due to; horrible bosses, toxic workplace cultures, balancing motherhood with meeting marathons. Then I had a lightbulb moment, realised I had a choice, said "F#ck It" and resigned from a 20+ year career, semi-retiring at the ripe old age of... 40. Now a full time mum, a Mental Health First Aid (MHFAider®) instructor and trainee Health Coach, we - my husband and I - have decided to home-school our 8 year old daughter. Well, world-school, to be exact!
So to the point - after leaving a long and well paid career in Financial Services, moving country, and seeing the world through a different lens for the last 5 years, I believe world-schooling might be a solution to many parents health issues.
Hear me out...
Work, debt and ill-health are some of the main causes of stress and anxiety, ultimately caused by living in a constant state of fear (often we don't even realise it). Fear of missing out on that promotion, fear that the annual bonus won't cover the credit card bills, or the holiday/car/house purchase. Fear of redundancy, of not finding another job - too old, wrong gender - or maybe you're a single parent who can't get in early or stay late to impress the boss. Then there's the fear of being found out. Fear of not being loved, or finding love, or losing love. The fear of missing out on your child's childhood, and trauma caused by parental/child separation. How many awake hours do you actually get to spend with your child each day?
I know that the fear I experienced in the workplace was making me ill. Nothing else. I didn't know at the time, as it existed in my unconscious mind, beneath the surface of my conscious awareness. Sadly this is common throughout the corporate world, and goes unrecognised until, often, the damage is done (see my article on Generalised Anxiety Disorder).
You can have all the riches and success in the world, but if you don't have good health, you have nothing.
Many of us live in a constant state of fear, creating conditions within our body where dis-ease can thrive. Common colds, sore throats, stomach "bugs" (hint: they aren't bugs), or something more serious, are often triggered by a sudden shock, or fear that something bad might happen. Your body's way of remedying that trauma is through the healing, or detox, process, often mistakenly referred to as a cold or flu. How many times do you hear someone say they've "picked something up" or "there's something going around". Well if there was then everyone would be sick. But no, it only affects certain people - and they can usually pin point the cause of their symptoms after a brief moment of reflection; poor sleep, heavy drinking session, skipping meals or eating junk, a long haul flight, public speaking event or looming deadline.
As part of my training to become a health coach, I learnt of German New Medicine, Terrain Theory and Homeopathy - just a few areas of research that allowed me to take responsibility for my own health, and the freedom my family desperately needed from the ill-health system. Once I took back control - through using natural remedies, alternative medicines and energy healing - that fear started to fall away. This desire to learn has evolved into 1500+ hours of reading, absorbing and practicing - impossible to achieve if I was still working full-time. Self-health and self-care is turning out to be a full time gig!
Tip: Keep a diary of your health status, including your sleep and energy levels, digestion, aches & pains, productivity, and mood - I like the FormScore app.
After I left my job my overall health improved rapidly (my chronic sore throats simply stopped, after 10 years of suffering), but no life is completely without stress, especially with everything thrown at us in these crazy times. Even a breast lump scare in early 2020 knocked me for six. But ladies, please don't panic as I did, breast lumps are completely normal, most of us get them at one point or another, and they're nothing to worry about. If it doesn't go away by itself then get it checked out, but give yourself time to rest, relax and consider taking some time out for self-care (a week or two in nature will likely do the trick). Hospital waiting rooms, googling the big C, radiating yourself, prodding and poking around will only make it worse.
Much of my stress as a mother came from the school routine. And if it was stressing me out, it broke my heart to feel my daughter suffering as well. Unnaturally early starts, force feeding breakfast when the body isn't ready, the panic of missing the bus or forgetting something. Then at the other end of the day, tired and hungry, upset at the teacher/friend/bully, the tears and frustration of homework. Leaving bedtime, my favourite part of the day where she shares her innermost thoughts and secrets, rushed with little time to savour those special moments. I won't get into the problems with the schooling system right now, that is a can of worms that will have to wait.
So although I'd removed the workplace stress from my life, the stress of the school system had crept in, zapping away our joy, leaving the whole family thinking...
...there must be more to life than this!
I knew I could not continue watching life pass us by, hardly seeing my daughter, giving her over to strangers each day to prepare her for "the workforce". The same workforce that I only just managed to survive. That was not the childhood I wanted for her. So, after many long, deep and meaningful conversations, the research started, costs were cut (again) and the decision was made - we were going to home-school and educate through the gift of travel.
We agreed to a one year trial - if it didn't work out we still had lots of other options.
We didn't know what road-schooling or world-schooling was at the time, but we were hearing from other home-schoolers about world-school "hubs". So with little preparation we promptly set off on a road-trip around southern Spain, visiting home-schooling communities, democratic camp schools and world-schooler hubs, where our daughter could play with other children and we could learn from the experienced mothers and fathers whose home-school journeys were years underway. It was a steep learning curve. No family's reasons for starting out were the same, so many new education models, philosophies, lifestyles, modes of transport which doubled as their accommodation, and sources of income (or lack of!). But they all seemed content with their choices, especially the children, who were outdoorsy, confident and, well, healthy.
Take your time.
The best advice we took away was to go slow. Take our time. So we did, and then we didn't, and we over-stretched ourselves on a long road-trip, and then we regrouped and settled down in one place for a while. It's been tiring, yet rewarding, and we're continuously learning - all 3 of us. And here we are over a year later, with the stresses of the school system far behind us, and a happy child who is learning about the world through her own experiences, the good and the bad (food poisoning in Egypt not our finest week).
I guess this means our one year trial wasn't such a bad idea, as we're eagerly enjoying the second year with open hearts and travel plans developing more effortlessly, as we get better at taking our time. Life isn't perfect and not completely stress-free, but I don't have any regrets. Of course as parents we naturally question if we're doing the right thing, and we'll continue to ask ourselves that for the rest of our lives.
One thing I know for sure, we are growing a happy, healthy, smart girl who will be successful in whatever she wants to do in life. I am confident that she will not be ready to join the workforce, nor would I want that for her. There is so much more to life than sitting at a desk for 8+ hours a day, and who's to know if those jobs will even exist in 10-20 years.
Workplace stress? Check.
School system stress? Check.
Financial stress? Debt? Bills? Oh my.
The other big stressor I mentioned earlier was debt. I'm going to save this for my next blog, because it's such an exciting topic to dive into, yes, does give me cause to worry - it's a work in progress. But I believe we all have choices. Sometimes we need to take ourselves away from the day-to-day to reflect and see more clearly, without the fog of peer pressure, media pressure, societal pressure. We can quickly forget who we are and what bring us joy. Whether it's laying on a beach, a walk in the woods with the dogs, or just some time off work to breathe - start by identifying the stressors in your life. Ask yourself:
What causes me stress? What can I change now? Who can help me?
Whether our stressors are work related, parent/school related, or financial debt, there are always solutions and we do have choices. If you know deep down that your health should ALWAYS come first, then maybe world-schooling no longer sounds so far fetched?
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