Worldschooling with 4 kids:
My Travel Origin Story (Part 1)

Little Girl, Big Dreams

When I was a little girl I wanted to explore the world. My favourite memory of childhood is hopping on my bike, with no destination in mind, and biking through the woods and streets, the wind blowing my hair. I felt free. Open. Alive. I loved that feeling.

If you know anything about Enneagram 7s (ME! To a T) we love change. Staying the same feels too stagnant (like my soul is slowly dying inside). I like having some roots for sure… but changing up things in life is a necessity for me (my life is chock full of changing up wall colours with new paint, rearranging furniture, renovation projects, business ideas etc.)

My family of 10 rarely travelled outside our small town. A big trip was a 5-hour road trip to visit our grandparents, or a camping trip for the week. I savoured the few trips we did go on and loved the newness of it.

For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to move. I tried convincing my family, but with little success, and eventually resigned to staying in our hometown until college. I picked a university that seemed SO far away (USA), but an unfortunate accident the day before I was to write my SATs put that on hold. I ended up in the same province I had grown up in, but in a new town (hours away from where I grew up), which seemed amazing (Alberta).

Little Girl Grows Up

After a few years I again started to feel the itch to change it up… travel further, go beyond. Fast forward to one marriage, 4 kids, several jobs and a new entrepreneurial venture… and we get to 2017. The year my hubby was finally convinced to do something crazy (beyond the 45-hour road trips and flights around North America that we’d gone on in our 12 years of marriage).

We rented out our home, sold most of our belongings (all of our furniture and anything large- luckily I had gotten really into minimalism a few years before this), bought a truck and an RV and travelled around North America for the summer (about 3.5 months). It was thrilling! Not having a definite plan… planning as we went, meeting new people and seeing gorgeous landscapes. I lived for it.

We lived on the other side of Canada for 2 years (with enough change in internships and new rentals while my hubby got his MBA for my liking). I loved everything about those 2 years ( I lie- I actually vehemently dislike packing and unpacking). We met amazing new people, went to new museums and historical sites all the time… and took road trips out to new places.

 Coming Back Home (and feeling called to more)

We came back to Canada for a new internship that my hubby was excited about and moved around a little as we searched for something more permanent. I had all but given up on my lifelong dream of full-time world travel (worldschooling), due to the nature of the jobs that he was applying for.

For the duration of our marriage, I had finished my schooling (BA in Psych) and then stayed home with our kids. I dabbled in a day home (which I did NOT enjoy), hosted over 30 exchange students (which I actually loved!) and helped develop some online home-schooling curricula. Most of my time was spent parenting, understanding parenting more and learning to help my neurodiverse kiddos in homeschooling and life. 

In 2019, we were settled for about 11 months outside of a small town for the last internship and searching frantically for a permanent job. While my husband focussed more on that, I decided to go back to school for my masters when I stumbled upon The Life Coach School. Life coaching intuitively felt like such an amazing fit for me. And it truly has been one the best decisions of my life- I feel like I’ve found my joy in the world (and pinch myself daily that this is now my life!).

My Husband Changes Things Up

What you need to know about my hubby, JD: he's very steady and stable, he has a lot of fun but likes a lot of downtime as well (even more than being out and about), and on the outside seems very "practical" and "sure" (he's not always this way at home or with close friends). He stayed at his first job for 5 years, even though he didn't like it, out of loyalty and stability (he's not this way so much anymore). 

Back to the story... In the throws of COVID-19 (2020-2021), we sold our home, I launched a life coaching business online and my hubby helped me daily with all the tech woes that come with building an online business. My colleagues started to notice all that I was putting out, and started asking who my tech support was… and little by little my hubby started his own little side gig helping others.

In March of 2020 he came to me with the idea to try out a full-time gig and to stop looking for a job in his field (public administration). I was a little resistant to this idea. I had gotten used to being an entrepreneur on my own, but I hadn’t had to be the full-time breadwinner…. Ever. The pressure felt a little much… but it also deeply felt like the right move, and the only way we’d be able to travel full-time (which is a lifelong dream that I had kind of shelved for later). He knew this was my dream and felt like this was the best (and only) path to create the dream that the little girl inside me still held on to. 

We Get Started

We took the leap, and I became the primary breadwinner, as he started his own online business (specializing in a platform called Kajabi, which we had used and fallen in love with). We became affiliates for Kajabi and started helping others with their tech (websites, landing pages, email etc.). Over the last 2.5 years, he’s built a successful full-time gig, all through word of mouth- because he is NOT a fan of social media (and recently SEO), which he really enjoys. The work/home/travel life has its woes, and can be hard for a deeply introverted soul like he is- but we're making it work (more on this later). 

We homeschool, travel as much as we want to, and call ourselves semi-nomadic, as we no longer have a super-permanent home base. Our adventures haven't always been as smooth as I imagined in my little-girl dreams (there were no fighting kids, delayed flights and struggles trying to squish things in our bags!), but they have been our own- and we love this life we created. 

I’m living my dream of travelling, homeschooling, and spending my days with the people I love most in the whole world- it’s incredible. Follow along as we travel the globe this school year <3 I would love to hear from you as we go! Feel free to reach out at [email protected].