World Schooling – 6 months in Canada
Christine Cole
Last June my husband and I took our children to my family home in Canada for six months. At the time they were 3, nearly 5 and nearly 7 and we hadn’t seen my family for three years! So we decided to take an extended trip to spend some quality time and do some adventuring. There were some challenges, but overall, it was an amazing trip.
My dad’s house was our home base, though we spent nearly half our time exploring. My oldest two had been to Canada a few times before, but this trip was wonderful: the kids soaked up everything, and because we had six months, we got to do a lot of things we’d never done before. Before we left, people asked us what ‘schooling’ the children would do while we were away, but we chose to learn in a more experiential way, by just exploring, asking questions and noticing things that are different to home.
Let me give you an idea of the potential learning and experiences you can attain from a trip like this.
Besides the obvious learning about geography, animals, seasons/hemispheres, money and food, they learned to ice skate and ski, went dogsledding and watched their cousins play ice hockey. We hiked and camped overnight in a cabin, and learned about different plants and animals from park info boards, the library and park rangers. We learned about the salmon life cycle at a hatchery and watched them spawn in our local stream. We visited a mining museum, forestry museum, maritime museum, a Colonial fort, farms, national parks, aquariums and a wolf sanctuary. We experienced very different landscapes, discussed erosion at a landslide site, and dug for dinosaur fossils. We explored the rocky beaches— learning about rocks, the tides and marine animals—and swam with phosphorescence. We attended a logger sports festival, did a whale watching tour, and viewed glaciers from a sea plane. The kids did a soapstone carving class, kayaked, biked, paddle boarded and painted a giant community mandala for Earth Day.
Our children asked questions, conversing with adults and children, and realised that learning happens everywhere. They even played a bit of piano—tinkering with my old piano books at my dad’s house. At the end of summer, we did an RV trip across British Columbia, over the Rocky Mountains and into Alberta, to Drumheller and Dinosaur National Park. We walked on a glacier, watched firefighters fight a forest fire (!), learned to read maps, encountered an earthquake in a tsunami watch zone (and learned about earthquakes and tsunami warning systems), hiked into the bush to cut down our own Christmas tree and experienced a white Christmas (including waking up to snow). We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving and a real Halloween, visited family and friends and Skyped/Facetimed family and friends in Australia and wrote postcards home.
The Planning
We picked June until January so we could experience both summer and winter in Canada. We also chose to fly through Auckland because of the timing of the flights and the layover break for the kids to run around. Air New Zealand has sky couches which were amazing for the kids and me, though not so great for anyone taller. We also chose to do a stopover in New Zealand on the way home for ten days which was another adventure.
We originally planned for my husband to work while we were away but his company wouldn’t allow it. They offered him six months off instead. It turned out to be a blessing, because we had more family time and got to do more adventuring. He managed to get partial pay from taking early long service leave, as well as having some saved up annual leave, so we had a bit of income while away.
We made a budget before we left, and planned out what we would still have to pay for in Australia while away (we suspended phone services, cancelled TV and internet). We also still had to pay rent because we weren’t able to rent out our house. We did have family checking in on it regularly. Then we planned what we wanted to do while away, each of the big trips, how much they would cost (we did a ski trip, an RV trip, etc) and then included food.
Before we left, we read some books on Canada and talked with the kids about what they might like to experience. We talked to our financial planner about what we thought it would cost and made sure we had available funds.
We set up a Canadian bank account while there and got a credit card with a small limit. This was really handy because nearly all bookings (ferries, events, hotels, parking) required one and it saved us using our Australian one and getting charged exchange fees. We then sent money from our Australian bank account to our Canadian one in bulk when we needed more, which we did a few times. Before we left Australia, we sent my dad money for him to buy us a van in Canada, so it was waiting for us when we arrived. It was too expensive to rent for that long so that was a better option. We put it in my dad’s name and he updated his insurance to cover us while we were there, and then we sold the van when we left.
I was a bit worried about taking over my dad’s house for six months (my kids aren’t quiet!), but it went so well and my dad and sister had arranged some bikes, a trampoline and toys for us (very handy in a smaller house and over the cold winter— though we were outside nearly every day). My kids loved spending such quality time with their grandpa; he came on many of the trips with us, seeing parts of British Columbia that he never had before.
With regard to how we packed; we all had our own suitcases and each kid also brought their own backpack with markers/crayons, a journal (they drew/wrote or added stickers from the places we went), along with some favourite card games and a special teddy. I downloaded our favourite podcasts to listen to along the way, many of which were North American and covered topics of interest for our trip (How are mountains made, etc). We also watched a TV series called Molly of Denali about an Alaskan Native, before leaving, which gave us lots of ideas for fun things to do on our trip. Our kids were very excited.
How it went
It was amazing. We had periods of relaxing, lazy days and lots of busy travel time. The kids tried so many new things (and we did too!). We definitely stretched ourselves on some of the things we did. Some things worked out and others were tough. There were days with meltdowns and days we didn’t feel like doing what was planned. But we adapted the best we could (it was definitely a lesson in resilience for everyone), and I wouldn’t change any of it. We all came out knowing we’re capable of more than we thought. And even my oldest, who was a bit nervous about being away from home for so long, asked when we could go away again when we got back!
While away, we spent more than we had planned (because we chose to do more expensive activities, like the float plane over the glacier and the glacier tour in the Columbia Icefields), but we decided these were worth the extra money for the experience. Food and fuel were also more expensive than we budgeted but we made our own food as much as possible.
The toughest part of the trip was being in each other’s space 24/7, as well as being in other people’s spaces (hotels, AirBnbs), with kids that don’t sleep in, are not quiet, and love to jump on couches and build forts out of furniture. That being said, it was good practice. If we did the trip again, I would work harder to get out on my own for a walk each day, and encourage my husband to do so, too.
The best part is that my kids don’t remember us being grumpy! They remember all the cool places they visited, the wonderful things we experienced, the golden family time and the people we met along the way. We now have some amazing memories that the kids still talk about, and they are already asking when we can go back again.
Otherways 177 August 2023
