Catching up and Reflecting

We're so sorry we left you hanging for a month! Let us catch you up! After wrapping up our European history tour and leaving Spain - we flew back home to Arizona to rest, relax, repack and catch up with friends and family! We loved our time back home but it was so short lived. Less than a week ago, we flew from Arizona to Chile to begin our adventure tourism portion of our trip through South America. We are ready to share more about Chile but before we do, we wanted to post something that Lia and Mateo wrote at the end of our time in Spain as they reflected on the European portion of our world-school tour.

Many friends have asked us how our kids are doing with all the flights, moving and changes. But shouldn't you be asking us how we as parents are doing with the constant change? Let's be honest: We are older, less agile, less adaptable, and we are always one sneeze away from throwing our backs out. In all honesty, we have been amazed with Lia and Mateo's ability to adapt to long haul flights, study on the go, eat different foods, and sleep in every configuration imaginable. Most of the time we are learning how to react to situations based on their responses. Like when we got lost in the London tube and had to lug ten suitcases for four hours through the London railways up and down stairs because all the elevators were broken. There was not even a peep of negativity from Lia and Mateo. They roll with the punches, and while they haven't loved everything about our trips thus far, they are starting to see the purpose. More about how Lia and Mateo truly feel about our year of travel thus far, below!

What I learned So Far about Myself by Mateo

              The last three months while travelling, I have learned a lot of new things about myself.

              The first thing that I learned is that I don’t really like doing homeschool because I don’t have any friends to do school with. I like going to a regular school because I am a very social person. Recess is my favorite time to spend time with friends.

              The second thing that I learned is that I really like waking up in the morning, not in a rush. I get to take my time eating and taking a shower before school. It is less stressful when I don't need to wake up at 6am every morning. Before homeschooling we do PE by playing soccer on the beach as family, going for a hike to the castle or playing volleyball with my sister.

              The third thing that I learned is that I really like exploring new places, meeting new people, eating new foods, and trying new tour guides. We do a lot of our learning for social studies with tour guides while we are going to new places. This makes learning more fun.

              In general, I would really recommend going on a gap year with your family.

  Three Things I learned about Myself while in Europe by Lia

              The three things that I have learned about myself in these last few months is not something I have learned before. First, I found that I like some time to myself, and it was actually pretty hard to handle being around my brother and parents all the time. Since we live in a small apartment and I’m sharing a room with my brother, it’s hard to get time to myself. So, I would try to spent time alone to recharge in a chair by the bay window looking out into the ocean. I would recharge and get back up and spend more time with them.

              The second thing that I learned is that for me, its hard to stay in touch with my friends all the time because our family always has so many fun things that we are doing, even if its just getting on the beach or doing some shopping. I thought that I would miss my friends all the time, but I have had to put that aside and think about how I will see them in the near future soon!  So, I haven’t texted my friends as much as I would like, but I am trying to spend more quality time with my family before highschool – even though its hard sometimes.

              The last thing that I learned about myself is that I can control my feelings pretty easily if I try. When I first got to Alicante I was extremely sad. I missed home and everyone I knew more than ever. It was hard to let that go for a whole three months. But in the end, I tried to put that behind me and enjoy the moments with my family and go on amazing trips that I never thought I would go on. It was a real journey, but I got through it and now I am going to miss Europe! I have been here for so long that I have adapted and realized that it will be sad to leave a place where you can walk everywhere and feel like you are on vacation the whole time, even while I am doing homeschool.

 I cannot wait for the family adventures that we will have in the future!