When Don and I decided to homeschool our kids while traveling the world, we had never heard of worldschooling and knew very little about homeschooling. Fortunately, the programs we chose gave our kids a strong start. Now, more than a decade later, we have three self-educating kids, ages 10 to 15, who are truly surpassing our expectations.
World School Methodology
With the hindsight of our past decade of experience, there are definitely things we would have done differently! But let me start with the one thing we definitely wouldn’t change: the Classical method of education.
If you haven’t heard of it before, you might react like my husband Don did when you first hear of it. We chose to focus on subject mastery through memorization, covering topics like Bible, Latin, English, Grammar, History, Science, Geography, Timeline, and Math. We used songs to help with memorization, but there are other options that might suit your kids’ learning styles better.
My husband was quite impressed with how well they could recall information they had learned through the classical method. He swears he can’t recall much of anything from his elementary through high school years! Although he was impressed when our three-year-old was learning thermodynamic principles and multiplication tables up to 15×15, he was skeptical that memorization would translate to application.
We were both shocked when our three-year-old easily picked up and applied the concepts of multiplication weeks later, years ahead of traditional school age. Moments like these definitely clinched our belief in the classical method!
Best World School Curriculum
We originally started with a classical method through a homeschool co-op called Classical Conversations. It was especially helpful for me to join this group and have a mommy support group, but it wasn’t long until we realized we didn’t quite align with the leadership of the organization. It was also very expensive relative to other programs we’ve found since.
We left that co-op and connected with another group using different curricula called Cross Seven and Claritas, both based on the classical model. The curriculum and learning tools we used with this co-op are perfect for world schooling because they are available in several digital formats with streaming options, meaning you don’t need to carry a bunch of books or materials across the globe. Cross Seven is an online sister company to Claritas, which provides booklets, writing sheets, maps, and all the songs on CDs if you prefer hard copies.
We definitely recommend them as foundational material for any child from kindergarten to elementary school. You can reinforce learning through songs, games, and repetition throughout your school week. Cross Seven offers an easy online system with movies, songs, games, maps, flashcards, and quizzes. It’s conveniently broken up by subject or by week and into four cycles for you to rotate through. So if you start at kindergarten, you would ideally go through all the cycles two or maybe three times, depending on whether you are schooling year-round or by semester.
Transition from Homeschool To World School
Since we weren’t full-time travelers at the time, our co-op decided to work on the Claritas memory work and some families purchased a Cross Seven subscription while others purchased the Memory Guide from Claritas. We would meet together and split introducing all the new material.
We would also take this time to fellowship, do a group science experiment, and an art project related to the history statement. If you can find a like-minded mommy group, this is such a wonderful blessing.
When my kids were young, I purchased all the CDs and flash cards. Since I was a veteran C.C. teacher and a minimalist by nature, I didn’t feel the need to purchase all the maps or extra books. However, most of the moms in our group did and loved the materials. The quality and color went above and beyond expectations. The price is more than fair when compared to other comprehensive homeschool curricula, considering that it can be used for multiple kids.
We would review the material together while they ate breakfast, do a page of writing and a page of math, and on some days a cutting and pasting page. The rest of the day was spent taking naps, reading together, playing at the park, or exploring local adventures. And right before bedtime, the kids would fall asleep to the memory work songs. As a worldschooler, you want something easy that doesn’t require carrying a bunch of books. It is super easy to play the songs from our computer before they go to bed at night.
The online Cross Seven subscription is a great fit for worldschoolers. The cool thing about Cross Seven and Claritas is that they are designed to be super flexible. You can add more or less on days when you have a lot going on, and even if you only have 15 minutes of review time, you know your kids are learning a ton of useful information.
One of my favorite features is that the information learned is from a biblical worldview. It incorporates scripture memorization and starts with creation to modern day in the timeline. This aligns well with one of the reasons we chose to homeschool in the first place. There are no agendas, and all the memory statements are based on scientific and historical facts.
Another favorite feature of Cross Seven is that it fits all different learning styles. My youngest son is very auditory and kinesthetic, whereas my daughter is more of a traditional read/write learner, and my eldest is a visual learner. Despite being very different learners, each of my kids were memory masters in every cycle. I challenged (or bribed) the kids to memorize 28 weeks of information from every subject. They were then tested by myself, our neighbor, and grandma. It was super challenging but also very rewarding for the kids.
My kids are now middle school and high school aged and still remember the Cross Seven memory work concepts from their elementary years. It’s amazing how songs and stories stick with long-term memory. Algebra is easier when you have a song memorized to the order of operations and the commutative or distributive laws. Biology becomes easier when you aren’t learning the parts and functions of a cell for the first time in high school.
World events become more impactful when you actually know where a country like Ukraine is located geographically and why Russia believes it belongs to the USSR. The unbelievable grace and kindness of the people of communist Vietnam are more humbling when your kids know the pain and hardship inflicted by their own country. World travel truly becomes transformational in the time spent sharing meals, playing games of tag or soccer in the streets, or in hours of broken-English conversations with families that defy stereotypes and preconceptions taught to us from centuries of fear.
These experiences, enriched by the foundational knowledge from our early homeschooling, have given my kids an empathetic understanding of the world and an appreciation for its diverse cultures.
If you’d like to try Cross Seven, you can use this link for a free four-week trial!
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