We 'world school' our kids and spend a fifth of what it costs at home
Watch: We left the UK to world school our kids and break routine - now we're closer
A couple have explained why they chose to leave the UK to travel the globe while "world schooling" their children.
Emma Niblett, 36, a head of technology, and her husband, Dan, 40, from Leeds, West Yorkshire say they were trapped in the same ongoing cycle of everyday life and didn't feel they were having fulfilling experiences as a family. They decided to go off in search of adventure and rented out their house before leaving the UK for Bali in the summer.
The family has been based there for the last three months and their sons - Noah, eight, and Isaac, five - have been learning in a pop up school. As well as travelling around Bali itself, the couple have also visited Sydney, Australia and are now planning to head to New Zealand and Japan over Christmas.
They will then world school the children on the road and in different pop up schools while they travel around Vietnam and Borneo.
Emma and Dan, a self-employed head of technology, started having conversations last Christmas about travelling but wanted to let their boys finish the school year before leaving. "The boys were spending more time on screens and we wanted them to experience different cultures," Emma explains. "We'd recovered from the Covid pandemic and felt we were repeating the same cycle. We weren't having time together as a family, so we thought 'let's do something completely different'."
In order to cover their mortgage, the family decided to rent out their house and left on a one-way ticket to Bali in August 2024. "We knew we wanted to start in South Asia and settled on Bali," Emma says. "It's safe, cost effective, and it's sunny."
Before leaving the UK the family found a pop up school and let the boys settle into their new surroundings before starting school in September. They are booked in for three months and though they go to school 9am until 3pm Monday to Friday, like in the UK Emma says the ethos is very different. "It's very student led," she explains. "They are able to pick their own projects and are learning about the local area and language. It's less academic and more about functioning in the world."
Emma says when they started her sons asked where the desks were and why they weren't sitting in rows. "I find they are a lot more creative," she continues. "They are surrounded by kids from Singapore, Australia, America and are more culturally aware."
The family plan to "slow travel" as they make their way across the world as they want to take the time to experience new locations. "We don't want to rush around places," Emma says. "But we're also being really open to spontaneous experiences. The boys went snorkelling, we've seen turtles and manta rays. We also did a night in the middle of the rice fields. Just being with people from different backgrounds opens your eyes to so much more."
To fund their travels Emma and Dan have been able to work remotely and are making a conscious effort not to fall back into the daily grind. "We have to get out of that nine-to-five repetitive mindset," Emma explains. "In the UK we spent so much time worrying about chores - what needs doing, food shopping - that doesn't exist in Bali. We find we have more quality time together and it has brought us closer together."
As well as having benefits for family life Emma and Dan say they also find their new lifestyle is a lot cheaper. "It's 20% of what we were paying in the UK," Emma explains. "At home we had to weigh up 'should we go to this day out that will cost £100 to £150?'. We had an incredible day here for maybe £40 or £50 which included three meals. Dinner at a local market is £1 per person. The money conversation just isn't there anymore."
The family plan to spend a year travelling before returning to the UK, but may keep going if the boys are enjoying it. "It's made us more mindful of the way we spend our time," Emma adds. "It's taken away a lot of the noise that we had in the UK."
Read more about parenting:
We moved to Tenerife to save £11K a year on rent (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
We took our kids out of school so we could travel the world for a year (Yahoo Life UK, 9-min read)
Daughter takes her mum backpacking around Asia to celebrate being cancer-free (Yahoo Life UK, 5-min read)
