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| A non-traditional approach to education this day through a Girl Scout opportunity outside of the classroom. |
We’ve touched on this / these subjects before ... and in fact our whole blog really is about living life in a non-traditional way.
But as we approach early retirement, I’ve been thinking about it more. Why not take a different path?
Work until retirement age. Why not retire early?!
Buy a home ... stay put for 30+ years. Why not rent? Travel? Not be tied down to one location?
Work hard to buy lots of nice things ... ! Nice things can be great and all ... but what if we focused on less material things and more on experiences?
Have a family ... find a great public (and for some private) school system (in fact buy the house near that school / school system). Why not think outside of the traditional educational approach?
Save up money and vacation days ... take vacations when the children are not in school! What if we weren’t tied down to a calendar? Travel whenever you want? After all, isn’t exploring the world one of the best ways to learn (hands-on!)?
On the one hand I’ve been sitting with some of these ideas for years now ... and within the past year or so in social media groups with like-minded people (lurking and reading about their adventures) so the non-traditional approach almost seems not so out of the box to me. On the other hand, the traditional approach is what we know so some of that is taking some getting use to.
What if we ... retired early? Were not tied down to a home? Had more experiences than things? Had a more non-traditional approach to education? Had more flexibility when it comes to travel (or had a life of travel)? Is a different way of life necessarily a wrong way?
Given that our kids are right in the middle of childhood (9 and 7 years) I’ve thought a lot recently about how these (non-traditional) decisions may affect them now, in the (near) future, and in the more further off future (young adults / college age). Pushing them (and all of us) out of our comfort zone I think can be a life-long positive experience for all of us. Why not experience life a different way from a different perspective and culture?
But also I think a big part of childhood for many is “school” so that has been on my mind too (“School” now and in the future). Even though at this point we plan to continue a more traditional approach to school (we plan to put them in school in Spain to immerse them in the culture and language), I am working to change my perspective on education and tear down those 4 walls of a school.
One thing I do like about the school we plan to put them into in Spain is they will go to school from 9 am - 2 pm (with an optional lunch at 2:00 pm). This is a much shorter day than we are use to (8 am - 3:15 pm for them now although since I am a teacher it is often much longer). Although I’ve always felt educational activities and experiences can happen anywhere ... and I try to supplement with my kids (science, history, the arts), I am often unable to do this during the school year because school takes up so much of our time and energy (we are often there 7 amish to maybe 4 pmish many days!). So I love the idea that they will have a shorter school day.
And at this point we still plan to take a World Schooling approach after maybe 2 years of school in Spain. But time will tell ....
But what if their educational experience (either when they are in “school” or not) ... involved more (in no particular order):
-Play? (What about learning from local Spanish kids outside of school.... and other expat kids from around the world?)
-Activity? / Athletics? (What if “activity” was more than PE every other day ... and recess for 30 min or less a day ... what if we were able to learn about and play sports in a different culture?)
-Nature? (Need I say more here ... we all benefit from nature!!)
-The Arts? (Making art in museums? Learning Flamenco in Spain?)
-Science and History? (Time to do science at home or outside of home? Visiting historic sites and supplementing the classroom or books?)
-Hands-On Experiences? (Learning about money and finances by helping buy groceries at a local market?)
-Real World Experiences? (I love our “Field Trips” in the summer .... museums, parks, new neighborhoods / local eating ... what if our life wasn’t limited to one Field Trip a year in the school year ... and just when we had time?)
-Travel? (How about learning about Morocco in Morocco?)
-Learning Experiences on the Internet? (Outschool anyone? Maybe the kids can pick up a few French classes online?)
-Less worksheets? Less or no Standardized Tests? (Do I even need to elaborate here?)
-Life-Long Skills? (Cooking anyone?)
I’m in no way knocking their current and past teachers. In fact ... if anything, I wouldn’t be sitting here today preparing for a move to Spain (our kids have benefited greatly from the Dual Language program in our public school) if it wasn’t for them. I also don’t think our kids would be as prepared for more independent learning if it wasn’t for the teachers, and I am talking about their pre-school teachers all the way to their current teachers. But now that we have that educational foundation ... why not begin to take a more non-traditional approach?
There are some of my thoughts on the non-traditional approach to life. What do you think? If you could FIRE or when you FIRE, could you or would you take a leap outside of your comfort zone? What do you think about the non-traditional approach? What path might you take?
-Tara
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