September 15, 2017

HIHTK: Episode 007 Jaime Salonen-“Escaping The Rat Race and Worldschooling”

Worldschooling Mom Jamie Salonen

Jaime is a business owner, wife, mother to two wonderful daughters. She does all of this while worldschooling. We caught up this summer while they were back in Canada before heading out again for their next journey to Mexico.

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Willing To Do Things Differently

Jaime has always thought differently from others and never really wanted to follow the crowd. Both her and and her husband question society a lot more than others and are willing to do things differently. This is apparent in the way they live their life, and educate their children. Their daughters entered school from preschool. When their eldest was getting ready for grade 1 they began to evaluate what they wanted for their family. Family time is extremely important and with school, activities and work they knew they would be very busy. Russ, Jaime’s husband had the idea to homeschool. They both knew nothing about it. Russ supported Jamie as the full time stay-at-home parent at that time. They started homeschooling their daughters before transitioning to worldschooling.

The Start of Wordlschooling

Before they started their family Jaime and her husband traveled together in Australia. They lived on savings for 6 months while they toured the country. When they returned to Canada they kept hopes of one day traveling again.

The start of their travel was when their oldest daughter was one year old. They took 6 weeks touring BC in a tent trailer then a few years later they took a 4 month trip. Jaime was the working parent then and her husband was the stay-at-home parent. Jaime took a 4 month leave so the family could travel up and down the coast of Canada and the US. During that trip they met a full time travelling family in Whitehorse that they connected with. This connection was the inspiring spark for their family to step into full time travel. “If they can do that, why can’t we?”

Jaime and her family took 9 months to get rid of everything in their home to transition and move into their 25 foot travel trailer. In the beginning of November 2016 they left Canada for 6 months in Australia and 3 weeks in Bali.

Full Time Worldschooling

Their family now consider themselves worldschoolers that started out as homeschoolers. Jaime says that in the beginning they over thought it- worrying about their girls falling behind in their learning. When they started travelling Jaime says she took too much weight in books in her backpack.

One thing she has learned in her journey “The way we want to teach it is not necessarily the way they want to learn it.”

They went away from the book work, especially with travel. She feels that travel is one of the best forms of education. “You learn so much about yourself, you learn so much about the world around you, about what you are capable of. It challenges you in every way. It pushes you to think outside the box and come up with solutions.” “Learn as you go- don’t overthink it.”

They’ve learned to really slow down the pace of their travel. They keep slowing it down as they go. They are 14 months in and they don’t have a deadline or end date in mind. They’re currently staying in southern Alberta and will stay there and in the southern BC area until late fall before heading to Mexico. They are are currently learning Spanish as a family.

One of their underlying beliefs is to challenge society, to question everything. You don’t need to be doing what everybody else is doing. This comes through in their homeschooling. They tell their daughters that everything is possible. Don’t let the limiting beliefs creep in. Challenge any beliefs that come up. Think outside the box. There is more than one way to do things.

Benefits and Challenges of Worldschooling

Jaime has learned so much about herself and her kids on this homeschooling journey. She has connected with them better since they have been travelling because they are really forced to work together.

Being together all the time creates a different family situation. Marriage wise Jaime and Russ are very reliant on each other and they have to work as a team.

The benefits can be the same as the challenges – the amount of time they spend together. Challenges are having time by yourself. But Jaime realized that she just needed to take that time. “If I don’t fill my own bucket I’ve got nothing to give to pour back in for anybody else….you have to fill yourself up first.”

Both Jaime and Russ take dedicated time for themselves. But one challenge as a worldschooling couple is having time for each other. Having the private conversations that you don’t have the space to have.

She’s seen many homeschooling and world schooling parents that don’t take the time and they are burned out.

Fitness is also something that is critical for both Jaime and her husband. Being active is a big part of their homeschool – hiking, biking, geocaching.

How Do They Afford To Keep Traveling?

Jaime and her family live on residual and passive income. They rent their home and they own a few other rental properties. Their residual income is created from their network marketing business where they are helping people with nutrition.

Advice To Parents Starting On A Similar Journey

Don’t compare yourself to other homeschooling or worldschooling families. Every family is different.

One of their underlying values is to teach a love of learning. If you teach your child to love to learn new things, you will have them set for life. Teach them how to find that information and have a hunger for that information and they will never be without.

Let go of your expectations. Let go of what you think it will look like and be willing to adjust if necessary. The advice Jaime was given that stays with her is “Make sure that every single year you reevaluate. Whether this is working for you guys as a couple, whether this is working for the kids, whether this is working for your family as a whole.”Don’t worry about what anybody else thinks. You have to do what’s right for you and your family.

Travel Tips – Australia and Bali

Creating Community

In Australia they connected with Girl Guides. It provided many opportunities to connect with other families and kids. They were involved with Girl Guides in Canada and they stay registered with a unit.

6 Months in Australia

They booked a hostel for them to stay for a few days when they first landed. Have a place booked for when you arrive. After a long trip you are feeling tired and you need this. And, it’s also a great way to connect with people that are in the same situation as you.
They immediately bought a car. This site was ideal because they have an automatic buy-back plan. You get 40%of your money back guaranteed. https://www.travellers-autobarn.com.au/
After the first hostel they bought a tent. They only camped or house-sat in Australia. No hotels. They lined up places through https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/ca/ and https://www.aussiehousesitters.com.au/ Aussie House Sitters is a more popular site in Australia. The house sitting is a free exchange where they take care of the house and pets and anything that needs to be dealt with while the owners are away in exchange for a place to stay.

In Bali they did home stays. The family loved it, especially their daughters. https://www.homestay.com is the site that they used. It was a wonderful chance to meet and stay with a local family and see how they actually live.

Next up for the family is Mexico. Right now they have no exact plans but they will be renting, not house sitting. Over 6 months they are looking at staying at 4 different places.