“World Schooling”: This family is educating their 4-year-old through travel

Since the beginning of 2024, Carol Tan, Rakcent Wong and their son Atlas have visited 23 countries and counting.

Provided by Rakcent Wong

“You can’t travel anymore after you have a baby.” Carol Tan, 36, and Rakcent Wong, 35, after giving birth to son Atlas This age-old advice was often received before, but they were determined to prove the naysayers wrong.

The Singaporean family took time off to “world school” their four-year-old, which has spanned 23 countries since the start of the year, from Switzerland to Denmark to Nepal.

What is “world schooling”?

In short, “world schooling” means making the world a classroom.

Sometimes parents choose to embark on a “family gap year”, taking their children away from their home school to introduce them to different parts of the world and help them Learn through immersive experiences that satisfy their innate curiosity.

While some families take a more structured approach, sending their children to schools abroad or creating their own curriculum, much like homeschooling, others take a more flexible approach.

Chen and Huang ride motorcycles across Southeast Asia.

Provided by Rakcent Wong

How the journey begins

After meeting in 2011, Tan and Wong fell in love and quickly discovered a shared passion for travel.

“Our style Before we had the Atlas, traveling was a bit ‘off the beaten path,'” Wong told CNBC Make It. Lanka, and the couple likes to have adventures in their travels.

“We realized that after each trip, we always learned something—we experienced some kind of growth and transformation, both on a personal level and as a couple,” Huang said.

If we send our kids to preschool – from morning to night, we really lose the most amazing part of our child’s journey – as a father, I want to be there, I want to see him for the first time.

Tan and Huang decided not only to go on the trip, but to take Atlas with them. “We (know) that traveling is very beneficial for him, especially in his formative years before he goes to elementary school,” Huang said.

“We feel, as parents, if we send our kids to preschool from morning to night, we’re really missing out on the most amazing part of our child’s journey, because this is where they learn a lot of their first times,” Huang said . “As a father, I want to be there, I want to see him for the first time.”

The couple decided that the best time to travel was when the children were between 4 and 6 years old. No, this is compulsory education in Singapore.

4-year-old Atlas is on a world school adventure with his parents.

Provided by Rakcent Wong

atlas and the world

After five years of saving and investing, Chen and Huang accumulated enough funds to help them take a leap of faith.

“People always think that Singaporeans are rich and Singaporeans are doing well, but in reality, we are not like that,” said Chan. “This is actually just pure hard-earned savings,” said Wong. The couple often asked themselves: “How much money can we spend a month without going hungry?”

In January 2024, Tan and Wong started taking a vacation, taking Atlas out of school, and the family headed to their first destination-Greece. They don’t want to share their work.

We believe that the foundation of learning should be based on curiosity.

The family travels to a new destination almost every week, and in between all their explorations, they teach Atlas using three core principles:

stimulate curiosity
Encourage problem solving
through immersive social

“We believe that the foundation of learning should be based on curiosity,” Huang said. “Then the second part is the drive to actually discover the solution.”

“Equally important, the third one is (learning how to) socialize, because alone you can know a lot, but together you can do more,” Huang said.

Through traveling, Atlas learned to make friends with local children.

Provided by Rakcent Wong

Most of Atlas’ courses are game-centric. Chen and Huang created many opportunities for their son to experience and absorb different environments.

From playing with children in Montenegro who speak different languages to learning how to share with new friends at the local playground, Atlas often Meet children from different backgrounds and cultures.

The couple also taught him by modeling behavior. Whether it’s establishing a “spirit of learning” by asking each other questions when they don’t understand something, or setting an example of how to resolve conflicts while on the road—Tan and Huang are learning along the way with Atlas, Huang said.

The impact of “world schooling”

After embarking on this journey in early 2024, one of the key changes the couple saw in Atlas was that he became more open to new experiences.

The child went from being a very picky eater to eating a variety of foods. “I think initially he ate to stay alive,” Huang said. “Now he’s willing to enjoy it – I think he enjoys the food more than we do.”

Atlas is also becoming more curious about the world and is learning how to ask increasingly specific questions.

“In the beginning, he would just ask: What is a cable car?” Tan said. “Now, he asks questions like: How does the cable car move? Does it generate electricity?”

“He has the drive to learn,” Huang said. “Information wasn’t pushed to him, but — he wanted to know more.”

Now the family hopes to extend the leave to two years. “We think the world is so big that if we only have one year and we (don’t have enough) time, then why not spend at most two years?” Tan said.