‘Life Outside the Exam Factory’
DreamEd...ucation
Following your own dreams is one of the best lessons you can give your children.
Like all parents, the education that our children receive is the most important thing to us. Berri and Pablo are currently part of the British education system. They started at the age of 4 and have learnt to read and write, add and subtract etc. They have started to learn the basics of the subjects provided as part of the curriculum and they have done really well and really enjoy school.
However, although we know some of the essential learning is taught in schools, we really believe there are other lessons that are as important which are either missing or barely touched on in school.
In 2015 I did a course with the The happy Startup School which lead me to reading, talking, networking and discovering my passion for children’s education. Wanting to continue on this journey, I created Dream Explorers not really knowing what it was or what it could be, just that there was a community of like minded people. I teamed up with Tom Harris (a teacher of higher education and very passionate about it too), and together we put on a launch event in April 2016. It was an afternoon of creative fun from chocolate making to Bollywood dancing and some amazing people sharing their stories and journeys about following their dreams.
Although the day felt like a success, with children and parents feeling inspired, I still couldn’t clearly see the path in which I could take Dream Explorers. After some serious thinking and evaluating I put this question to myself:
How best can I personally teach my children and others the importance of following passions and dreams and learning very important life lessons that come with that?
And I came to a conclusion…..
The best way……. follow my passions and my dreams!.
(My dream has always been to live in a exotic country with a warmer climate, build a home without walls, create a tropical garden, live life outside and ultimately being more connected with nature.)
We can talk and talk but the biggest most powerful message is what we do. As parents, we are their biggest influence. If we say white and choose black, our children will choose black.
By following our own dreams, getting out of our own comfort zone and taking calculated risks, we are showing our children its how life works, its normal practise to try things whatever the outcome.
They will learn that having the confidence to challenge themselves, to have passion and courage are as essential as reading and writing.
And so, we are 6 months away from up rooting our lives and exploring our dream of living in Costa Rica. The adventure will begin in July 2017 in Vancouver, where we will buy a car and then take a road trip through the USA, and central America arriving at our destination around christmas time.
We don’t know if the plan will work, we may not like the thought of living there once we get there, after all reality can be far from a dream but, even so, we will try it and our children will learn from watching and experiencing first hand the challenges we are taking on. And if it doesn’t work out the way we want it to, then we will return and re-think our dreams and our children will learn that this is ok as well.
I will share our adventure, the highs and the lows and the lessons we will all learn and maybe our journey will inspire others.
I will be focusing on the educational side of this adventure, looking at what our children learn on the road trip and being ‘Outside the exam factory’, however, it doesn’t have to be a road trip to see how valuable these times are.
Holidays are massively educational and I believe they are an extremely important part of our children’s learning and development. So to kick this off, my next blog is about our recent holiday to India. I found it really interesting to see just how much the children learnt when I sat and thought about it!.
