Jennifer loves to breathe, read, write, travel, learn, sing, dance, eat, and practice mindfulness. She is currently residing in Ubud, Bali, and loves exploring new places with her family.
I have a special poem to share with you all today. First, here’s some background… While attending the Life Without Instructions Conference on Staten Island this past September, I attended a writing workshop facilitated by Miro Siegel. He briefly explained the different stages of The Hero’s Journey, outlined by Joseph Campbell. Using that pattern as a guide, he set us to the task of writing. I decided to...
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Traveling with our children for the past seven years has been more of a catalyst for learning than we ever imagined, and our expectations were quite high to begin with. We value learning together in new and unfamiliar territory, expanding our comfort zones, and exploring the wonders to be savored in foreign lands. The reality we identified with at the time we started our journey...
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Believe it or not, we’re homebodies. It may seem paradoxical that we’re also long-term traveling, worldschooling adventurers. Those things don’t typically go together, do they? But for us, they seem to work out quite magically. I’m reminded of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. They aren’t necessarily wired for adventures, but some find travel to be invaluably “precious” in their journey through life. We see worldschooling as a...
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Have I mentioned how much more kids learn when they are exploring the world with their friends? For example, what might be “just another hike” morphs into an exciting adventure with new playmates. “Boring” car drives suddenly shift gears as kids learn the valuable art of car swapping, so they can score a seat next to their friend. Party in the back seat anyone? Playing on...
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One of the most amazing things about traveling as a family is becoming friends with other traveling families. It is really fun to get together and play in different places around the world! We feel exceptionally fortunate that we had two of these wonderful families to adventure with during our stay. New Zealand was a first for all of us, and it was great to discover...
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Centrally located near the top of the South Island, Nelson made an excellent home-base for our three-month visit in New Zealand, and we completely luxuriated in the time we spent there. Because the country is quite large and packed full of awesomeness around every corner, we did occasionally venture to other places as well. Our first trip began with a short stay in Auckland on the North Island, to renew Aysia’s passport....
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Kia Ora! Nau mai! We’re so glad you made it to our first New Zealand installment. Settling into a new country is always an adventure for our family. The fun, and sometimes the frustration, all come as part of this process of discovery. We never really know what to expect, so it always turns into an interesting combination of surprises. Air New Zealand Just for...
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I know many of you have been waiting a long time for this post. Doesn’t it just kind of seem like everyone wants to visit Fiji? We were certainly no exception. After leaving the extremely cold, dry, high-altitude conditions of Breckenridge, Colorado, in the snowy mountains of North America, we were especially excited to land in the intensely hot, humid, sea-level Fijian climate, in the...
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We thought we’d be extra adventurous this year, and trade our typical tropical climate for a brave escapade into an extremely harsh and frozen one. Our girls have been craving snow almost ever since we left it six years ago. To appease them, we decided to venture a ski vacation with Brandon’s Mom and sister Ashley’s family, over Christmas and the New Year. Little did we...
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Have you noticed we keep coming back to Victoria? This time we settled in for the month of December, curious to see if its winter season was really as mild as cold-phobic people like ourselves tend to prefer. This is Canada we’re talking about, after all. Wouldn’t you know, we discovered it really does live up to its reputation! It’s in a sub-Mediterranean zone, not...
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