I met her thanks to Lainie http://www.raisingmiro.com/
Intro
"Hello
my name is Jessica and I am the blogger behind Goodie Goodie Gumdrop a lifestyle blog that focuses on travel as it
relates to our family.
I
post about our creative family adventures in travel, art, education and work.
We
sold most of our belongings, transferred to location independent careers and
moved to Costa Rica in order to learn more about the world through travel.
I am
also a graphic designer, photographer and a mom.
Join
us while we pursue our goal of traveling the world with our two children."
Interview
1.What was your travel
style like before you had children? Before children we were vacationers. We would anxiously wait for our two
weeks of vacation each year so we could go out and live the life we dreamed of.
Unfortunately when you only have two weeks in a location you end up spending so
much more on hotels (now we use airbnb.com) and flight than if you went for longer. When we vacationed it was
always a mass rush to see how much we could check off our list because we did
not know if we would ever be back again. I always came home exhausted and
feeling like I needed a vacation. We had guests recently that commented on how
little we knew about Costa Rica in our four months here. I was happy to
announce that we are now what one calls “slow travelers,” we live, work and
travel, but we do it all in a longer period of time. I much prefer out new
travel style where we get to spend more time getting to know the locals and the
culture.
2. What ages were your
children when you started traveling with them? We started vacationing with them as early as three months, but we did
not start traveling with them until they were six and nine. I should probably
give you my definition of vacationing versus travel since I have already referenced it
twice. Vacationing for us is to spend a couple of weeks in a place where we see
the sights and head home exhausted. Traveling is when we spend an extended
period of time (more than three weeks) in an area and we make it a point to
interact with the locals and learn about the culture all while taking it slow.
3. How long have
you been traveling for and what countries have you explored? Almost two years ago we spent a summer in Paris and I consider that
the beginning of our travel life even though we came back home for 12 months
after that trip. Upon our return we spent the next 12 months trying to figure
out how we could do this for a longer period of time. Last summer we spent a
month in India, returned home for a month and then moved to Costa Rica. We have
currently been living in CR for four months and our plan is to stay at least one
year. I honestly don’t know how many countries I (we) have visited in our
lifetime. It’s a lot, but I don’t have a desire to keep track.
4. Do you follow an
unschooling or homeschooling approach for education? We are worldschoolers. We follow a customized curriculum from various
sources, use local tutors for language/culture and teach several subjects
ourselves. We also learn out in the Costa Rican communities about currency,
language, geography, science, music and much more. We are not technically
unschoolers, but we do entertain interest driven work when it arises.
5. Why did you
decide that exposing your children to travel was important? Why not? Will and I have always been vacationers, but once we really
started to travel and dig deep into the culture and lives of the countries we
visited our education began. We wanted the same experience for our children.
· We value education and feel that learning through travel is priceless.
· We want them to have an epic, out of the box childhood.
· We want to expose them to real world experiences and people
who live different from us.
· We want to invest in making memories and building relationships
instead of buying stuff.
6. Can you tell us how
your traveling lifestyle has enhanced their education? I don’t even know where to begin with this. Avalon and Largo learn
something new every single day. A lot of their learning in the US was isolated
within a classroom setting because everything outside the school was very
familiar to them. Nothing in Costa Rica is familiar; therefore each day
presents a new set of challenges, obstacles, enlightenment and learning. The
traveling lifestyle has made them more aware of the differences among
countries, people and cultures, plus it has allowed them to think more globally.
7. How have your
children helped to build your itinerary? Unfortunately they were not involved in the itinerary for our move to
Costa Rica because most of this was done after work and late at night. But, we
plan to let them each pick a country on their dream list as we continue to
travel and plan the logistics of the move. Also, they do have a lot of input
about the places we visit within Costa Rica and the logistics associated with
the visits.
8. How has it been for
your children in regards to making friends on the road? Our situation is a little different than other travelers in that we slow
travel. This means that we stay in a location for at least a year in order to
get more of a cultural experience and meet locals. Our son is in a brick and mortar
school and he has made friends with local Costa Rican children. Our daughter is
world schooled and her friends come from different classes she takes within the
community, siblings of her bothers friends and other traveling families that
pass though Costa Rica. Largo has also made friends at classes he has taken
outside of his school in the community.
9. Your
backpack: what items would I find? What is a must for your children? My backpack would have my computer, Go Pro and camera, an additional lens, basic
clothing, a medical bag, a Kindle, art supplies, spices (yes, I travel with my
favorites), books (yes, I still carry these), homeschool supplies and a warm
sweater (I hate to be cold).
The children have clothing, books, legos, games
(chess for sure), art supplies, a comfy blanket and a stuffed animal (or two or
three).
10. How do you
find your interactions with locals? The point
of our travel is to interact with locals and learn about the local culture. It
is not always easy to break into a community when you have language barriers,
but I am proud of what we have accomplished thus far. We have several local
families and kids as friends.
11. Have your
family and friends been supportive of your choice? Yes,
very much so. Of course, they miss us and would like us closer, but they
realize that this was a seven-year dream in the making that has finally come to
fruition and they are happy for us.
12. Has your
relationship with your children changed since you started traveling together? Absolutely, we are much more engaged as a family and as parents. We have
become closer and our conversations are more authentic and honest. I feel this
time in Costa Rica has created a bond within our family that will last for the
rest of our life.
13. If you could
choose the best and the worst things about traveling as a family, what would
they be? The worst would be missing family and
friends, hands down. The best would be having this special time as a family,
the educational experience and watching our children become global citizens.
14. What is your
favorite travel memory of traveling as a family? It’s simple, watching our children interact with local children in a new
language. It brings tears to my eyes every time I watch them enter this new
terrain fearlessly. Luckily this is a travel memory that I get to see over and
over again.
15. According to
your child, what is their favorite part about travel? They both agree that making new friends is by far the best part. But, they
also mentioned eating new candy, long car rides, memories of travels, airplane
rides and all of us snuggling in a big bed. We often have accommodations that
need some creativity if you can’t tell. Ha.
16. How do you
fund your travels? My husband
and I are digital nomads. We work location independent as an accountant and a
graphic designer. In addition, we live frugal and save whenever possible.
17. How much
longer do you plan to be traveling and what are your intended destinations? Funny, everyone wants to know this. Our plan was to travel to Costa
Rica for one year with a possible one-year extension. We have decided after
four months that we want to extend to a second year of travel, but we will
change locations. The location is not determined at this time. It has always
been a dream of ours to change countries every one to two years until our
youngest (age seven) goes to college. How cool would that be? Right now we are
just trying to make year one and two work, adjust to our location independent
careers and world school. Time will tell what the future holds. I guess you
will have to follow us atwww.goodiegoodiegumdrop.com to find out how it all works out.
18. What tips
would you offer parents when it comes to travel with children? Just do it! Don’t worry about school, friends, extended family, etc.
They will be with their parents and that is the most important part. Travel
will only enrich their lives, even if they are young. Create memories instead
of buying stuff. Take them out of their bubble and let them become global
citizens. You will be surprised at the education they will get from travel. Oh,
and don’t bring all their stuff. Kids need less than we actually think.
"May your life be filled with sweet adventure
(whatever that means to you)!!!"
I hope to meet Jessica and her family soon in one of our trip!!
You can find out more about Jessica and her family’s
adventures at her blog:
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