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Family travel in Europe is just the start of a conversation with Katie Barnes. She and her husband Jeff seem to have traveling in their blood. Before children, they bought a boat and sailed from the United States to New Zealand. Fast forward to the present and you’ll find them exploring Europe for the past three years, worldschooling their three children along the way.
Family Travel in Europe & more
Tune in as Katie and I discuss family travel in Europe, homeschooling in Spain, what they carry with them, their advice to new traveling families and a few of the resources that they’ve used for education on the go. Katie also talks about her family’s love of Prague, and why they’ve returned to the city after a long absence.
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EPIC INTRO
About:
- Names: Katie Barnes, her husband, Jeff, and their three kids, (4, 6 and 8 at the time of recording)
- Hold passports from: USA
- Type of travel: 3 years into indefinite travel
- A few places they’ve been: All over Europe, lived in Spain and Czech Republic
On the Web: Her site
EPIC ORIGINS
- Before kids, they sold everything, bought a sailboat and sailed from the USA (Florida) to New Zealand over about 3.5 years.
- The family left for their present European travels when the kids were 4, 2, and a newborn.
EPIC RULES & ROUTINES
- Mornings in Europe are family time (Jeff works USA hours).
- Find classes and workshops to get involved in.
- When going to a new place, find a book that relates to where you’re going.
EPIC ECONOMICS
- Built & sold houses
- Husband works remotely
- Always get a local bank account (required to rent an apartment)
- Keep a local (in their case, US) bank account
- One credit card, shared between them
EPIC ESSENTIALS
- Backpack (“Currently have a Dakine backpack we picked up in Bulgaria when ours fell apart.”)
- Workbooks, paper, pencils & crayons for the kids
- 2 laptops (“Nothing to recommend here, mine is just an old HP”)
- Several tablets (“An ASUS tablet we picked up in Romania when we found one on sale.”)
- Several Kindle Fires
EPIC INSIGHT
- Katie takes a worldschooling approach to education, taking advantage of what’s around them to learn
- Utilizes the Reggio Method and project-based learning
- Signs the kids up for lots of classes
- Minimizes distractions & limits screen time
EPIC RESOURCES
- Starfall
- ABC Mouse
- Jolly Phonics
- The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
- Life of Fred Math Books
- Complete Curriculum — Flash Kids Harcourt Family Learning (try to buy one year ahead of your child’s current grade level)
- Brave Writer for language arts
- The Magic Treehouse book series
EPIC ADVICE
- For long-term travel, keep a home base, where you have a place to return to and to maintain friendships
- Relax and trust the process (details in the podcast)
EPIC DESTINATIONS
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Bavaria, southern Germany
- Spain (They lived in the Javier/Denia area)
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