I have a habit of creating my own things. I tend to make things up, whether it be words (like culinary world-schooling), projects, or ideas, and then leverage them as “words to live by.”
When my husband and I decided to sell everything and pack up our lives to travel the world for the next 3 years (and home-school our 2 children), I felt the nagging need to make sense of it all.
What are we doing?
What is this called?
How will we explain this to my family and friends?
Those were just a few questions that formed in my mind as we began our culinary world-schooling travel planning. Who sells everything they own, pulls their children out of excellent private schools to “wander” the planet aimlessly in search of adventure?
I mean, wasn’t the life we were leading adventurous enough??
So, being my usual self, I felt I had to come up with a “family plan” or “life plan” to justify what we were about to do. A measurable goal of sorts that I could use to make sure what we were about to embark on would have focus and meaning when it eventually ended.
It wasn’t until we were on the road, somewhere in Amsterdam, when I figured it all out.
You see, up until that point, we were just schooling the kids via their iPads. Downloading apps to help with Math and Reading, with extra curriculum activities being drawing, nature walks, exploring the cities we visited, and journaling their experiences along they way.
Because we lived in an RV part-time we had to shop for groceries almost every other day. We’d make a meal plan for the week and “try” to stick to it. The kids, at first, would help with the shopping and cooking because they had to. But over time, as they got more involved in the shopping process, they eventually wanted to know more about cooking and that’s when I realized that by teaching my kids to cook, I could leverage their eagerness to learn and turn it into something wonderful and educational!
Culinary World-Schooling has become the basis for everything we do when it comes to teaching our children. Culinary literally means “cooking” or “to cook”, and World-School can be defined as schooling through world-travel. We take it a bit further by cooking foods from around the world.
A typical school day looks something like this:
- Decide what’s for lunch or dinner (decision making skills, consensus, cooperation)
- Find recipes and write down ingredients (research, hand-writing)
- Shop for ingredients at the grocery store (budgeting, weighing, measurements, counting)
- Prep meal and cook (hand/eye coordination, organization, focus, safety, measurement)
- Serve and Clean (acts of service, chores)
- Journal about experience (memory, creative writing, hand-writing, drawing)
It could last anywhere from 2 hours, 2 days or sometimes even 2 weeks depending on the topic. When the kids were in Spain they wanted to make Pan Con Tomate, which lead to one of the biggest culinary world-schooling projects we worked on.
First we learned about the history and variety of tomatoes (there’s 100’s), the different styles of tomatoes used for certain cooking, and finally all the different dishes that used tomatoes in their cuisine. The learning just expanded and went in all kinds of directions… just from a simple request for a lunch-time snack.
Though our way of teaching is different from most, my husband and I revel in the fact that both children are learning an important life skill, one they need to learn to survive in the world.
Knowing how to cook!
Perhaps that could mean a guaranteed job as a Chef by the time they graduate…who knows!
The fact is they are learning and we are educating, and that’s all that matters.
Love love love the idea of culinary world schooling! As we head into 2-weeks of forced time off thanks to Covid-19, we will be doing some baking and cooking classes to keep the insanity at bay. Ha!
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It sounds like very practical way of learning useful stuff. Thanks for sharing.
It really is – tasting food is our delicious way of learning 🙂
sounds like a great way for kids to learn essential cooking skills for later life
They are definitely turning into pro-chefs!
So great! Cooking is something not enough children learn from their parents but it’s so helpful, especially when they’re on their own in college.
You’re so right…it makes me quite proud when the kids whip up something for dinner under my supervision! 🙂
I absolutely love taking food tours and cooking classes during my travels! Thanks for sharing 🙂
We actively look for them during all our travels – they’re such a wonderful way to learn about the history of a place!
They’re going to be master chefs in no time! Perhaps there is a future for them on Chopped 🙂
Here’s hoping! That or the Kid version of Masterchef! 🙂
I really admire your courage and determination to travel the world with the kids AND school them along the way 🙂 Wonderful!
Thank you! It’s been such an incredible experience, and I’m grateful I can give my children the opportunity to experience it from such a young age! 🙂
I love this!!!! I would love to have a family one day and keep travelling with them and this is such a great way to teach in a fun way. It is so lovely that they got so involved in the project and there is so much room to expand it over time – even language lessons by learning recipes and ingredients in another language. What an incredible experience you are giving your kids 🙂
Thank you, Laura! Yes, we want them to continue learning Spanish, so perhaps a move to South America is in our future.
This is why I believe schools don’t work! Children learn much more through activities like this, than by sitting through 6 hours of classes a day!
Too true, Tom! Traveling has really opened up their eyes, and enhanced their knowledge.
That is an incredible thing to do. As someone who travels around food and food experiences, I learn so much from what we buy, how we shop, talking to local people at the markets, and then cooking it all. We bring ingredients home, to learn more, improve our cooking and to cook international foods for family. Your kids will learn so much from this.
Yes, it’s been a great experience for the kids, and for my hubby and myself as well. Going to fresh markets in Europe has made us seek out fresher produce options here in Hawaii!
Love this post. It’s such a great example of having fun while learning. Loved the photos and narrative. Look forward to hearing more about your travels.
Thanks Christine! It’s always an adventure world-schooling these two kids! 🙂
Thank you for such amazing recipes!
Hope you make some of them during your travels!