A couple pulled their kids out of school to backpack around the globe while ‘world schooling’ them – and say it’s "less stressful" than living in the UK.
Lauren Tyson, 31, and her husband, Roy, 37, had always had a passion for travel and dreamed of travelling full-time with their kids – two and five.
Their eldest “hated” school and the couple decided to pull him out and backpack around the globe while homeschooling him in January 2024.
Lauren and Roy, an artist, still follow the English curriculum and spend a few hours a day studying with their son before exploring Ko Samui, Thailand as family.
The mum-of-two feels world schooling has been “better” for their sons as it’s taught them life skills such as empathy and resilience.
Lauren, a content creator, from Sudbury, Suffolk, said: “The experience the children get - they’d never get in the UK.
“I’d never want them to get behind.
“Homeschooling – it’s better for him [their eldest son].
“He’s picked up a lot having us around constantly.”
Lauren and Roy had been backpacking before having kids and always felt a pull to travel more.
Lauren said: “My husband and I went backpacking in 2015 and 2016 before we had children.
“We really enjoyed it.
“The kids have always enjoyed travelling and we always dreamed of travelling full time.”
The couple decided to take the plunge when they realised their eldest son was struggling in school.
She said: “He wasn’t really enjoying it.
“He had a lot of troubles with his emotional stability.
“We weren’t sure if England was the right place for us.
“It’s such a big world.”
The family spent three months planning before they left so they could sort out renting their house and how to homeschool their children.
In January 2024 they left for Abu Dhabi before continuing to Bangkok and Ko Samui, Thailand.
The family are now staying there before their tourist visa runs out and will choose their next destination based on the cheapest flights.
Lauren spends the morning homeschooling their eldest son using textbooks before taking them both out to places such as bird farms for experiences.
She said: “The one on one time is valuable.
“In the market he talks about these fruits English kids wouldn’t know. He talks about Buddhism.”
Lauren and Roy have also seen the benefits of a slower pace of life.
Lauren said: “Life in the UK was go, go, go.
“I’d drop the kids off at school, go to nursery, go to the gym, do the food shop, go to swim lessons.
“It’s very chilled here.
“We’re less stressed. We get more time together.
“At the moment I can’t imagine going back to the UK.”
The family have no set plans of how long they will travel for but have rented out their house in the UK for 18 months.
Lauren said: “We know we’re privileged to do this.
“If it inspires another family to do this that would be amazing.”
Follow Lauren @lifealongsidelauren
Lauren Tyson, 31, and her husband, Roy, 37, had always had a passion for travel and dreamed of travelling full-time with their kids – two and five.
Their eldest “hated” school and the couple decided to pull him out and backpack around the globe while homeschooling him in January 2024.
Lauren and Roy, an artist, still follow the English curriculum and spend a few hours a day studying with their son before exploring Ko Samui, Thailand as family.
The mum-of-two feels world schooling has been “better” for their sons as it’s taught them life skills such as empathy and resilience.
Lauren, a content creator, from Sudbury, Suffolk, said: “The experience the children get - they’d never get in the UK.
“I’d never want them to get behind.
“Homeschooling – it’s better for him [their eldest son].
“He’s picked up a lot having us around constantly.”
Lauren and Roy had been backpacking before having kids and always felt a pull to travel more.
Lauren said: “My husband and I went backpacking in 2015 and 2016 before we had children.
“We really enjoyed it.
“The kids have always enjoyed travelling and we always dreamed of travelling full time.”
The couple decided to take the plunge when they realised their eldest son was struggling in school.
She said: “He wasn’t really enjoying it.
“He had a lot of troubles with his emotional stability.
“We weren’t sure if England was the right place for us.
“It’s such a big world.”
The family spent three months planning before they left so they could sort out renting their house and how to homeschool their children.
In January 2024 they left for Abu Dhabi before continuing to Bangkok and Ko Samui, Thailand.
The family are now staying there before their tourist visa runs out and will choose their next destination based on the cheapest flights.
Lauren spends the morning homeschooling their eldest son using textbooks before taking them both out to places such as bird farms for experiences.
She said: “The one on one time is valuable.
“In the market he talks about these fruits English kids wouldn’t know. He talks about Buddhism.”
Lauren and Roy have also seen the benefits of a slower pace of life.
Lauren said: “Life in the UK was go, go, go.
“I’d drop the kids off at school, go to nursery, go to the gym, do the food shop, go to swim lessons.
“It’s very chilled here.
“We’re less stressed. We get more time together.
“At the moment I can’t imagine going back to the UK.”
The family have no set plans of how long they will travel for but have rented out their house in the UK for 18 months.
Lauren said: “We know we’re privileged to do this.
“If it inspires another family to do this that would be amazing.”
Follow Lauren @lifealongsidelauren
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FunTranscript
00:00 play with me living in Thailand. This morning we actually had an appointment at a primary
00:03 school here on the island. I didn't record this for obvious reasons. It did help us make
00:07 a couple of decisions and I'll go into this on another video.
00:10 After we decided to try out Mae a resort we've not been to this one before. There's a really
00:13 lovely little soft play area, parents can sit around the side and enjoy a drink while
00:16 the children play. Before I knew it was lunch time we headed across the road to 7-11. Boys
00:20 are obsessed with pointing out coconuts everywhere we go even though they don't actually like
00:23 them. I genuinely thought that they were hilarious right now. And then we headed to a little
00:26 shopping area that we have near our house. We're on the hunt for a couple of English
00:29 storybooks but I'm yet to find them. Anyone that lives in Thailand let me know where you're
00:32 getting your books from. In this shopping centre as well they have this place called
00:35 Skippy Land. It's basically just an arcade full of rides, got a couple of grabbing machines
00:39 and then this one's really cool it's actually got these little pods that you can play FIFA
00:42 in. We used to love going to the arcades at the seaside when we lived back in the UK.
00:46 The thing I do prefer here though is that everything is either 10 or 20 baht to go on
00:50 which is about 22 or 44 pence a go. This means that you don't feel like you're forking out
00:54 a fortune just to go on some little rides. This little place is also connected to a cinema
00:58 and we did try to see if there was any movies on but there wasn't anything for children.
01:01 We're going to wait for Kung Fu Panda 4 to come out though and definitely head there.
01:04 Oh also just wanted to show you nappies here are elite. The UK definitely need to jump
01:09 on this. As you can see Lennon is obsessed with Toy Story and we actually found Toy Story
01:12 themed nappies. So he was absolutely in his element, he was so happy. And then of course
01:17 it's Friday so we headed to the night market for dinner. Tonight we had a little ice cream
01:21 treat as well. These are so good although tonight we went for banana and Nutella and
01:24 I'm not too sure I'd go for that option again. I brought my children out of mainstream education
01:29 in the UK this year so that we could travel the world full time and I wanted to share
01:32 a couple of tips and some advice if you're dreaming about doing the same thing. For a
01:36 British family currently living in Thailand I've got two children, one is five and a half
01:39 and one is two. My oldest son was in year one at school before we left. I went through
01:43 the de-registration process with the school and council. The first bit of advice would
01:47 be to not overthink this process. I may have just been really lucky with his school but
01:50 it was so simple. I sent one email to the school with the request to de-register and
01:54 I replied to one email to the council which I actually don't even think you need to do.
01:57 Since telling them that I left the country we've never had a follow up. My second tip
02:01 would be to embrace flexibility. Sometimes when you're travelling plans just don't go
02:04 to plan. And the benefit to homeschooling is that you can be flexible with your schedule.
02:08 We have a routine and a plan that works for us but as long as we're learning everything's
02:12 flexible. The third thing I'd say is that school doesn't look the same for everybody.
02:15 Especially coming from England as a nation most of us are tunnel visioned into thinking
02:19 that children must sit in a classroom to be learning. I actually received a comment today
02:22 saying that because we're travelling my children aren't going to be gaining any life skills.
02:26 I would actually argue the opposite. Things like communication skills, empathy, self awareness,
02:31 creative thinking and resilience. These are skills that children are learning just in
02:34 everyday life. Throwing my children into the real world where there's language barriers
02:38 and different cultures. Sure their life skills are going to be just fine. One of my biggest
02:41 worries before we left was the social side. My advice would be as long as you're willing
02:45 to put yourself out there. Everybody you meet who's travelling is in a similar boat. We're
02:48 all looking for friends, we're all looking to make connections and most of the time we
02:52 are each other's community. Opportunities are endless and you can stay connected.
02:55 [END]
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