Epic Education Radio: Family Travel Podcast

Visiting Mexico with kids is great. Living in San Miguel de Allende with kids seems to be even better. Bryan and Scottie Elliot have been travelers for a while, but they've now based themselves in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with their son, Elijah.

San Miguel de Allende with Kids

After stints in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, the Elliot family decided to move on to Mexico, and have discovered that living in San Miguel de Allende with kids is a very nice thing indeed. Listen in as we talk about living in San Miguel de Allende with kids, as well as travel gear, time management and work routines, as well as the merits of owning less and buying better.

IN THIS EPISODE

04:50 Intro & origins 10:08 The "Muse" and the the Four-Hour Workweek book 12:10 Time Management when parenting & building a business 16:25 Why they chose San Miguel de Allende 20:00 Living and learning Spanish in San Miguel 26:48 Gear and packing advice 36:33 Buying quality gear when you only have a few things 38:43 Don't let having the best gear stop you 42:22 Routines and keeping it simple 47:10 Scottie's recommended travel apps 49:36 Bryan's advice re: scanned documents

Travel and cultural identity are tightly intertwined. For Andrew Tolentino, he found out first hand last year. In October 2015, Andrew and I met for the first time over a crappy internet connection. I was in Atlanta visiting family, he was sitting on a beach in Boracay, having recently left his home in New York to embark on the family trip of a lifetime. Moving to the United States from the Philippines when he was four years old, Andrew was now back in the homeland of his parents for the first time in 44 years, this time with his wife and daughter.

Family Travel and Cultural Identity

Now we meet again, this time with me in Spain and he in London. Ten months and multiple countries later, Andrew and I talk about travel and cultural identity, homeschooling, "Living the dream" and the difference between traveling and vacationing.

IN THIS EPISODE

06:01 Introduction and his immigrant story 11:52 "Re-embracing" travel and cultural identity 19:41 Education, schooling and full-time travel 26:37 "Living the dream" and the difference between traveling and vacationing 30:07 Building their website and business 35:11 Lessons learned after 10 months of family travel 38:34 Advice on cultural identity and food

Visiting Mexico with kids can be loads of fun. Running a business and living in Mexico with kids is even better. At least that's what it sounds like when I talk with Crystal Blue.

Based in Tulum, Mexico, Crystal and her daughter River have traveled all over the world — and continue to travel multiple times a year with their business: Enlightened Global Adventures. Life in Mexico with Kids

Listen in as Crystal tells me about how their travels, their social life, the role of the Spanish language in their lives and how she use travel and the local school system to educate her daughter.

IN THIS EPISODE

03:44 Introductions 05:11 Their home base in Tulum, and how their company & education work together 07:40 What worldschooling means to them 12:14 Learning and using Spanish 15:27 Social life in Mexico with kids and while on the road 20:30 The origins of her business and working in Mexico with kids 29:58 What's in their bags

Location Independence meets Family Travel

Location independence is something that many parents want. For Caroline King and her family, a life of family travel and location independence happened as much out of necessity as out of desire. Living in her home country of Sweden, Caroline faced the country's "skolplikt" (compulsory education) system, which required that her kids attend Swedish schools, but the businesses that she and her husband run had them traveling around for up to four months out of the year, and they wanted their young sons with them.

Working, Worldschooling & Location Independence

Listen in as Caroline talks about how they changed their businesses, moved out of Sweden and turned to a life of family travel and location independence. Now based in Prague, Czech Republic, Caroline and I discuss running location independent businesses, using unschooling and worldschooling methods to teach their children

IN THIS EPISODE

• 04:55 Travel origins & trouble with the Swedish government
• 09:40 Location Independence & moving the business out of Sweden
• 12:23 Timeline since leaving Sweden
• 16:22 Thoughts about Worldschooling & Unschooling
• 18:37 What they carry with them
• 20:35 How they work with kids around
• 31:32 What she's learned about family travel & location independence
• 33:09 Recommended places & events for family travelers
• 33:40 Education opportunities in Prague

Moving to Mexico. Living in Panama. A few years ago, these were just ideas for Dan Sherman and his family. Then in 2014, they left the United States to begin a life of living and traveling in Latin America. The plan was to live in Panama for two years and then return to the United States, but it didn't take the Sherman family long to realize that they liked living abroad and wanted more of it. No, they're not retiring in Mexico, but rather they're part of a large and growing group of Americans in Mexico that have chosen to live there.

Moving to Mexico & Living in Panama with Kids

Listen in as Dan talked about their neighborhood, their experiences with local schools and their relationship with the Spanish language...and each other. Dan has lots of great advice on managing money from abroad, and some very important tips about setting up your financing before moving to Mexico, moving to Panama or moving anywhere outside your home country.

IN THIS EPISODE

• 05:00 Beginnings in Panama
• 06:47 Putting the kids in local schools in Panama
• 11:07 The way they do things in Panama
• 13:29 Moving to Cancun and the "Gated Community"
• 16:59 Learning the language, or not
• 19:31 Worldschooling, homeschooling and local schools
• 23:43 An example of their "Q x D" (Question's by Dad) projects
• 29:01 Funding a nomadic life
• 32:50 Advice for before you leave home
• 33:51 The importance of a physical home address (not a PO box)
• 40:43 The role of their house as a nomadic family

Many parents want to work online. Many of those same parents want to travel in Southeast Asia with kids. Sheralyn and Paul Guilleminot have found a way to do both! You might remember that Sheralyn has been a guest before: her last interview was published almost exactly a year ago. Now fast-forward 12 months to today, and team Guilleminot are still on the road, with a lot more experience and insight to share.

Speaking from their present base near Hanoi, Vietnam, Sheralyn tell me about working online in Southeast Asia with kids, and about what they've learned as a digital nomad family. Listen in as we discuss writing for a living, education, the social life of traveling families, working online and our favorite places to visit in Southeast Asia with kids.

• 5:22 Intro & Travel Origins
• 7:25 Advice on where to go in Southeast Asia
• 10:21 Penang
• 12:22 Green Space and fresh air in SEA
• 19:55 Social life for parents & kids
• 23:14 Moving to Playa del Carmen, Mexico
• 25:00 Money & working online in Southeast Asia With Kids
• 29:44 How parenting views changed after a year of travel
• 31:30 Thoughts on education and online resources

EER053: Living in Moscow, Helsinki and Tokyo with Kids

Living in Moscow with kids isn't something I'd even considered before I met Tony Fitzpatrick. A father of two from New Zealand, Tony moved to the Russian capital with two primary school-aged kids and had a blast. In this Epic Education Radio Interview, we discuss living in Moscow with kids, as well as moving to Finland, making friends in local schools in Japan, and lots of Tony's other adventures. Enjoy!

• 03:18 Intro and origins as a travel family
• 07:35 Living in Moscow and Helsinki with kids
• 14:20 Adjusting to local Finnish schools
• 16:34 Moving from NZ to Russia
• 20:15 Making friends in local Japanese schools
• 24:03 The Finnish school day 
• 26:55 Routines & Resources
• 32:14 Other recommended family travel destinations
• 32:40 Dubai desert safari "The best hundred dollars I've ever spent."
• 34:15 South Korea, Norway and England

Let's talk homeswapping. It's different than house sitting, which is another popular way for families save money on travel. Homeswapping is all about trading houses with someone for a week, a month, or even longer. The process goes by many names — home exchange, flat exchange, holiday swap and vacation exchange, to name a few — but the idea is the same: trading your home for someone else's, and then no one is paying extra accommodation fees. The result saves families thousands of dollars a year.

Daniel Prince and his family have traveled the world via homeswapping, and he explains how it works in this Epic Education Interview. Sure, his vacation home in Koh Samui, Thailand gives him an exceptional advantage in the vacation exchange and holiday swap game, but Daniel makes a great case for how nearly anyone with a house or apartment somewhere can use homeswapping to their advantage. Hear him out, especially the part where he won a bet against a reporter who doubted him during an earlier interview.

• 03:07 Intro & origins as a traveling family
• 06:50 Their homeswapping story & homeswapping explained
• 13:18 Homeswapping examples
• 17:09 Education for the kids
• 26:00 Social life on the road
• 30:23 Travel gear
• 34:09 Tip for luggage when flying low-fare airlines
• 39:04 How they use Minecraft for education & engagement

Based in Abu Dhabi, Keri Hedrick and her husband have been living in the UAE with kids for three and a half years, and traveling from there every chance they get. In this Epic Education Interview, Keri and I discuss a number of family travel related topics, including:

• Advice for long-haul flights with young kids
• Using cards & points
• Carseats in Asia
• Techniques for using Trip Advisor & Instagram to get the best travel info
• and more!

Do you think you could pull off remote working with kids? Today's guests Will and Jessica Suero are discovering just how it works for their family. It started with a summer in France. Will tried remotely for his company, and this experiment with location independence was such a success that they spent the next year strategizing how they could continue traveling and working remotely with kids indefinitely. Since then, they've lived in Costa Rica and Ecuador, and are now planning their next move to...where? Tune in and find out! In this Epic Education Interview, we also discuss:

• How that summer in France convinced them that remote working with kids and location independence was right for them
• How they spent 12 month planning their new location independent family life
• How they prepared to work remotely
• Their family's education choices: why one child is homeschooled, while the other is in a conventional school
• Their family travel gear and how they use it for location independence and remote work
• The importance of keeping their US phone numbers and how they did it cheaply