Our children didn't go back to school this September. Two years since our children left school, and this is the honest version: not the Instagram one. Naomi spent a decade as a primary school teacher before deciding on home education, she thought she could do better for her own children, and we talk through exactly why. Discussion on what "I'm bored" actually means, why Year Six in the UK schools turns children into mini-teenagers before they're ready, and the pointless loophole that makes deferring a year at school meaningless anyway. If you're home educating, or just curious what it actually looks like day to day, this episode is for you.

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What does it actually take to raise three children including a four-month-old full-time on the road, with no house waiting back home? This week Naomi is joined by Tara, a full-time travelling mother of three based in Hoi An, Vietnam, for a conversation that goes far beyond the highlight reel.

Tara and her partner Shane left a genuinely happy life on Australia's Sunshine Coast deep in a thriving home education community, close to family not because anything was wrong, but because they trusted there was something else calling them. She talks candidly about choosing Vietnam with almost no research at all, falling pregnant mid-trip, going home to give birth, then selling everything they owned to go all in on this alternative living path a second time.

This is an honest, slow-living conversation about the parts nobody puts in the reel: working out that each of your children needs a completely different kind of home, the freedom (and admin) of a 90-day visa rhythm, and why environment changes what feels creatively and emotionally possible for a whole family, not just the children.

In this episode:

• Why Tara and Shane left Australia's biggest homeschooling community to travel
• How family and friends actually reacted (and why conviction mattered more than a plan)
• Choosing Hoi An, Vietnam with one Facebook post and no big checklist
• Going from "let's trial it" to selling the house, the car, and the storage shed
• Why each of her three kids relates to "home" completely differently
• The 90-day Schengen-style visa rhythm, and why slower isn't always simpler
• Vietnam, Thailand and Morocco — how the same trip lands differently for everyone
• What full-time travel did for her partner's mental health and creativity
• 
  

Approximate timestamps: 0:00 – Welcome & introducing today's guest 2:15 – Meet Tara: full-time travel with three kids, based in Hoi An, Vietnam 5:00 – Leaving a thriving homeschool community in Australia to travel 9:00 – How family and friends reacted, and the power of conviction 17:00 – Choosing Hoi An almost by accident (and why it stuck) 23:00 – From "let's trial it" to selling everything and going all in 33:00 – Creating a sense of home for three kids of very different ages 41:00 – The hardest moments, including "you've ruined my life" 48:00 – Slow travel and the 90-day visa rhythm that actually works 56:00 – Vietnam vs Thailand vs Morocco: the people who stay with you 1:16:00 – The hearth: how travel reignites creativity, purpose and connection

Find Tara at World of Our Making on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@worldofourmaking and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worldofourmaking/ .

This is nomestia: Alternative Living For the Quietly Rebellious- how to live slower without escaping. New episodes every week for anyone building a life outside the default.

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

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We wanted land. We wanted to build something rooted. Then we heard the stories: a man near Dover fighting eviction from his own land, breeding pigs purely to annoy the neighbours who reported him. An intentional community now in a six-figure lawsuit after founding families walked away. A woman who gave up on her own land in Spain and went back to van life instead—happier for it. Alternative living, off-grid dreams, and the paperwork nobody posts about all in one episode.

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

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We begin the episode with our chat about a video call from an SEO “guru” wanting £7-14k to rebrand our whole podcast sends us down our own SEO rabbit hole instead: spoiler: we’ve started to do our ourselves. Back in the UK and nothing’s changed for us in UK van life: it’s rain in August, a battery too drained to run the kettle, and the usual bureaucratic nightmare just to keep the van legal.

We revisit France: a van life car-park showdown with a French couple that would’ve made great clickbait if we wanted it to be, and two nights that reminded us what real community actually is. We end with the grief and guilt underneath the question of whether we leave the UK for good, and why we don’t have a clean answer yet. Alternative living means uncertainty is part of the journey, we suppose. 

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

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We take our children to a naturist camp for the first time, and it completely rearranges how we think about bodies, shame and freedom.

In this alternative lifestyle podcast episode we discuss:

• Our own body image histories growing up (some of it heavy: fair warning)
• What it's actually like arriving at a four-star naturist resort in the south of France
• A run-in with an older resident who thought our daughters should be bottomless, and what the law and the campsite's own rules actually say
• Why naturism has a generational problem, and what that means for its future
• Naked Attraction gets dragged into question (rightly so)
• The great pubic hair debate: to pube or not to pube is the question
• Naomi's new project exploring naturism, folklore and curiosity:

https://barelycurious.substack.com/

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

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In this nomestia diaries we cross into France, say goodbye to Spain, and drive straight past an active wildfire on the motorway, a stark reminder that alternative living doesn't mean burying your head in the sand Then: a chaotic grey-water stand-off outside Barcelona, our honest verdict on Sevilla vs. Barcelona, and how we tended to an eight-year-old's full meltdown before getting her ears pierced. What embodied parenting actually looks like out in public, on a busy street, with everyone watching. This is slow living but real life friction included.

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

Join the Field: https://naomigale.myflodesk.com/thefield

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Realities of Full Time Vanlife With Three Children.

In this episode, we move through our top topics on full time vanlife. This ain't no holiday. We aren't in kansas anymore...We've chosen topics not often shared such as how do relationships survive vanlife. how apps make things a challenge not necessarily an ease when making parking choices, why we chose van life (and it's not for the lifestyle or drone shots), meeting other families, costs and what happens to that grey water?

This is an honest financial and emotional reality of full-time vanlife with three children. No romanticising, no highlight reel. Why we chose it, what it's actually cost us, and the truth nobody shares: close-proximity living doesn't fix your mental health, it forces you to face it. This isn't escaping the system, it's an alternative living experiment in real time, nervous systems and all.

We are looking for those who want to join our flock. The sheep who follow their hearts versus society. Only those in The Field will receive the in-person gift— click here.

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

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Welcome to The Field.

Twice a year as the seasons change, we'll drop a gift in the post. A small collection to mark the turn of the year.

A gift to yourself, or to someone who needs the reminder to land gently into the here and now.

If you want to be part of nomestia beyond the audio and online versions: join us here: https://naomigale.myflodesk.com/thefield

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

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In this episode we explore how we wedged our van in a Valencia car park at midnight, a police run-in mid-laundry day, and an ant invasion no one shows you on Instagram. You are welcome to join us for the unglamorous side of alternative living, vanlife included. Plus: a real reflection on pushy parenting, child-led passions, and why we're in no rush to fill our children's calendars.

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

Join the Field: https://naomigale.myflodesk.com/thefield

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Why school creates shame around reading and how we rebuilt the joy of it through home education instead. We talk through both of our own complicated reading journeys, how we handle it with three very different children on the road in a van, and end with a few book recommendations worth stealing.

If this resonated, you're part of our alternative living community: hit follow so you don't miss what's next.

Join the Field: https://naomigale.myflodesk.com/thefield

More from us: https://nomestia.substack.com/

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