A teacher has taken her nine-year-old son out of school to give him a truly global education – by spending two years travelling around the world.
While Oliver Hammond’s school friends are stuck in the classroom following the same daily routine, he is jetsetting across the globe.
Mum Chloe, 29, is teaching him about the Incas at Machu Picchu, geography in the Amazon rainforest, and giving him PE lessons which involve learning to snowboard in Bulgaria, surfing in Costa Rica, rafting on the Amazon river and paragliding over the blue lagoon in Turkey.
Chloe Hammond, from Great Dunmow, Essex, and her husband, Jay, set off on their worldwide adventure with their nine-year-old son in July 2020, and since then they have visited 40 countries as a family.
They are currently taking a road trip across Europe after visiting a range of other breathtaking locations, including the Galapagos Islands, Guatemala and Costa Rica.
Chloe, a teacher, says the family caught the travel bug after spending four weeks in Asia.
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After that, they made it their mission to ‘world-school’ their son as they travelled, using their surroundings to guide his learning.
‘We just wanted to show the world to our son, experience new cultures, spend more valuable time together while trying new activities and creating lifelong memories,’ Chloe explained.
‘It is amazing all the things we have learned from exploring the world, and it has completely enriched Oliver’s education.
‘Often, we will research a topic and then go and experience it for ourselves.
‘For example, we did a project on ancient Greeks whilst visiting Athens. We watched an active volcano from our Airbnb in Guatemala, so we studied how volcanoes work and made our own volcano model.
‘You aren’t just reading something in a textbook, you are experiencing it, learning in an additional dimension, you are feeling the history rather than just learning about it.
‘We took the plunge to go on this trip because we didn’t want to regret not following our dreams.’
The family were renting before embarking on their trip of a lifetime, and instead of settling down and getting a mortgage, they decided to see the world.
They also sold most of their belongings to get some savings together to help fund the trip.
‘At the beginning of the trip, Jay and I continued to work remotely. I was a private tutor, and Jay continued as an electrical designer,’ Chloe said.
‘As we were in South America, it worked out well with time differences. We worked early and then had the rest of the day to enjoy.
‘This also meant we could save some money to fund the rest of our trip.
‘When we returned to Europe, we stopped working because it didn’t work well with the time, and this also means we can be more spontaneous with our travels.’
While it might seem daunting to pull a child out of school and away from all his friends, Chole says that Oliver was so excited when he discovered he would be travelling the world – and she has no regrets.
‘We haven’t been stuck in the same routine every day where we are at work, and he is at school, and we only see each other a couple of hours each evening before he goes to bed,’ said Chloe.
‘We spent a long time in South America, and he made friends with the children there, so he learned to speak some basic Spanish.
‘We also meet with other travelling families as it is important to us that Oliver gets to socialise with other children regularly.
‘We have even travelled with other families for some parts of our trip and he has made many friends around the world who he still keeps in touch with.’
Oliver has experienced lessons he will never forget, getting a hands-on experience where he can see his textbooks come alive in real-time.
Since starting their trip, they’ve seen orcas, swam with sea lions and visited the Charles Darwin centre in Galapagos.
‘This was a great world-schooling experience. Oliver learned so much in our time there. It’s our all-time favourite place,’ Chloe added.
‘We visited Santa in Lapland, spent the night in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, hot air ballooned in Turkey and visited Machu Picchu.
‘We have no regrets about having the courage to follow our dream, and we have created fantastic family memories. We hope this adventure has given Oliver a lifelong love of learning and a sense of adventure.
‘It’s been the most amazing experience, and we wouldn’t change it for the world.’
To see more about the family’s adventures, visit: @around.the.world.family
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