Why travel with kids around the world?

In 2001, we made a life-changing decision to move from Poland to the US. The down-to-earth rationale was the work. The driving force was curiosity and hunger: for new opportunities, for the outdoors, for new perspectives. A hunger to write our own story. We were twenty-something and we embraced it. 

It is 2022 and we have lived half of our lives in the US and half in Poland. Our kids are born and raised in the US. We visit family in Poland every year, and we speak Polish at home. We find ourselves asking many of the "but have you considered..." type of questions during lunch, regardless of which side of the Atlantic we have it on. We feel at home in Poland. We feel at home in Seattle. However, we perceive these places differently than we would if we spent our entire lives there. 

A quarter of a century in the US has changed and enriched us. We often look at the world in a way that is outside of the frame of reference of many of our friends in the US and in Poland. This dual-origin experience adds depth to our perception of the world and we value it. 

We've decided that providing our kids with a similarly differentiated perspective on the world is the best gift we can give them in their educational journey. It is a gift that will help them better understand what makes the world the way it is, build appreciation for diversity, and as a result, make them better humans. We've chosen to provide this educational experience through a year of travel around the world - not instead of, but in addition to the academic education. It was not easy, but it was doable, and it was worth it. 

All of this brings us to this project: World School 2022-23.