International Pedaled Powered Family Adventure

Episode #28 we speak with Nancy from a remarkable family who views the world as their home.

This is the second in a two part series, where both Miro and I both speak with the Vogel Family, also known as Family on Bikes. This family completed a multi year bicycle trek, starting in Alaska, traveling down the pan american highway, finally to reach their destination in Argentina. But this is not their only adventure together as a family and we learn that inspiration is a family trait for the Vogels.

This is episode #28, Part 2 of a 2 part series. Be sure to listen to Part 1 here.

“My invitation to you is to begin living every moment as though you are miraculous and deserve to live an extraordinary life. Fake it if you must and keep faking it until it’s real to you. The gift you will be giving yourself is a lifelong journey of discovery, one that is infinite and infinitely rewarding. Begin the journey. Today. This moment. Now.” 
~ Robert White

In  episode #28 we speak  with Nancy Vogel of FamilyonBikes.org  about everything from trip planning to  preparations, education on the road and keeping your family  healthy on an extended journey. Nancy also shares some valuable advice for anyone who may have some fear preventing them from following their dreams.

Part 1

Episode # 27 includes an interview between Miro  and all of the boys from the Vogel clan including John Vogel, and twin sons Daryl & Davy who, as a family of four, rode their bikes from Alaska to Argentina over a 3 year time span, and broke a world record in the process.

Traveling and Learning

Nancy Vogel is 21-year  classroom teaching veteran. In our interview, Nancy shares her thoughts on roadschooling. Additionally, Nancy writes extensively on her blog about education. Here’s an excerpt on her article about education:

Education = Learning = school

ed•u•ca•tion [ej-oo-key-shuh n] –noun

the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.

learn•ing [lur-ning] –noun

knowledge acquired by systematic study in any field of scholarly application.

It’s funny how we associate these two words with school.  A brick building broken into classrooms filled with desks and chairs and blackboards.

School = education = learning Synonyms all three.

And yet – are they?  What is education?  What’s true learning?

I’ve talked quite a bit about our sons’ education in this blog – how we’ve allowed Mother Nature to provide most of the lessons; how we’ve trusted our sons to learn about the world around them. About how education is so much more than school.

Read the rest of the article here.

Family on Bikes Latest Project:

20 Miles per Cookie- 9000 Miles of Kid-Powered Adventures

The family Vogal share their inspiration in their inspiring journey in their latest book.

It was a year of adventure, a year of fun. A year of good time and bad, of highs and lows, of good weather and bad. But mostly, it was a year of magic – together as a family.

“It seems that in the darkest of times, the goodness within humanity becomes the most evident. For the Vogel family – cycling for a year around the US and Mexico – those encounters with kindness came to represent their journey almost as much as their own personal growth.” ~Michael Turtle

“This book is a pleasure to read – for although it details a journey most of us won’t ever take, the life lessons can be extrapolated to any family. From cold, rain, muck, and headwinds, to the kindness of strangers and the extraordinary beauty of nature, the Vogel family kept on. Life lessons can be read here, without biking those 9,000 miles – keep your head down, don’t complain, keep going, work together, learn together, don’t push TOO hard, and enjoy the journey.” ~Jessie Voigts

“One prominent theme in this book is the “Road Angels” the family comes across. In a time when we are all adding a second deadbolt to our door, telling our kids to trust no one and monitoring every second of their lives on the web, the Vogel family learned to have a little trust in their fellow man. ~Keryn Means

Did it inspire me to take my own year long bike riding adventure with my family?  Well….No.  I don’t like riding my bike that much!  But it did help me to understand that we continually underestimate ourselves and that whatever we can dream we can accomplish if we only believe in ourselves. ~ Amy Sztupovszky

Nancy is a confident writer that left me giggling throughout the book as she shared the ups and downs of daily life on the road. She shared a few memorable disputes with her husband (it was reassuring to know they are normal, at least in that way), and had me grinning from ear to ear when they came across Road Angels that lightened their load and made the journey more bearable and enjoyable. Americans and Mexicans alike went out of their way to bring sunshine to their days! ~ Alisa Lybbert

But I think most will agree with me about this, the most amazing thing about this story is simply that someone did it. That people leave their jobs and homes and BEDS with two kids and just get out there and live their lives to the fullest. This should not be surprising, but it’s really shocking. I feel like walking to my mailbox is a huge hassle most days. Much less camping out almost every night for a year in a tent with three dudes.Yet they did it, and they loved it.  ~ Edification

This is the story of the Vogel Family’s first major family adventure – one year cycling 9300 miles through the USA and Mexico. Their sons were eight years old when they pulled out of our driveway in Boise, Idaho.

Find more information here.

Supporting Raising Miro

If you are able to support us financially we would be so grateful.  We continue to raise money to keep us safe, and keep us out on the road. I continue to work a little remotely and we have started to earn a little income from our web site, but if you can support us with a donation, no matter the size, we’d be so grateful. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to continue our travels. We live frugally, stay with families & couch surf and  volunteer our time and energies. We  know this is  all part of our experience in the world and are grateful for each and every moment.

We want you to know, your donations go such a long way helping keeping us in the present, safe and knowing we have exactly what we need. Thank you to all who have supported us through your donations in the past and those who will in the future and believing in our travels.

If you are interested in learning more about ways to support Raising Miro, including donating money or sponsoring our travels please click on this link. If you are interested in finding out about advertising opportunities for our podcasts or website, please on the site, please send a note here or use the donation form in the sidebar.

Podcast #28 Sponsor

The Raising Miro Podcast has  new sponsor!

Episode #25 is brought to you by the fabulous folks over at Audible

Sign for a Free 2 week trial membership AND Get a FREE audiobook download of your choice!! Go to  audibletrial.com/RaisingMiro and choose from over 85,000 titles for your iPod or mp3 player

Sign up TODAY! It’s a wonderful deal.

Thank you!

We want to take a moment to thank a few peoplewho have contributed to our travels. Your donations have helped cover our travel expenses and for that, we are so grateful! The people who have contributed to Raising Miro are: Ashley Hansen, Grandpa, Scott Van Pelt, Sashya Amee, Ivan Amador,Heather on Her Travels, Bradford Akerman, Tuan Vutran, Terrance O’Dowd, Eric Hammond, Chip Jacobs, Billy Horn and Sonia Kim. Thank you so much! Your support is heart-felt and much appreciated!

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Subscribe!

Subscribe via iTunes:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes.

Subscribe via RSS feed:

[RSS] Add the Raising Miro Blog feed- Anything a new post is added or a new podcast, have it delivered automatically to your RSS aggregator. [RSS-Podcast] Interested in subscribing to the podcast feed only? That’s what you’ll do if you click on that link.

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Got Questions?

(Like how did Miro get stuck in his chair…) If you have comments or have a question you’d like to have answered in an upcoming podcast, please use send us an email using this contact form. We promise, we answer all of the questions we relieve and we love hearing from you.

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Special Thanks

To those of you who have supported us so far on this journey, the donations we’ve received and the wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you all for your comments and feedback, and please keep them coming. Thank you Hanna for giving us a wonderful professional boost with the intro & outro, engineered by Hanna Jakobson, music “Multilayered Timbres” by Dr. Pimp courtesy of CC (creative commons) license.

International Pedaled Powered Family Adventure

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
~ Helen Keller

Episode #27 we speak with a remarkable family who views the world as their home. But what makes this family so unique, is they have spent the last 3 years traveling together on bikes.

This is the first in a two part series, where both Miro and I speak with the Vogel Family, also known as Family on Bikes. This family just completed a multi year bicycle trek, starting in Alaska, traveling down the pan american highway, finally to reach their destination in Argentina.

The trip covered 17,300 miles through the Western portion of Canada, the west coast of the United States, then the entire Central America continent, finally biking the length of South America from Colombia to the southernmost tip in Argentina.

Quite remarkable, especially considering this family of 4 has dedicated the last 3 years of their lives to do so, and upon completion, they found their sons Davy and Daryl, candidates for a Guinness World Record.

This is not the first time this family has traded a conventional life for a life of travel. Just a year prior to their Pan American Highway trip, this extraordinary family of 4 took one year to bicycle across the United States & Mexico cycling 9300 miles. During their first family trip, the Vogel clan visited nineteen US states and five Mexican states and spent twelve months on the road.

Today the Vogel Boys, Davy and Daryl are 13 years old and have traveled more than most adults travel in their entire lifetime. (Miro has yet to meet other traveling kids being raised with worldly experiences, so when this family agreed to grant us an interview we were more than thrilled.)

“Follow your bliss, and doors will open for you that you never knew existed. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” ~ Joseph Campbell

Daryl and Davy are very well traveled 13 year old twin brothers. We had a hard time imaging what was on the mind of this family after almost 3 years on the road, and the end almost in sight. This is an excerpt written by Davy about his last day of the journey. In Davy Vogel’s own words:

Davy writes about his last day on the road on the FamilyonBikes.org blog. Here’s an excerpt  :

After a journey of nearly three years from the northern tip of Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina we were ready for our very last day on the road. It started out like any other day. We had camped in a forest of partially rotten trees behind an abandoned logging camp. The trees were covered with craggy strands of greenish moss reminding me of an old man’s whiskers.

We rode for a while until the sun came out. It was amazingly beautiful. We were going up a hill with a good view of a lake and the sun sparked off of the lake and illuminated all the trees.

We entered a valley with green trees and snow-capped jagged mountains surrounding us. Clouds hung low in the sky, obscuring the tops of the peaks.

We kept going and came around a corner and saw a huge sign saying USHUAIA. I pedaled past it first and waited for Mom and Dad. When they came I shouted, “I made it through first! Ha, ha!”  I had been on the road for a long time and the whole time I said, “We are going to Ushuaia.” It felt fantastic to finally be there.

Be sure to read the whole entry here.

Family on Bikes – FamilyonBikes.org

“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter the outcome, he will know he has been alive.”
~Walt Disney

Meet the Family on Bikes – Family Vogel

John

John grew up in Rhode Island and never traveled beyond New England until he went to college in Colorado. At some point in his college years he discovered bike touring and spent the next ten or fifteen years biking wherever he went. He crossed the USA quite a few times before getting more adventurous and venturing a bit farther from home.

One summer he flew to Alaska and cycled back to New Mexico (where he was living at the time). Another summer he cycled Iceland and Norway. Then came Australia. And then India.

All that time he was working as a teacher and traveling in the summers.

Nancy

Nancy grew up in Boise, Idaho and had the opportunity to travel each summer to a different place. Although they only traveled for a few weeks, every summer her parents loaded all five kids into the station wagon and took off for parts unknown.

When Nancy was 16, her parents took her to Mexico – and her eyes were opened to the fact that there was a big, wide world out there. As soon as she arrived home, she saw a commercial for the Peace Corps and made the decision to join it as soon as she could.

True to the decision Nancy made when she was sixteen years old, she joined the Peace Corps upon graduation from university. For the next 2.5 years she helped develop a Special Ed program in Honduras and formed a team for the Special Olympics.

Peace Corps gives volunteers a chunk of money when they leave in order to help them get established in the USA. I took the money and spent seven months traveling in South America instead.

Upon her return to the USA, she moved to the Navajo Indian Reservation where she taught for the next three years. During her first summer back in the USA she took off on my bike and cycled from Norfolk, Virginia to New Orleans. The next summer she visited her brother who was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi.

Their lives together

That brings us to spring of 1990 when a series of unusual events brought John and Nancy together to cycle in Pakistan.
They spent the school year 1990/91 cycling Pakistan, China, India, Nepal, & Bangladesh. The first weekend of the following school year they got married.

They lasted a grand total of two years in Albuquerque before going nuts. They got jobs at an American school in Alexandria, Egypt and took off to explore a new part of the world.

From 1993 – 1995 they lived in Alexandria and traveled extensively in the area. They went to Israel and Jordan, Greece and Turkey. They spent a summer cycling the Sinai Peninsula and Israel.

After two years in Egypt, they moved to Ethiopia to teach in another international school. From there, they explored Yemen and Mali on bikes and visited many other countries by bus. Their sons were born our third year in Ethiopia, and they continued to travel with kids in tow.

The boys celebrated their first birthday in Egypt, their second in Vietnam. They turned three in Thailand and four in Ethiopia.

After living in Ethiopia for seven years, John and Nancy got teaching jobs in an American school in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. They explored Taiwan and Bali and Myanmar during the two years we lived there.

After a brief stint in Malaysia, they returned to the USA shortly after the boys turned seven. They lasted a grand total of fifteen months before we hopped on our bikes and headed out to see our their home turf.

They spent the 2006-07 school year (the boys’ third grade year) cycling 9300 miles through the USA and Mexico. John and the boys were on a bicycle built for three and Nancy rode a single bike alongside them. They visited nineteen US states and five Mexican states in twelve months on the road.

They returned to Boise for fourth grade and spent that year planning and preparing to hit the road again – this time to cycle from Alaska to Argentina.

In June 2008, they headed out – this time John and Daryl rode a tandem bike while Davy and Nancy were on singles. After cycling 17,300 miles in nearly three years, they reached the southernmost tip of South America on March 21, 2011.

 

To read more about this extraordinary family, please be sure to visit their web site here.

Click Here to follow FamilyonBikes on Twitter

Subscribe to the RSS feed for their blog

Join Family on Bikes on Facebook

We have been fortunate to meet two other amazing travelers on our trip, in person. In Guatemala, we met Hanna, is a sweedish journist, traveling the same route,  from Alaska to Argentina.  Also, we met Jamie, is global bicyclist, traveling around the globe for 8 years on his bike. Miro and I interview  them both in: 

Podcast Episode #4 – Bicycling Across the Globe- 2 Amazing Stories

Also in Episode #27 Miro shares his latest passion: growing stuff

We’ve been in Puru for almost 2 months now. We are sharing a house with some very dear friends that we met on the road in Nicaragua almost 2 years ago. They are another mother and son team , Bubba a former computer programmer turned naturalist, and Aztec dancer, & Dixie, a self proclaimed conscious baby boomer, teacher, holder of two college degrees and perpetual traveler. We actually interviewed them for a past podcast, over a year ago, episode number 12, entitled Transformational Experiences Leading Into 2012 & Beyond .

If you haven’t listened to that episode, we would love for you to hear it!

Miro’s Garden! Lettuce entertain you

I am always grateful when others wish to mentor Miro and find Miro’s learning experience to flow easier when he’s truly engaged. We realize part of the unschooling process is that everything can be a learning experience. Through Bubba’s passion for plants and botany, Miro has begun to learn about planting food, farming, and has even learned how to harvest seeds from our farmer’s market purchased produce. On his own, Miro has been interested in seeking the health and nutrition benefits associated with the live foods he’s planted. To date, he’s caring for lettuce, chili peppers and peas. In Miro’s own words:

“I never knew how amazing it was to sprout life. Watching seeds sprout and planting them into the dirt is actually a lot of fun. I have been recording their process in my notebook for the last few weeks. I have also been amazed by the nutritional facts I’ve found out, on each of the foods, by doing a little research. Did you know, you can have infinite lettuce? All you have to do is plant it, water it, give it sun light and when the lettuce is ready to eat, cut it above the bulb, leaving the the bottom part attached to the roots. Miraculously the lettuce leaves will regrow. That means infinite salads!”

We are so happy to share that with you. Miro has been keeping a journal of the progress of the lettuce plants. If you’d like to read his post on the lettuce, here’s the link.

Supporting Raising Miro

If you are able to support us financially we would be so grateful.  We continue to raise money to keep us safe, and keep us out on the road. I continue to work a little remotely and we have started to earn a little income from our web site, but if you can support us with a donation, no matter the size, we’d be so grateful. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to continue our travels. We live frugally, stay with families & couch surf and  volunteer our time and energies. We  know this is  all part of our experience in the world and are grateful for each and every moment.

We want you to know, your donations go such a long way helping keeping us in the present, safe and knowing we have exactly what we need. Thank you to all who have supported us through your donations in the past and those who will in the future and believing in our travels.

If you are interested in learning more about ways to support Raising Miro, including donating money or sponsoring our travels please click on this link. If you are interested in finding out about advertising opportunities for our podcasts or website, please on the site, please send a note here or use the donation form in the sidebar.

Podcast #27 Sponsor

The Raising Miro Podcast has  new sponsor!

Episode #25 is brought to you by the fabulous folks over at Audible

Sign for a Free 2 week trial membership AND Get a FREE audiobook download of your choice!! Go to  audibletrial.com/RaisingMiro and choose from over 85,000 titles for your iPod or mp3 player

Sign up TODAY! It’s a wonderful deal.

Thank you!

We want to take a moment to thank a few peoplewho have contributed to our travels. Your donations have helped cover our travel expenses and for that, we are so grateful! The people who have contributed to Raising Miro are: Ashley Hansen, Grandpa, Scott Van Pelt, Sashya Amee, Ivan Amador,Heather on Her Travels, Bradford Akerman, Tuan Vutran, Terrance O’Dowd, Eric Hammond, Chip Jacobs, Billy Horn and Sonia Kim. Thank you so much! Your support is heart-felt and much appreciated!

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Subscribe!

Subscribe via iTunes:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes.

Subscribe via RSS feed:

[RSS] Add the Raising Miro Blog feed- Anything a new post is added or a new podcast, have it delivered automatically to your RSS aggregator. [RSS-Podcast] Interested in subscribing to the podcast feed only? That’s what you’ll do if you click on that link.

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Got Questions?

(Like how did Miro get stuck in his chair…) If you have comments or have a question you’d like to have answered in an upcoming podcast, please use send us an email using this contact form. We promise, we answer all of the questions we relieve and we love hearing from you.

---

Special Thanks

To those of you who have supported us so far on this journey, the donations we’ve received and the wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you all for your comments and feedback, and please keep them coming. Thank you Hanna for giving us a wonderful professional boost with the intro & outro, engineered by Hanna Jakobson, music “Multilayered Timbres” by Dr. Pimp courtesy of CC (creative commons) license.

Service brings joy:

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
~Albert Schweitzer

Episode #26 we speak with Alisha Robertson from SmallWorldPursuits.com

Today, we talk to someone who is changing the world, impacting her reality and serving humanity by connecting with her passion. This episode is about being in service and one woman’s chose to dedicate a  year of her life to serve causes that are meaningful to her,  and doing so on a global scale. Margaret Mead was correct in saying:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Episode #26 is  about being in service

Alisha with children in Sudan

“Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t even have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Alisha with two precious souls

Alisha Roberson is an amazing woman & friend to both Miro an myself. She finds herself on a wonderful one one year volunteer adventure around the globe. When we met up with Alisha, both Miro, myself and  Alisha  were volunteering at a children’s organization in Ecuador. Actually, now Alisha finds herself in Sudan, on the African portion of her one year tour. (Please read more about Alisha’s project here.)

This episode includes an insightful interview where we talk about volunteering, being of service and connecting with that inner inspiration that we’ve learned to follow as it guides our lives. Alisha also shares tips on how to plan a one year volunteer trip, criteria for choosing organizations to volunteer with, and strategies to save money in preparation.

Perfection is not so important

In the interview Alisha reveals an epiphany she had, the day she realized she had to stop waiting for perfection and start living her dream. (Something I think a lot of us can relate to.)

Alisha writes about this experience here on her blog :

One of my biggest struggles was with perfection. That constant reminder to myself that there doesn’t have to be perfection before action.

A perfect plan. A perfect idea. A perfect way.

Because, if we’re always waiting for perfection, our ideas will always stay ideas. There may never be action, because there may never be perfection. As I heard these words come out of my mouth, I realized that I still don’t even do some simple things, because I’m afraid that it won’t be perfect. So, this has been a simple moment of awareness for me. Being aware that my aim for perfection is actually holding me back. I am no longer going to stop acting on my ideas because they are not perfect.

So, the next time someone asks me what is my biggest piece of advice when it comes to pursuing dreams, travel plans, or making decisions on the next steps. I will simply say:

Don’t wait for perfection to take action. Go be amazing, and learn along the way.

We were so moved by her words, we are grateful for this reminder in our lives as well.

A Children’s Organization in Ecuador

This wonderful video, produced by Alisha from SmallWorldPursuits.com, shows some of the activities we led with the beautiful children in Ecuador. Working with the children was a true gift and kept us inspired.  See if you can spot Miro and myself working along side Alisha in some of the images.

Alisha Robertson – SmallWorldPursuits.com

“I do it for the joy it brings, cause I’m a joyful girl. ‘Cause the world owes us nothing, we owe each other the world.”
~Ani  Difranco

Alisha and Daana in Ecuador

Small World Pursuits is a blog about my experiences on my volunteer journey around the world and a resource guide to help you on your own volunteer pursuits in this wonderful world.

The Mission: To live and work throughout the world while volunteering with social cultural projects and philanthropic organizations that focus on education and have goals of teaching economic self-sufficiency.

The Vision: To provide a volunteer resource guide that also highlights volunteer opportunities around the world. To help others believe in the transformative healing power that can be created through education and interaction. The vision of Small World Pursuits is based on the understanding of what a Senegalese poet once wrote:

“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught. We must learn about other cultures in order to understand, in order to love, and in order to preserve our common world heritage.”

The Odyssey: An around the world volunteer voyage. To learn other ways of being and other ways of thinking. The quest to educate myself through social and spiritual enlightenment. To be in the world of human culture where I may seek out the commonalities of human kind.

To connect with Alisha at SmallWorldPursuits, please go to her web site here.

Click Here to follow Alisha on Twitter

Subscribe to her blog so when she updates the site,  you will receive an email.

Join the Small World Group on Facebook

A brief History of Ecuador

For more on the history of Ecuador, visit this wikipedia page.

The native people of Ecuador grew crops of maize, beans, potatoes and squash. They also raised dogs and guinea pigs for food. Many of them were skilled potters and metalworkers in gold, silver and copper.

Then, in the late 15th century they were conquered by the Incas. Then, just over a hundred years later, the Spaniards encountered the coast of Ecuador for the first time. Soon thereafter,  Ecuador became the Spaniard’s focus, eventually resulting in conquest  in 1534 after having already conquered the Incas in what is now Peru.  In 1534 the Spaniards founded the city of Quito on the remains of a captured Inca city. The next year, in 1535, Guayaquil was founded.

In the years to come, diseases brought by the Spaniards, especially smallpox, killed many more of the native people than the Spanish soldiers did. With no resistance to European diseases the original peoples of Ecuador were decimated.

True to the nature of Spanish conquest,  the land  and people of Ecuador were treated as property and divided among the Spaniards. The settlers founded large estates and enslaved the native people  to work the land. The Spanish also brought slaves from Africa to Ecuador to work on sugar plantations. Today many Ecuadorians are of mixed race, part Spanish, part Native South American and part African.

In the 18th & 19th centuries were filled with changes for the people of Ecuador, including  an economic recession, disillusionment and uprise from the Spanish rule, and part of the Bolivarian movement in 1820. In 1851, slavery was abolished in Ecuador and great tensions between different regions of  Ecuador resulted in the 1859 Ecuador split,  known as the ‘Terrible Year’.

In the late 19th and early 20th century Ecuador’s economy turned around as a result of  booming cocoa exports and the production of Panama hats.

20th Century Ecuador  brought a volatile political situation, including  military cous, a deep economic depression, earthquakes, political instability, and a quick succession of presidents.

To read more about experiences in Ecuador, please visit this page.

 

Supporting Our Journey

As you know,  Miro and I are on an 8 year, around the world journey, volunteering , giving back, and living as a global citizen. We have hit a new milestone though, Miro and I have begun our 3rd year of travel together and have recently entered our 11th country. Our adventures and experiences ARE his classroom. We continue to participate in the world as a visiting residents, and it’s our pleasure to give back however we can. Together, my son and I have learned so much about humanity, culture, language and history.

If you are able to support us financially we would be so grateful.  We continue to raise money to keep us safe, and keep us out on the road. I continue to work a little remotely and we have started to earn a little income from our web site, but if you can support us with a donation, no matter the size, we’d be so grateful. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to continue our travels. We live frugally, stay with families & couch surf and  volunteer our time and energies. We  know this is  all part of our experience in the world and are grateful for each and every moment.

We want you to know, your donations go such a long way helping keeping us in the present, safe and knowing we have exactly what we need. Thank you to all who have supported us through your donations in the past and those who will in the future and believing in our travels.

Podcast #26 Sponsor

The Raising Miro Podcast has  new sponsor!

Episode #25 is brought to you by the fabulous folks over at Audible

Sign for a Free 2 week trial membership AND Get a FREE audiobook download of your choice!! Go to  audibletrial.com/RaisingMiro and choose from over 85,000 titles for your iPod or mp3 player

Sign up TODAY! It’s a wonderful deal.

Thank you!

We want to take a moment to thank a few people who have contributed to our travels. Your donations have helped cover our travel expenses and for that, we are so grateful! The people who have contributed to Raising Miro are: Ashley Hansen, Grandpa, Scott Van Pelt, Sashya Amee, Ivan Amador,Heather on Her Travels, Bradford Akerman, Tuan Vutran, Terrance O’Dowd, Eric Hammond, Chip Jacobs, Billy Horn and Sonia Kim. Thank you so much! Your support is heart-felt and much appreciated!

---

Support Raising Miro!

If you are interested in learning more about ways to support Raising Miro, including donating money or sponsoring our travels please click on this link. If you are interested in finding out about advertising opportunities for our podcasts or website, please on the site, please send a note here or use the donation form in the sidebar.

Subscribe!

Subscribe via iTunes:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes.

Subscribe via RSS feed:

[RSS] Add the Raising Miro Blog feed- Anything a new post is added or a new podcast, have it delivered automatically to your RSS aggregator. [RSS-Podcast] Interested in subscribing to the podcast feed only? That’s what you’ll do if you click on that link.

---

Got Questions?

(Like how did Miro get stuck in his chair…) If you have comments or have a question you’d like to have answered in an upcoming podcast, please use send us an email using this contact form. We promise, we answer all of the questions we relieve and we love hearing from you.

---

Special Thanks

To those of you who have supported us so far on this journey, the donations we’ve received and the wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you all for your comments and feedback, and please keep them coming. Thank you Hanna for giving us a wonderful professional boost with the intro & outro, engineered by Hanna Jakobson, music “Multilayered Timbres” by Dr. Pimp courtesy of CC (creative commons) license.

Prayers & Meditation

Episode #25 we speak with Christopher Howe of The iAmWalking.org Project.

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.”
~Ayn Rand

Episode #25 is really about inspiration

Sometimes that inspiration comes as an impulse.  Sometimes it comes as a feeling. Sometimes it’s felt as a deep desire. Sometimes it’s a message spoken through our inner voice. And sometimes we experience inspiration though a powerful vision or dream, so powerful that not following it feels so contrary to our very existence.

For each person, it is different. The challenge,  is to overcome our inner fears, often times heard through their ‘voice of reason’, arguing  against your inner most inspiration.  Which do you listen to?  Many never listen to their inspiration because of fear. Many never live their dreams. Many opt for a life driven by ideas that are not really their own, rather the ideals of convention, culture or society.  Many people live out their entire lives without living their dreams.

Not us.

Nor, not the experience of Christopher Howe, a wonderfully inspired man featured in this podcast.

Chris is a friend we’ve been blessed to meet on our travels who had the courage to follow his inspiration. Even though his path is unique to his vision, we’re certain many of our listeners can identify with being inspired, overcoming their fears and making a commitment. We are hoping you find inspiration on Chris’s path and find your inner strength

Living a life without limits is the highest state of existence.
~ Lao Tzu

Living from Inspiration

Inspiration is something we talk about a lot. We have also become more comfortable living from inspiration which translates for us, living in the moment, being present with whatever life offers us and moving through the world with great ease. We hope this Raising Miro episode inspires you to trust your inspiration and even take your own  leap of faith.

Christoper Howe iAmWalking.org

Christopher Howe is a modern day pilgrim, who has embarked on an intercontinental walk from Los Angeles to Brazil, carrying prayers collected along the way, praying and meditating. Two and half years later, he has just entered the most dangerous part of his journey, his cross through the Amazon jungle, from Peru to Brazil.

“Education must remove hatred between the pilgrims on the various roads to God. There is only one God, one Goal, one Law, one Truth, one Religion and one Reason.”
~Sri Sathya Sai Baba

In the interview you will hear Christoper asking himself, “What if? What if you just took this vision on as a possibility?”

He did.

As Chris explains, “The moment I said yes to it, it was like the whole world changed…”
In saying yes to his vision, Christopher began his spiritual pilgrimage in trust.

Walking only with a small backpack, this project is a demonstration, a documentary, an inquiry, in what it means to walk into the unknown with faith, taking small steps, crossing the borders of our thinking to access new realms of possibility through our declarative word.

From his web site:

The iAMwalking Project was created and inspired by two visions Christopher Howe received in 2008, walking from LA to Brazil, into the heart of the Amazon, inviting, collecting and exchanging prayers from people he meets along the way. He carries, meditates and prays with the prayers as if they were his own, and for the person, as if it was himself.

The prayers are documented and posted onto his website where others can also comment, support and pray for them.

The iAMwalking Project, at its heart, is a clearing and a walk in faith.The invitation to write a prayer, is an opportunity to anonymously speak to God, directly and honestly, to take stock within, and to clear our word, to repair the places where we have broken our word, our promises, our contracts, in relation to God, ourselves, our families, our communities, whatever the case may be.

This process of clearing the past, healing it with another, connecting to and giving it to God, allows us to arrive in the present, with a fresh perspective on what is possible here and now.

In saying yes to his vision, Christopher began his spiritualpilgrimage in trust, with God, who provides all things, knowing all will unfold perfectly.

To connect with Christopher Howe’s iAmWalking Project, please go to his web site here.

Also, become a facebook fan here.

If you can support Chris, please donate here.

If you are interested in adding your own prayer, please go his web site or facebook page for more information.

Let’s keep Christopher in all of our prayers as he walks through the jungles of the Amazon.

Supporting Our Journey

As you know,  Miro and I are on an 8 year, around the world journey, volunteering , giving back, and living as a global citizen. We have hit a new milestone though, Miro and I have begun our 3rd year of travel together and have recently entered our 11th country. Our adventures and experiences ARE his classroom. We continue to participate in the world as a visiting residents, and it’s our pleasure to give back however we can. Together, my son and I have learned so much about humanity, culture, language and history.

If you are able to support us financially we would be so grateful.  We continue to raise money to keep us safe, and keep us out on the road. I continue to work a little remotely and we have started to earn a little income from our web site, but if you can support us with a donation, no matter the size, we’d be so grateful. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to continue our travels. We live frugally, stay with families & couch surf and  volunteer our time and energies. We  know this is  all part of our experience in the world and are grateful for each and every moment.
We want you to know, your donations go such a long way helping keeping us in the present, safe and knowing we have exactly what we need. Thank you to all who have supported us through your donations in the past and those who will in the future and believing in our travels.

Podcast #25 Sponsor

The Raising Miro Podcast has  new sponsor!

Episode #25 is brought to you by the fabulous folks over at Audible

Sign for a Free 2 week trial membership AND Get a FREE audiobook download of your choice!! Go to  audibletrial.com/RaisingMiro and choose from over 85,000 titles for your iPod or mp3 player

Sign up TODAY! It’s a wonderful deal.

---

 

Seeking Intentional Community

Miro and Lainie are in South America. They have been reaching out to all of our contacts and asking for references for conscious communities, eco- villages, sustainable farms and volunteer opportunities. Lainie loves working with children, Miro loves working with animals and neither of them have ever worked on a farm, but they’re open to whatever opportunities come their way. Their desire for the first few months of the new year is to participate , volunteer their time and energies. Lainie would really like to be part of an intentional community, one that practices mediation, lives consciously and gives back to the surrounding community, helping to make locals lives a little easier. They are putting it out into the universe and making it known. If you have any suggestions or contacts for us in South America, please don’t hesitate to send off an introduction. They plan on be posting all the organizations they are considering after the beginning of the year so you can participate with their decision making process.

---

Thank you!

We want to take a moment to thank a few people who have contributed to our travels. Your donations have helped cover our travel expenses and for that, we are so grateful! The people who have contributed to Raising Miro are: Ashley Hansen, Grandpa, Scott Van Pelt, Sashya Amee, Ivan Amador,Heather on Her Travels, Bradford Akerman, Tuan Vutran, Terrance O’Dowd, Eric Hammond, Chip Jacobs, Billy Horn and Sonia Kim. Thank you so much! Your support is heart-felt and much appreciated!

---

Support Raising Miro!

If you are interested in learning more about ways to support Raising Miro, including donating money or sponsoring our travels please click on this link. If you are interested in finding out about advertising opportunities for our podcasts or website, please on the site, please send a note here or use the donation form in the sidebar.

Subscribe!

Subscribe via iTunes:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes.

Subscribe via RSS feed:

[RSS] Add the Raising Miro Blog feed- Anything a new post is added or a new podcast, have it delivered automatically to your RSS aggregator. [RSS-Podcast] Interested in subscribing to the podcast feed only? That’s what you’ll do if you click on that link.

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Got Questions?

(Like how did Miro get stuck in his chair…) If you have comments or have a question you’d like to have answered in an upcoming podcast, please use send us an email using this contact form. We promise, we answer all of the questions we relieve and we love hearing from you.

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Special Thanks

To those of you who have supported us so far on this journey, the donations we’ve received and the wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you all for your comments and feedback, and please keep them coming. Thank you Hanna for giving us a wonderful professional boost with the intro & outro, engineered by Hanna Jakobson, music “Multilayered Timbres” by Dr. Pimp courtesy of CC (creative commons) license.

Interview with Eli Gerzon, an unschooled adult who decided to direct his own education at the age of 15

Episode #24 is  Part 3 of the series on the subject of ’unschooling’. Lainie & Miro explore the concept of child-led education.  Also in this episode, Lainie and Miro talk about the beautiful Colonial town of Salento and share some discoveries about pirates and zombies. It’s a great episode!

“The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” ~ Bertrand Russell

Eli at the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel as the sun sets.

Episode #24 the last in a 3 part series in exploring the ideas surrounding ‘unschooling’. Because we continue to receive many emails from our audience asking us questions about my education, we decided to dedicate the month of April to exploring the idea of unschooling.

A World of Learning – The Series

A World of Learning, Part 1

The first in this series is Episode #22. This episode contains a wonderful conversation with Peter Kowalke, a 32-year-old homeschooler, journalist, film director and editor of Unschooler.com.

Eli with a new friends on top of Herodium, a fortress on a mountain built by Herod in 40 BCE, in the West Bank, Palestine near Bethlehem.

A World of Learning, Part 2

In Episode #23, I had a delightful conversation with Amy, a mother of two boys from Canada, who together with her husband, are preparing for their world travel through South East Asia while they unschool their two sons. She provide some wonderful tips on how how familiy is preparing for their up and coming travels.

A World of Learning, Part 3

And in third in this 3 part series is this episode,  Episode #24, where I speak with Eli Gerzon, an unschooled adult who decided to direct his own education at the age of 15. Eli, an advocate for homeshooling, has replaced the traditional classroom with the world as experienced through his travels and has coined the phrase “worldschooling”. Inspired by how much he has learned and grown as a result of his travels, Eli created Worldschool Travel Tours in 2008, where he has led small groups of teens on trips through Latin America and Asia.

“Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society…But for me, education means making creators…You have to make inventors, innovators, not conformists.” ~ Jean Piaget

Eli Gerzon writes and speak about homeschooling, unschooling and worldschooling. From an article on his site, Eli address the reasons he left school and embarked on his unschooling journey:

Excerpted from this artilce: To Swing in a Tree and From Bullets be Free: Why I Left School

On an ancient Roman aqueduct on the Mediterranean Sea in Caesarea, Israel.

“A while back, after I had been unschooling for a year or so, I decided to write out some uncommon answers to very common homeschooling questions.

The best one was, “Why did you decide to leave school?”

My reply: “If you saw a monkey swinging in a tree, would you ask it why it left the zoo?”

The essence of this tongue in cheek response is the start, but not the end, of how I would honestly answer the question now. The alternate way I’ve come to look at it evolved from a heated discussion with some homeschooling parents, friends of mine, after attending a John Taylor Gatto speech.

I was trying to make a point when I asked, “Yes, but what is the main reason you don’t send your children to school?”

I expected them to simply answer “freedom” and thus help prove some point I was trying to make, but I was surprised when Glenn answered in a thoughtful voice almost to himself, “Why do I avoid sending my children into a battlefield where bullets are flying?”

To read the entire article, please go to his site here.

Worldschooling

“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.”
~Eartha Kitt

The following is excerpted from this article called ‘Worldschooling‘ by Eli Gerzon:

What’re the differences between and the definitions of homeschooling, unschooling, and worldschooling?

At the foot of Herodium, near Bethlehem in the West Bank, Palestine.

Homeschooling— This is the official and most common term for not going to school full-time; being otherwise educated. The word clearly implies creating a school structure in the home, as some do, though many or even most homeschoolers utilize many educational opportunities outside of the home. Even when this is the case many people will still refer to themselves as homeschoolers because it is the most recognizable term or they think of their home as the base of their schooling.

Unschooling — This term was coined by John Holt to emphasize his educational philosophy as something fundamentally different than school and education as most people think of it. It’s essentially freedom or the confidence in free people’s ability to become educated by utililizing the resources and guidance around them and inside of them. It is often described as “child driven learning”, free of coercion and based on following one’s own interests, not necessarily using any of the usual school resources. Still, one can go to classes and use textbooks while still calling oneself an unschooler as many unschoolers do.

(John Holt was a school teacher himself. He started to become a critic of the way schools were run and wrote about How Children Fail to learn because of school and looking at How Children Learn realized it’s really despite of school. Eventually he started to tell parents, “You can Teach Your Own children and let them enjoy Growing Without Schooling because, in truth, children are actually Learning All the Time.” In fact as a philosophy it’s Never Too Late to start unschooling and follow ones bliss to learn whatever one wants. At the same time, many unschoolers and unschooling advocates, including Pat Farenga, a protege of John Holt and current president of Holt Associates, has expressed a desire for a more positive term that isn’t defined by what it isn’t.)

Covered in mud from the Dead Sea in Israel

Worldschooling — This is a new term coined by Eli Gerzon that is essentially a more descriptive and positive version of unschooling that can apply to anyone even those beyond school age. Gerzon defines it by saying, “It’s when the whole world is your school, instead school being your whole world.” Eli Gerzon has “unschooled through college” mainly by learning from his international travels but the term does not require you to travel the world, just as unschooling doesn’t forbid making use of school resources. Instead, it’s when one actively experiences and learns from the world around one: the home, family, friends, strangers of all backgrounds, libraries, parks, sports, forests, schools, towns, and of course the world and the world wide web. It also emphasizes that there is always more to learn from this wonderful, complex world regardless of whether one has a high school degree, is a doctor, or is solely self-educated.

Salento, Colombia

Miro in Corcora Valley

After we left Manizales, we headed to the Colonial town of Salento, just a 3 hour bus ride into the next district. In the colonial era, the main route from Popayán to Bogotá travelled over the Quindío Pass, passing through the current-day site of Salento.

This was an important route, and in 1830, Simón Bolívar  ordered that it be upgraded. However, work did not start until  14 years later  after the Guerra de los Supremos. Interestingly, political prisoners from that war were sent from Panamá, Antioquia and Cauca to upgrade and maintain the road. After completing their sentences, the prisoners were freed and given a block of land in the region.

The site of the penal colony was known as Barcinales, located where Salento is today. Families of the prisoners arrived and built their houses and developed farms upstream along the Quindío River in the Corcora Valley, where Miro and I hiked to see the giant wax palms. If you haven’t had the chance to see our post on our hike through the Corcora Valley, Miro and I recorded the 6 ½ hour hike with 15 short video segments taking you along with us. Please be sure to check out the page here.

Pirates, Monsters and Zombies, Oh My

Lainie at Zombie Walk in Panama City

As we shared with you in Episode #23, Miro has a keen interest in Cryptozoology and has been reading as much as he can get his hands on. He does have other interests though, and one of them is Zombies. Miro just recently finished reading a book called The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. He says it’s a great book, covering everything A-Z about Zombies like how to identify zombie characteristics, strategies to stay safe in the case of an outbreak and even recorded occurrences of Zombie attacks. One particular reference caught my attention and wanted to share it with you here.

In podcasts episodes 14 & 17, we share the history surrounding the cities Portebello, Panama and Cartegena, Colombia as both have a rich history of pirates. In fact both cities share history of Sir Francis Drake, the pirate turned nobleman. Surprisingly, The Zombie Survival Guide also mentions him:

1579 A.D. The Central Pacific

“During his circumnavigation of the globe, Francis Drake, the pirate who later became a national hero, stopped at an unnamed island to restock his supplies of food and fresh water. The natives warned him not to visit a small, nearby cay that was inhabited by “the Gods of the Dead”. According to custom, the deceased and terminally ill were placed on this island where the gods would take them, body and soul to live forever. Drake, fascinated by their story, decided to investigate. Observing from aboard ship, he watched as a native shore party placed the body of a dying man in the island’s beach. After blowing several calls from a conch shell, the natives retreated to sea. Moments later, several figures staggered slowly out of the jungle. Drake watched them feed on the corpses before slouching out of sight. To his amazement, the half-eaten body rose to it’s feet and hobbled after them. Drake never spoke of this incident during his life. The facts were discovered in a secret journal he kept hidden until his death. This journal, passing from one personal collector to another, eventually found it’s way into the library of Admiral Jackie Fischer, the father of the modern Royal Navy. In 1907, Fischer had it copied and gave it to several of his friends as a Christmas gift. Along with exact coordinates, Drake proclaimed this landmass “the Isle of the Damned”.

For more on Miro’s writing about cryptozology, be sure to check out:

3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 1
3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 2
3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 3
3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 4

Check out Miro’s article about Zombie survival called : Zombie Survival Guide- Everything you need to know about the Zed.

Eli Gerzon

Eli Gerzon was born and raised in the Boston area. He went to school until the age of 15 when he discovered homeschooling and unschooling. He then chose to leave high school and direct his own education. In 2002, at the age of 18, he started his own landscaping business and used it to finance his international travels from then until now. Inspired by how much he learned and grew from travel, he created Worldschool Travel Tours in 2008. He lead small groups of teens to Mexico in 2008, Japan in 2009, and Japan again in 2010. This year he is taking a break from leading tours. You can check out his blog for writing about travel, his tours, education, and various other topics.

Volunteering & Raising Funds

As you know,  Miro and I are on an 8 year, around the world journey, volunteering and living as a global citizen. We have hit a new milestone though, Miro has recently turned 12 and we recently entered our 10th country together. Our adventures ARE his classroom and we participate in the world with cultures as a visiting resident, and it’s our pleasure to give back.

We have been on the road with our backpacks as our only possessions, traveling since Miro was 10. Together, we have learned so much about humanity, cultures, language and history.

In the past we have volunteered and have gained so much from our experiences.

Fundacion Arte del Mundo

We have found a wonderful volunteer opportunity in Ecuador, in the city of Baños .  In a small country, in a small town near the middle of the world surrounded by volcanoes and a landscape of spectacular beauty, a small group of people are working to create and grow a center of art, language and literature for the community where they live and work.

“To be human is to be imaginative and creative. The members of Fundacion Arte del Mundo recognize the importance of art and literature in the lives of people, especially the lives of children. Art and art-related activities are often the only part of a person’s life where there are no right or wrong answers, where all are equal to create and imagine, where you are encouraged to experiment.”

We are currently raising money for our living expenses while we volunteer here in Ecuador. For 2 months we need only the small sum of $750. If you can contribute even $10 it will help us so much reach our goal. Please donate at gofundme.com, We are so grateful to our supporters for your help.

Podcast #24 Sponsor

The Raising Miro Podcast has  new sponsor!

Episode #24 is brought to you by the fabulous folks over at Audible

Sign for a Free 2 week trial membership AND Get a FREE audiobook download of your choice!! Go to  audibletrial.com/RaisingMiro and choose from over 85,000 titles for your iPod or mp3 player

Sign up TODAY! It’s a wonderful deal.

---

 

Seeking Intentional Community

Miro and Lainie are in South America. They have been reaching out to all of our contacts and asking for references for conscious communities, eco- villages, sustainable farms and volunteer opportunities. Lainie loves working with children, Miro loves working with animals and neither of them have ever worked on a farm, but they’re open to whatever opportunities come their way. Their desire for the first few months of the new year is to participate , volunteer their time and energies. Lainie would really like to be part of an intentional community, one that practices mediation, lives consciously and gives back to the surrounding community, helping to make locals lives a little easier. They are putting it out into the universe and making it known. If you have any suggestions or contacts for us in South America, please don’t hesitate to send off an introduction. They plan on be posting all the organizations they are considering after the beginning of the year so you can participate with their decision making process.

---

Thank you!

We want to take a moment to thank a few people who have contributed to our travels. Your donations have helped cover our travel expenses and for that, we are so grateful! The people who have contributed to Raising Miro are: Ashley Hansen, Grandpa, Scott Van Pelt, Sashya Amee, Ivan Amador,Heather on Her Travels, Bradford Akerman, Tuan Vutran, Terrance O’Dowd, Eric Hammond, Chip Jacobs, Billy Horn and Sonia Kim. Thank you so much! Your support is heart-felt and much appreciated!

---

Support Raising Miro!

If you are interested in learning more about ways to support Raising Miro, including donating money or sponsoring our travels please click on this link. If you are interested in finding out about advertising opportunities for our podcasts or website, please on the site, please send a note here or use the donation form in the sidebar.

Subscribe!

Subscribe via iTunes:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes.

Subscribe via RSS feed:

[RSS] Add the Raising Miro Blog feed- Anything a new post is added or a new podcast, have it delivered automatically to your RSS aggregator. [RSS-Podcast] Interested in subscribing to the podcast feed only? That’s what you’ll do if you click on that link.

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Got Questions?

(Like how did Miro get stuck in his chair…) If you have comments or have a question you’d like to have answered in an upcoming podcast, please use send us an email using this contact form. We promise, we answer all of the questions we relieve and we love hearing from you.

---

Special Thanks

To those of you who have supported us so far on this journey, the donations we’ve received and the wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you all for your comments and feedback, and please keep them coming. Thank you Hanna for giving us a wonderful professional boost with the intro & outro, engineered by Hanna Jakobson, music “Multilayered Timbres” by Dr. Pimp courtesy of CC (creative commons) license.

Interview with Canadian unschooling mom, Amy from WorldSchoolAdventures.com

Episode #23 is the 2nd in a 3 Part Series on the subject of ’unschooling’.  Lainie & Miro explore the concept of child-led education. Also in this episode, Miro shares a little about his current interest,  Cryptozoology.

“My grandmother wanted me to get a good education, so she kept me as far away from schools as possible.” ~Margaret Mead

This podcast series, which include Episodes #22 #23 and #24, Parts 1-3 called ‘A World of Learning’, explore in greater detail the concept and application of unschooling. In the Part 1, we spoke with Peter Kowalke, an unschooled adult, filmmaker and journalist. He shared with us how unschooling was applied to his childhood and the effects his unschooling experiences have on his life now.

In addition to the the podcasts, you will find a series of articles we are publishing about child-led education on our web site. Here are links to the first few in that series:
Unschooling – Our Genesis
What is Unschooling?
The World is Our Classroom
Shifting the Educational Paradigm

In this podcast episode, Amy from Worldschooladventures.com speaks about her introduction to unschooling and how she’s been able to apply the concept to her son’s education while earning credits through the Canadian Education administration. Amy also shares some of her family’s travel preparations with us.
In a recent blog post, Amy shares her Pre Travel Preparation: A list of all the things we need to do before departure.

Here are the first 6 of 19 and we urge you to visit her site to read the rest:
1. Commit.
2. Finance.
3. Plan a route.
4. Education.
5. Set a date.
6. Vaccinations.

If you’ve been following our podcasts, you will know Miro and I have considered our travels as an opportunity for education. I believe the biggest gift I can give Miro is preparation for his life ahead, the future of a well rounded global citizen, as I believe everything as we know it, is changing, including archaic systems that are no longer working.

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” ~Eric Hoffer

We are on an 8 year journey without an itinerary to follow, rather, our inspiration is our guide. Our approach to my education is as fluid as our travels. I am not obligated by a mandated curriculum or the formality of lessons. Rather, my inspiration and virtue of being in the world, open to participating is the inspiration to learn.

“Children are born passionately eager to make as much sense as they can of things around them. If we attempt to control, manipulate, or divert this process, the independent scientist in the child disappears.” ~ John Holt

“There is no one way to unschool.
Unschooling is primarily about process not content. The process of learning, the process of knowing yourself, openness, confidence, self-determination, independent thinking, critical thinking….none of which one gets when following other people’s agenda. Making one’s own agenda is what it is all about. Again this is done not in isolation but in the context of ones family and community.”

~Joel Hawthorne from the article What is Unschooling?

Written by Miro:

I have been Un-schooling for over a year now, and its really working out for me. I have pursued the things that I find interesting, and studying them when I have the time and internet connection.

Cryptozoology is awesome. It’s my current interest. Its all about traveling to new places and discovering new species of creatures. To me, the thrill is the new creatures. I mean, whats not interesting about a half-man half-lizard thing? There are tons of Cryptids (unrecorded creatures) out there. Could you imagine running across a HUGE bat or a 7′ft tall walking carpet? Sure, it would scare the crap out of you, but its so interesting! I have been studying them because its something that I think is interesting. I have read a lot about them and even written a little about cryptids, so please check out my posts. You can find my articles here:

3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 1
3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 2
3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 3
3 Figures From Folklore I Hope We Never Run Into – Part 4

I have studied mythology, writing, reading (Duh), and history of the places I have gone to. History is much more interesting when you’re in the places your studying. This is the product of Un-schooling. There are things I have learned just by traveling, like Spanish!

Even when I’m not studying, I am still learning.

“In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: forget about it. Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it. One day, you will glance up at your collection of Japanese literature, or trip over the solar oven you built, and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself.” ~ Grace Llewellyn

Amy From WorldSchoolAdventures.com

Amy from WorldschoolAdventures.com

Amy is a mother, wife, world traveler, and environmentalist. She and her husband are living their dream of raising their two boys as global citizens. Traveling slow with the little ones in tow, and letting the world be their teacher!
http://worldschooladventures.com
Twitter: @worldschooled
Facebook: http://facebook.com/worldschooladventures

 

 

 

Volunteering & Raising Funds

As you know,  Miro and I are on an 8 year, around the world journey, volunteering and living as a global citizen. We have hit a new milestone though, Miro has recently turned 12 and we recently entered our 10th country together. Our adventures ARE his classroom and we participate in the world with cultures as a visiting resident, and it’s our pleasure to give back.

We have been on the road with our backpacks as our only possessions, traveling since Miro was 10. Together, we have learned so much about humanity, cultures, language and history.

In the past we have volunteered and have gained so much from our experiences.

Fundacion Arte del Mundo

We have found a wonderful volunteer opportunity in Ecuador, in the city of Baños .  In a small country, in a small town near the middle of the world surrounded by volcanoes and a landscape of spectacular beauty, a small group of people are working to create and grow a center of art, language and literature for the community where they live and work.

“To be human is to be imaginative and creative. The members of Fundacion Arte del Mundo recognize the importance of art and literature in the lives of people, especially the lives of children. Art and art-related activities are often the only part of a person’s life where there are no right or wrong answers, where all are equal to create and imagine, where you are encouraged to experiment.”

We are currently raising money for our living expenses while we volunteer here in Ecuador. For 2 months we need only the small sum of $750. If you can contribute even $10 it will help us so much reach our goal. Please donate at gofundme.com, We are so grateful to our supporters for your help.

Podcast #23 Sponsor

The Raising Miro Podcast has  new sponsor!

Episode #21 is brought to you by the fabulous folks over at Audible

Sign for a Free 2 week trial membership AND Get a FREE audiobook download of your choice!! Go to  audibletrial.com/RaisingMiro and choose from over 85,000 titles for your iPod or mp3 player

Sign up TODAY! It’s a wonderful deal.

---

 

Seeking Intentional Community

Miro and Lainie are in South America. They have been reaching out to all of our contacts and asking for references for conscious communities, eco- villages, sustainable farms and volunteer opportunities. Lainie loves working with children, Miro loves working with animals and neither of them have ever worked on a farm, but they’re open to whatever opportunities come their way. Their desire for the first few months of the new year is to participate , volunteer their time and energies. Lainie would really like to be part of an intentional community, one that practices mediation, lives consciously and gives back to the surrounding community, helping to make locals lives a little easier. They are putting it out into the universe and making it known. If you have any suggestions or contacts for us in South America, please don’t hesitate to send off an introduction. They plan on be posting all the organizations they are considering after the beginning of the year so you can participate with their decision making process.

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Thank you!

We want to take a moment to thank a few people who have contributed to our travels. Your donations have helped cover our travel expenses and for that, we are so grateful! The people who have contributed to Raising Miro are: Ashley Hansen, Grandpa, Scott Van Pelt, Sashya Amee, Ivan Amador, Heather on Her Travels, Bradford Akerman, Tuan Vutran, Terrance O’Dowd, Eric Hammond, Chip Jacobs, Billy Horn and Sonia Kim. Thank you so much! Your support is heart-felt and much appreciated!

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Support Raising Miro!

If you are interested in learning more about ways to support Raising Miro, including donating money or sponsoring our travels please click on this link. If you are interested in finding out about advertising opportunities for our podcasts or website, please on the site, please send a note here or use the donation form in the sidebar.

Subscribe!

Subscribe via iTunes:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes.

Subscribe via RSS feed:

[RSS] Add the Raising Miro Blog feed- Anything a new post is added or a new podcast, have it delivered automatically to your RSS aggregator. [RSS-Podcast] Interested in subscribing to the podcast feed only? That’s what you’ll do if you click on that link.

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Got Questions?

(Like how did Miro get stuck in his chair…) If you have comments or have a question you’d like to have answered in an upcoming podcast, please use send us an email using this contact form. We promise, we answer all of the questions we relieve and we love hearing from you.

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Special Thanks

To those of you who have supported us so far on this journey, the donations we’ve received and the wonderful words of encouragement. Thank you all for your comments and feedback, and please keep them coming. Thank you Hanna for giving us a wonderful professional boost with the intro & outro, engineered by Hanna Jakobson, music “Multilayered Timbres” by Dr. Pimp courtesy of CC (creative commons) license.