Worldschooling with Coronavirus

We had not made it very far in our travel plans when the Coronavirus hit.  We set out in December to explore the world and by mid-March, we found ourselves in Nicaragua while the world was shutting down.

Deciding to Stay

Our plans to travel to Mexico in April are not happening. We talked about going back to the United States, but we decided not to for a few reasons:

1. We did not want to fly and risk getting sick or catching the virus while traveling and getting other people sick.

2. With the panic ensuing in the United States we decided against going back there. We love the U.S., but we honestly do not feel like it is the best place for us to be right now. We do have family there, but we do not have a home. Also, we are still trying to understand why toilet paper was the first thing people made a run for. We are thinking about our family and friends in the States and wish them all well and we hope they stay safe.

3. We feel safe here in Nicaragua right now. There are several other ex-pat families here and the Nica people are resilient. With the first case of coronavirus announced here, people are shutting down restaurants and self-quarantining in our town–for the most part.

We will be in Nicaragua until things get better around the world. Did we make the right decision? Only time will tell.  We are staying positive and leaning into the decision because it is what we have chosen.

Schooling and Social Distancing

All of the posts on Facebook from parents worried about schooling from home and freaking out about being stuck with their kids 24/7 are reminiscent of how we felt when we were planning our trip. We have been doing what everyone else is now doing for the last several months. We teach the boys and we spend almost every waking hour of every day together. We chose this life before it was mandatory for everyone else.

We hope that the families going through this now take the time and make the most of it. We know there are a lot of inconveniences to the arrangement. Many people are balancing work, finances, kids, anxiety. It is not a choice that people made, but we hope this crisis brings many families closer.

We hope that you will take the time to play games as a family. Have a pillow fight. Binge-watch movies together. Do an art project. Make new meals. Sit around and talk about your hopes and dreams. Facetime or Skype with friends and family. Ask your kids to do impressions of friends and family (kids are brutally honest and hilarious). There can be positive things that come out of this time we are all forced to spend together.

We want nothing more than for this to pass quickly and the world to move forward. We want to continue our travels. We want our family and friends to be able to get back to their regularly scheduled programming. Until that time we will make the most of our situation. We will keep dreaming and planning and living. We will just be doing it at our house in Nicaragua.