{"id":2391,"date":"2021-02-15T02:22:17","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T02:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?p=2391"},"modified":"2021-02-15T02:23:27","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T02:23:27","slug":"checking-in-a-year-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?p=2391","title":{"rendered":"Checking in a Year Later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This time last year we were traveling across Costa Rica at the start of our travel journey in Central America. How are things a year later?<\/p>\n<p><strong>The kids&#8217; hair is a lot longer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We like letting Lucas and Henry explore their own style. Many people do not like their long hair, but if they like it, we support them. Self-expression is important. In our opinion, it is not reserved just for adults.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-2391 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-full'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?attachment_id=2397'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1606.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1606.jpg 640w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1606-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?attachment_id=2398'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1512\" height=\"2016\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4840-rotated.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4840-rotated.jpg 1512w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4840-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4840-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4840-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1512px) 100vw, 1512px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?attachment_id=2399'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1512\" height=\"2016\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4841-rotated.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4841-rotated.jpg 1512w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4841-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4841-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_4841-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1512px) 100vw, 1512px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><strong>Our ability to be flexible has improved<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Only about 15% of what we thought would happen when we set out last year actually ended up happening. One month in Nicaragua turned into 6. Three weeks in North Carolina turned into 6 months. Our trip out west did not happen. Despite our plans not being what we thought they would be, we had a successful year. Successful in that we did the most important thing that we set out to do &#8212; spend more time together.<\/p>\n<p>The best part is that we still all like each other. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2392\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1142.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2016\" height=\"1512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1142.jpg 2016w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1142-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1142-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1142-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1142-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2016px) 100vw, 2016px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2324\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_0665-rotated.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2016\" height=\"1512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_0665-rotated.jpg 2016w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_0665-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_0665-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_0665-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_0665-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2016px) 100vw, 2016px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The boys are still learning. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We went from traditional American school to homeschooling to putting Lucas and Henry in an online school. A month into the online school and the boys still enjoy the program. We are happy with it, but we also know that when we start traveling again, we will be able to jump back into homeschool if they want to do that. The confidence that Michael and I have now in our ability to facilitate their learning is reassuring. We have found a wonderful community of people who have chosen learning alternatives for their kids. We are not alone.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-2391 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-full'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?attachment_id=2393'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2016\" height=\"1512\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1163.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-2393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1163.jpg 2016w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1163-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1163-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1163-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1163-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2016px) 100vw, 2016px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-2393'>\n\t\t\t\tWorking hard in chemistry class.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?attachment_id=2394'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1760\" height=\"990\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1193.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-2394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1193.jpg 1760w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1193-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1193-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1193-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1193-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1760px) 100vw, 1760px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-2394'>\n\t\t\t\tLucas building a drone for his self-directed project.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/?attachment_id=2395'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2016\" height=\"1512\" src=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1203.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-2395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1203.jpg 2016w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1203-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1203-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1203-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_1203-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2016px) 100vw, 2016px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-2395'>\n\t\t\t\tPlaying tennis before school.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>A year later we all still love what we are doing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This time last year we were traveling across Costa Rica at the start of our travel journey in Central America. How are things a year later? The kids&#8217; hair is a lot longer. We like letting Lucas and Henry explore their own style. Many people do not like their long hair, but if they like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,5,31],"tags":[16,14,7,15],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quarantining","category-travel","category-worldschooling","tag-family-travel","tag-travel-with-kids","tag-world-travel","tag-worldschooling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions\/2402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gowatkinsgo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}