The sea day started out as most do. Up at about 5:30am ship time, and in my ship office by 5:45. Here's a pic from my ship office. Pretty good view, huh!
I moved the needle on some work for my optometry client. I so thoroughly enjoy consulting for her. I've been blessed how that relationship grew organically in the most round about way. Her fiancé was the contractor on our lakehouse renovation and we became good friends in the process. He lives in our neighborhood so we see each other quite a bit coming and going. He hated/loved 😉 the way I scrutinized the job costing and thought I might be a good fit for his fiancé's accounting records. He was right. It's been a great relationship. I finished up about 10 then wrote up my notes from my meeting yesterday with M.A., the homeschooling mom.
I met MA early in the cruise since she, her husband, her mother and her 3 kids are just about 5 rooms down from us on the Baja deck. The kids were exuberant as they ran down the hall those early days, still are. And why not? Through quick hallway conversations, I learned they are from Alaska, so going on a world cruise to “escape” the winter would be anyone’s dream, but for 3 kids (6, 9 and 12), it’s more than a dream, it’s the adventure of a life time. I learned they homeschool their kids, which makes sense and her husband can work remotely, which also makes sense. So really, what’s to stop you from taking a world cruise…..except the obvious cost hurdle for 6 people, albeit in 2 rooms.
Just based on these couple of interactions, I wanted to learn more and thought it would make an interesting blog post. For any parents or grandparents considering a world cruise with teens and tweens, it would be valuable to hear her perspective on what’s working and what the hurdles are. So I asked it if she would like to contribute to my blog and she was happy to be “interviewed”.
We met in the Provence Diningroom, 1 of the 2 main dining rooms on the ship. The other dining room is the Bourdeaux, and that’s used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Provence is used just for dinner and so the ship graciously opens it up early for mainly card and board game players. In this demographic, there are A LOT of folks who enjoy those past times, present company included. Once she found that the Provence Dining room would work as a venue for homeschooling, her first major hurdle was resolved. Unfortunately, it took a few weeks to figure that out. This is no small feat. Most of the ship’s common areas aren’t really conducive to homeschooling, though as a kid, studying on a lounge chair around the pool seemed like a good idea. And the Provence wasn’t advertised anywhere that it was open so suffice it to say, they got kicked out of quite a few venues before they landed on the Provence. In fact, before I even framed up what I would like our interview to focus on, MA told me that story of her gypsy-homeschooling and how grateful she was to have this venue option. The only other option is their stateroom and that’s not really conducive or adequate on so many levels. So lesson #1, scope out an adequate venue for your daily teaching exercises, leave no stone unturned. There’s always an option, even if not advertised and even if you have to ask the ship to make some space available that might not normally be available.
As the interview began, I focused on 3 main areas:
1) How did you decide to do a world cruise and tell us about the preparation?
2) What were/are your expectations for both you and your kids w/r/t education?
3) Have your expectations been met?
How did you decide to do a world cruise and tell us about the preparation?
Believe it or not, they booked the cruise just 42 days before embarkation. They normally spend the winters elsewhere besides Alaska, and they were already homeschooling so that decision was already made. MA found the cruise option and decided that her kids would really benefit from such a cultural immersion/experience. Sometimes you just have to have faith that it will work out. Her fall back plan if she couldn’t adequately homeschool was to catch the kids up over the summer but that would unfortunately use the very precious and limited Alaskan summer for school and not fun. Thankfully, “High Seas Academy” is going well and their summer will remain summer.
What were/are your expectations for both you and your kids w/r/t education?
Because of the time frame from booking to embarking, there wasn’t much time for cruise port research, so they plan each port from the ship about a week in advance. Like me, MA feels that the Princess excursions are too expensive (especially for 6 people) and might not work well for her kids. I agree. Not that kids wouldn’t enjoy it but again, the aging demographic of the other passengers impacts the “vibe” on an excursion. So they mainly opt for independent excursions with a van and a private driver who can provide both educational and fun information about the sites. Each child must write a “book” report about each port.
On sea days, the most amazing, unplanned, unforeseen, almost unbelievable collaboration has manifested between her children and about 9 retired teachers on board, who have graciously and excitedly offered to help homeschool her children. I got to witness it myself during our interview as her children, seated at nearby tables, worked with retired, experienced, patient teachers who clearly LOVED teaching. The kids also benefit from having someone besides “teacher-mom” working with them. One person in particular took the reins to organize the retired teachers so each child is getting daily pre-organized education classes that support the overall lesson plan MA has for her kids. In additional to all the normal reading, writing, arithmetic lessons, her children have received Spanish lessons from a Colombian couple, origami lessons from an Asian couple, morse code lessons from a retired military gentlemen, and the NATO phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot etc) lesson from a retired engineer and Eagle Scout. Even a crew member from India who had a dot on his forehead took the time to explain the significance of it to her kids. One day, their math class was spent converting the currencies of places they had visited to USD. These retired teachers, passengers and crew give her children a giant educational hug every day. It was an awesome thing to witness.
Have your expectations been met?
Absolutely!!!!
Her kids are learning about different cultures, people, sights, food, religion, politics, currency and so much more. At 6 or 9 or 12, I don’t even remember if I knew (or cared) about other countries. These kids will have a perspective like no other kids their age(s). I asked if she had any ah-ha moments or recommendations for future world cruise homeschoolers. She said If you can get a bigger room, it is recommended. At the beginning before she was comfortable with the safety of the boat, they were all together 24/7 and needed the extra space. Also, it’s good that it’s an older boat without water slides and fun kid activities. And as a world cruise, there aren’t other kids as distractions either.
I hope I conveyed her thoughts accurately.
Then I worked out for an hour before meeting up with new friends who have learned our favorite card game, hand & Foot. We spend an hour or 2 most sea days playing and chatting. But today we had to leave early because we were officially being awarded the cruise we won a few weeks ago. We had pictures taken in the rotunda with a big sign and people clapped.
We learned another new card game today called 6 card. Quite fun, easy to learn. So we'll add that to the repertoire of games we like to play. We think our kids will like it too.
Then we had reservations at the Bayou, the specialty steak and seafood restaurant. So we headed there for a dinner to celebrate our official winning of a 10 day cruise. Dinner was as always amazing. A 22oz porterhouse for me and an 8oz lobster for my wife. After 3 appetizer courses, amazingly our main course arrived just as the sun was setting.
It was a stellar evening. After a little jazz at the Wheelhouse Bar and some time in the casino just watching, it will be time for bed. For the next 2 days, we'll be in Dubai, a bucket list destination for me. I can't wait!!!!!
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