I’m very excited to showcase a special Magic Sponsor today… Around The World Stories. If you haven’t checked them out yet, please pop on over to have a look. I LOVE what they are doing so much. Many of us are trying to find healthy and worthy media for our children to enjoy… these delightful audio stories draw young listeners into the fun adventures of children from other cultures and countries, bringing to life how they live, play, eat, think and learn.
Let’s hear more from the awesome Around The World Stories co-creator, mom and wife, Tania…
**
Our parents and friends were stunned.
“So you’re going to quit your job and travel around Europe for a year …. to write children’s stories?”
I have to admit, when repeated back to us it didn’t seem like the most solid of plans. But that was the plan.
In June of this year, we left our comfortable home in Portland, OR, sold most of our belongings and my husband left his secure job as a U.S. diplomat to begin our adventures as travelers and storytellers. We packed one backpack each (quite a change from a house full of furniture, books and toys) and said goodbye to friends and family for the year.
Starting Around the World Stories to create audio stories for children about other countries and cultures has been a dream of ours for a long time. Traveling and living overseas with our children has also been a dream. So we gathered our courage and did it all at once.
The plan was simple really: travel to 13 countries in one year and write four stories about each country — fun audio stories about what life is like for a child in that country. Each one of our stories is based in a city that we’ve traveled to, and the characters are based on real people we meet along the way — the Swedish magician in Germany, the Pétanque players in France, the folk band in Prague, the artist in Paris.
Admittedly, what we’re doing has an element of risk to it. We’ve always tried to teach our kids the importance of taking leaps of faith, as well as using the talents we’re all given or have developed along the way. We’ve talked about taking this trip for years, but it’s one of those things that could either be the subject of wishful conversation, or it could be real. How could we teach our kids to follow their dreams if we were to scared to do it ourselves? Our kids are learning that adventure is important, following a dream is important and not being afraid to fail is also important.
Traveling with three kids, and a dog, is certainly not easy, and we’ve had a number of hurdles thrown in front of us that have sent us on some detours. We’ve gotten lost countless times, we’ve twice had our Airbnb reservation cancelled on us the night before we were supposed to go there, we’ve had to sleep in our compact car (the five of us with dog) for a night because we couldn’t find a hotel. We’ve spent entire days chasing a decent wi-fi connection. We’ve struggled with the language barrier and have been misunderstood more times than I care to count.
But when we step back and look at the places we’ve visited over the past few months and the things we’ve done, we realize that we’re right on track.
We came to Europe for inspiration, both for our stories and for our daily lives as parents and homeschoolers. We biked 230 km along the Moselle River in Germany while exploring 1000-year-old castles and charming riverfront villages. We went to see the lavender fields in southern France in full bloom. We visited the homes of H.C. Andersen, Mozart, the Brother’s Grimm, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Anne Frank and learned all about their lives.
As we teach the kids, we’re learning so much as well — it’s impossible not to. We’ve discovered that road schooling happens every day all the time and it’s something that we all benefit from. We still do math and reading and history, but in an environment where the learning never stops. There are new languages, new cultures, new foods and new scenery. In between learning with math gnomes, block crayon drawings and ukulele practice, we are exploring castles, visiting museums and hiking in the Alps.
And when it comes time to figure out what the next Around the World Stories adventure will be about, there’s a pool of exciting experiences and colorful characters from which to choose, as well as endless things to teach about the countries’ traditions, festivals, foods and languages.
Even if we get diverted along the way, get a little lost or wind up sleeping in the car again, it’s all good. It’s all one great adventure — one great story after another.
Until the end of the year, we are excited to offer you a free trial month of our stories if you use the code MAGICONIONS1, or for $20 off our Full Story Pack (all of our 26+ stories up to this point with one more each week) use the code MAGICONIONS20.
To learn more you can visit us at www.aroundtheworldstories.com, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or our blog. We hope you join us!
One Response
What an amazing story! So inspiring, I would love to take a leap of faith like this and just do it!