Why We're Taking Our Kids Out of School to Travel the World

We're pulling our kids out of school to travel the world for a year. It's the best decision we've ever made, and here's why.

When people hear that our family of four is leaving behind stable careers, a comfortable life in Dubai, and a perfectly good school system to worldschool across multiple continents, the first question is always: Why? The honest answer is that there isn't one reason. There are dozens. But they all come back to four values that ground everything we do as a family: Curiosity, Connection, Caring, and Courage.

This isn't a reckless leap. It's a deeply intentional one, over a year in the making, financially planned, and rooted in the belief that the best education our kids can get right now isn't inside a classroom. It's out in the world.

The Window Is Open, And It Won't Be Forever

Our kids, Eva (11, 6th grade) and Jordan (9, 4th grade), are at a remarkable age. Old enough to engage deeply with the world, to ask hard questions, appreciate history standing where it happened, and form real friendships across cultures. Yet young enough that family remains their primary anchor.

This window is both wide open and fleeting. Before academics intensify, social circles solidify, and competitive sports begin to dictate calendars, we have this rare season of flexibility and influence. We intend to use every bit of it.

This year isn't just about seeing new places. It's about building stronger family bonds through shared challenges and adventures … trekking in Peru, navigating unfamiliar streets in Japan, or solving problems together when plans inevitably shift. It's about shaping our family culture through intentional conversations on long train rides, around campfires, and at simple dinner tables abroad.

We have the chance to weave our values into our kids' formation, not abstractly, but tangibly. Through lived experience. This season will not last forever, and that is precisely why it matters so much now.

Reimagining How Learning Unfolds

Our year of worldschooling is not simply about changing geography, it's about reimagining how learning itself can work. Instead of pacing education by the clock and the calendar, we're orienting it around mastery. The question shifts from "Did we finish the chapter?" to "Do we deeply understand it?" That shift alone changes everything.

The world becomes the classroom through multiple layers of learning:

• Experiential learning: on-the-ground social studies, history, science, and literature. Standing where events happened. Observing ecosystems firsthand. Reading stories in the cultures that produced them.

  
  

• Cultural learning: cultivating a global mindset and worldview. Seeing different ways of living, working, believing, and solving problems. Recognizing that our perspective is one of many.

  
  

• Deep immersion (longer stays): farm stays, dude ranches, language schools, craft schools, sports camps. Living inside a skill or community long enough for transformation to take root.

  
  

• Deep immersion (shorter bursts): food tours, cooking classes, arts and crafts workshops, volunteering and service learning. Intense experiences that make knowledge memorable and human.

But perhaps most importantly, this path builds capabilities that traditional classrooms often struggle to replicate:

• Real-life skills: trip planning, navigation, budgeting, meal planning and cooking, project management, problem-solving, and the practical "executive functioning" muscles that adulthood demands

  
  

• Meta-skills: critical thinking, structured writing, research and information literacy, public speaking (prepared and impromptu), debate, negotiation, and presentation design

  
  

• Character traits: empathy, humility, resilience, adaptability, confidence, agency, and a growth mindset, the inner architecture that determines how knowledge is used

  
  

To be fair, conventional schooling provides structure and community. Yet this season offers something different: the chance to integrate intellect, skill, and character into a cohesive whole. Learning not as a checklist, but as formation.

We've Been Preparing for This, Financially and Practically

This isn't a spontaneous whim. We've been saving and investing for nearly twenty years, building a comfortable foundation that makes this year possible without jeopardizing our family's financial security. We believe it's worth spending the money now, for the experiences to be had, experiences that compound in ways no index fund can match.

And the math works in our favor: we can return to full-time employment or entrepreneurship after the worldschooling year. The career pause is deliberate, not reckless.

A Chance to Reset and Redesign

Beyond family and education, this year is a pivot year for us, a chance to step off the treadmill and reassess what matters.

We're craving a change of pace. A chance to get un-distracted. To reassess priorities, habits, and lifestyle with fresh eyes. We're embracing less "stuff" and more experiences by decluttering what we own before the trip, stripping life down to what fits in a few bags and a whole lot of curiosity.

Practically, we're also considering a transition from Dubai, UAE to finding a new place to call home. Rather than rushing that decision, we're giving ourselves the gift of exploring, both the world and what we want our next chapter to look like.

A Deliberate Professional Pause

After two decades in Corporate America, Kelly and I are treating this year as a strategic pause, not a step back, but a step up.

Here's what that looks like:

• Professional development: real up-skilling, learning and accreditation in a variety of areas, because the nature of work is changing fast

  
  

• Personal brand building: writing, speaking, teaching, podcasting … refining our voice, authority, and areas where we can best serve

  
  

• Networking while traveling: keeping doors open, meeting people across industries and geographies, staying connected to what's next

  
  

• Exploring next-level roles: using this space to think clearly about what I want from my career upon return, rather than defaulting to the next obvious rung on the ladder

  
  

The best career moves are often made slowly, after moments of reflection, not moments of hustle. This year is the biggest reflection of all.

So Why Are We Really Doing This?

Because our kids won't be 9 and 11 forever. Because the world is the richest classroom we'll ever find. Because we've spent two decades building a foundation, and now it's time to build on it together, as a family.

Because curiosity means we never stop learning. Courage means we're not afraid to do hard things. Connection means we invest in relationships wherever we go. And caring means we treat people and the world around us with respect, responsibility, kindness, and love.

This is our why. The adventure starts now.

Author bio: Matt Nobles is a dad, husband, and relentless learner. After nearly 20 years in corporate finance and sustainability, and after having already travelled to 77 countries over the years, he's now spending the 2026–2027 academic year worldschooling with his wife Kelly and their two kids, Eva (11) and Jordan (9). Follow the journey at theglobalnobles.com.