Distance education. It’s happening!

It was the moment that made every thing about our trip seem real. Driving into the distance education school in city to meet with Emmie’s new teacher and talk about her schooling for next year made my heart race with the enormity of what’s ahead. Whoo hoo!

If all of our 2016 schooling is going to be as great as our experience so far then I am so excited! The program is structured but with flexibility and understanding that we will be traveling. And coursework can be delivered on video and through an audio program – we can also Skype with Emmie’s teacher.

And her teacher is lovely and was so sweet with Emmie. She is Irish and her name is Saeve (like Dive with an s).

We were given a big bag of materials to take with us (I will make it fit in the backpack) including tools for maths, textas, paints and paintbrushes, and a schoolbag. Amazing!

There is a reasonably hefty wad of coursework each week but we can photograph it as we complete it and email it back at the end of the week. The school will send us the coursework at the frequency we need to wherever we are in the world.

All this for $150 a year! The public schooling system is incredible. I am so impressed and I am so excited to start. I’m under no illusion that it’s going to be simple. We will need to have a routine and dedicate time to learning. But we also have the understanding from the school that we can use experiences as coursework – for example I can video Emmie after swimming with whale sharks for example or on top of a mountain and get her to talk about her experiences…which we will do anyway…and this could count towards relevant areas.

The school will send out our first lot of materials in the next few weeks with more detailed instructions so I will have more info then. but for now I am just so excited and positive about our year ahead with Sydney Distance Education.