The Online Lessons That Finally Made Worldschooling Feel Sustainable

One of the hardest parts of travelling full time with an 8 year old has honestly been consistency.

Not the big exciting educational stuff. That part’s easy. Temples in Sri Lanka, spotting wild elephants, learning how to order food in different countries, hearing five languages in one day, all of that happens naturally when you travel long term.

It’s the normal school rhythm that’s harder.

Sitting down regularly for maths when you’ve just got off a bus in Malaysi. Trying to focus on English while moving hotels every three days. Keeping any sort of structure when you’re crossing borders constantly and everyone’s a bit tired.

We’d actually meant to sign Jax up for online lessons months earlier, but the end of Sri Lanka was hectic, then we went to the Maldives, India and Nepal in pretty quick succession and we just never managed to properly stop and sort it out.

Once we settled in Penang for a while, we finally did.

And genuinely, it’s been one of the best things we’ve added into our routine.

The setup that’s worked really well for us

The lessons are run by a lady called Amy through her own online teaching group called Tuition Up.

Jax does English on Mondays and Maths on Fridays, plus Amy also runs a free English lesson on Fridays as well. The paid classes are small, usually around 12 to 15 kids, sometimes even less, which makes such a difference compared to some of the huge online learning groups we looked at before.

Because the classes are smaller, the kids actually get a chance to talk properly instead of just sitting muted watching a screen for 40 minutes.

Jax absolutely loves that part.

He’s very much like us and enjoys a chat, so most lessons involve him enthusiastically waving both hands at the camera waiting for Amy to pick him. Then she’ll unmute him so he can answer whatever question she’s asked.

Amy’s brilliant at managing it all without it turning chaotic. Every child seems to get their turn, even the quieter ones who don’t immediately throw themselves into every discussion like Jax does.

That balance is harder than it looks online.

What we’ve liked most is that it feels relaxed without feeling disorganised. Nobody’s pretending these kids are sitting in a silent Victorian classroom, but the lessons still have structure and proper learning behind them.

And from our side as parents, it’s also just nice having someone else take over for a bit.

Not in a lazy way. More in a “thank God somebody else is explaining fractions today” way.