Today I chat with Chad and Brittany Slater, a traveling family of four, who traded life in New York for full-time worldschooling across Europe two years ago. From navigating life in Greece and Montenegro to budget hacks like house sitting and long-term stays, they share the truth about decision fatigue, kid adaptability, and building income on the road. Plus, stick around to walk through their fun "where should your family worldschool next" quiz that reveals where our family should worldschool next year. Do this quiz yourself in the link in the show notes.

Suzy

Welcome to the Wander Worldschool Podcast. I'm Suzy, a travel-loving money nerd, mom of two, and our family lives between Spain, Colorado, and soon, Japan. On this show, we discuss the stories, logistics, and finances of traveling families and the many ways to learn along the way. Today we get to know Chad and Brittany Slater. Welcome to the show. Tell me more about you and your family and where you're calling in from today.

Chad and Brittany

I'm Chad. This is Brittany. We are 50% of the Traveling Slaters. We have a daughter named Addison. She is nine. And our son, Levi, is six, almost seven. And we are actually calling in from Ireland today.

Suzy

Let's take it back to where your love for travel started for each of you.

Chad and Brittany

I think we've always loved travel. Growing up I did a lot of traveling in an RV with my family. We would go every weekend somewhere, so it's just something that we've both really truly enjoyed and connected with.

Suzy

How about you, Chad?

Chad and Brittany

For me, we did a lot of camping in the summertime around the northeast of the United States. We didn't go too far. My dad didn't really like to drive that much. I'd always wanted to see a lot of the world. I joined the military right after high school, so I did get to travel a little bit and see some things and I realized, wow, the bubble I grew up in is exactly that. It's a bubble. And I want to see more of this world. So I've always carried that with me even throughout getting married and starting a family. So this was the opportunity for us to actually go ahead and do it.

Suzy

Let's talk about your family travels as well. You mentioned that you left New York in 2024, but what has travel looked like as a family?

Chad and Brittany

We did a couple of family trips down to Florida, never anything internationally or anything. We sold everything in 2024. It was not an easy decision. It was many long discussions for Chad and I of is this the right path? Are we doing the right thing? But we just felt stuck where we were in that nine-to-five grind. So we made the decision; we heard about Boundless Life, a program that we did all of last year. And so we sold our house, anything left that we own is currently in storage, and we started traveling. We took that leap; we decided to do Boundless for the fall cohort on the island of Syros, Greece. It's for three months. So that was our main plan. And then we were kind of waiting to see how we liked the program and the travel to see if it was something we wanted to continue. We wanted to see how those three months went, how we felt being away from home. We made that decision to continue on after Greece and just continue to travel.

Suzy

Share with me a little more about what prompted this switch to travel, because that can be a big decision, like you mentioned, to sell it all and hit the road.

Chad and Brittany

We were homeschooling at the time. We each had a couple of different jobs, and somewhere—it was actually at a homeschool event—we heard about the Boundless Life program, and we really started looking into it. And that was in the wintertime. We were like, well, this is cool. This could be the thing. In April we signed up, August we sold the house, September we were in Greece. So it was a long lead-up to a very quick runway of decision.

Suzy

Yeah. And you mentioned homeschooling was part of your path even before launching into travel. I'm curious if you can share more about what's worked for you all.

Chad and Brittany

We made the decision to homeschool before our daughter was even five. So we had loosely structured our life around the ability to be able to do the homeschooling. I was lucky enough to be able to do that. And so we started kindergarten, Addison and I, and we decided this was what we wanted to do. It was, you know, it's not always easy. But, you know, it was very rewarding. And we also—one of the reasons why is we wanted to spend as much time with the kids as we possibly could, as young as they are, because you only get the one chance. Once Levi became of age to start school, that's kind of when the Boundless Life thing kicked in and we actually went from homeschooling to that program, and that was their only school-type setting that we've ever done. And they did well, but now we're back to homeschooling abroad.

Suzy

What does a typical homeschool day, worldschool day look like for your family when you're not in a cohort?

Chad and Brittany

Nothing's set in stone. We kind of go with the flow in the mornings. We try and get the kids outside. In January we were in Estepona, Spain. We'd go down to the beach with the kids and they have exercise equipment, you know, the free ones that they put around cities and stuff like that. So the kids would go play on that. We'd go hunting for sea glass and stuff. We got them outside first. Then we'd come back and we'd do some bookwork. We also have a couple online programs that we like to use—for example, IXL. Then we see how they feel that day. If they're really struggling, we're not going to push them as hard, and it's the joy of homeschooling of "How are we feeling today? How are we doing? Do we want to do this? Do we want to do this?" We have a couple things that we do, like Math Mondays is always a thing. And a lot of times we use the area that we're in as school. So for example, yesterday, where we're staying is close to the Blarney Castle where the Blarney Stone is. So we went and we explored the Blarney Castle and grounds, kissed the Blarney Stone, did all that fun stuff yesterday. So that was an amazing worldschool experience.

Suzy

I remember when I went to the Blarney Stone many, many years ago. It was soon after I was in nursing school and my friend was talking about how many germs were probably there. So you could do a biology lesson after, as many people are kissing that stone. Or I don't know if people even still actually kiss it nowadays.

Chad and Brittany

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We got there early enough, so we only waited fifteen minutes maybe for it. But they now have disinfectant—they're wiping in between people now, so that might be a little different.

Suzy

Awesome. That's good. Okay. And that's the benefit of homeschooling, worldschooling, having a flexible schedule, is that you can get there before the crowds, perhaps, and structure your day however you like. You've been in some really cool locations. You shared Greece, Montenegro, Italy, and then Spain as well. Have you picked up any languages along the way? Or what has language learning looked like for you and your family throughout these different adventures?

Chad and Brittany

A couple of the locations we've been to, Greece and Montenegro, the language is very difficult. Kids know good morning or thank you. Basically the basics in a couple of different languages, but nothing crazy, nothing crazy. We do do a little Spanish. That's obviously the big one. So we'll push that.

Suzy

When you launched in 2024, you said you sold the house. Were you guys working at that time before that? Did you quit jobs? What did that transition to travel look like from a financial, logistical side? And how are you able to continue these travels?

Chad and Brittany

I worked full-time in an office, nine-to-five. I was an executive assistant there. When we decided to sell everything, it wasn't a position where I could go remote, so I did have to leave that position. But I'm currently a virtual assistant and I have a couple clients who I've actually met through the school program Boundless Life. So that's our income, and then we also have Nomadic Pathway, and so we have a couple of different forms of income coming in.

Suzy

You bring up a really good point that you obviously have skills that you gained in your work before you quit, before you started traveling. And you never know who you're going to meet along the way; I think that is something to be open to—what those opportunities can look like once you start traveling.

Chad and Brittany

It was definitely nerve-wracking, just not having a job or anything when we left for Greece. We just had a lot of faith, and we did have—what, we sold our house, so we had savings and things like that. But not having income coming in was definitely scary, and it's definitely a part of this journey when you start out with traveling and worldschooling. We were just—I was just very fortunate with the program that we did. I met some amazing people and we went from there.

Suzy

It's one way to structure your finances so that you have at least a runway to hit the road and travel. And maybe at some point, return to work or whatever that looks like. Or again, being open to opportunities along the way can be really cool as well. And to get a better idea of what spending has looked like for you all on your travels, I'm curious if you have any tips or tricks on the expense side for travel.

Chad and Brittany

We like to slow travel and be in a location a little bit longer. So we've found that for Airbnb, the longer you stay, the better rate you usually get, and you can ask for that, and the hosts have been pretty accommodating in places we've found. We've also done things like we're doing right now with TrustedHousesitters where we get our accommodations taken care of just in exchange for watching pets while some folks are on vacation. It's been great to have the dog and the cat in the house again, you know, and the kids love it. So it gives us a chance to give them some responsibilities that we don't always typically have. I would say Airbnb is where I find most of our housing, and that's probably going to be your biggest cost, like Chad said. Once I know the dates that we're going to be there, I'll put it in, do a search, and then I have a range that I'll look for, and then I'll message the hosts and speak to them about different rates. "Would you do this for this month since we're doing more of a long-term stay and not short-term?" And most have been pretty accommodating, which is really nice. I think our next biggest thing would probably be, depending on where you're going, flights can be expensive, but if you're in Europe, it's actually pretty easy to get places for fairly cheap. Food costs over here in Europe aren't as much as they are over in the States. Overall, I would say maybe 3,000 to 3,500 is a good estimate for what we spend each month on housing, adventures, food, going out to dinner. We do a lot of cooking at home, so that saves some money there. But we do like to go out and explore and try new food for that culture and things like that.

Suzy

You're on a TrustedHousesitters stay right now in Ireland. You have another one set up there. I'm curious, have you done other ones in Europe? It sounds like it's worked well for you.

Chad and Brittany

Yeah. This is our first one. So far it's worked really well. We're here a little over a month in Ireland without any housing costs. The one thing that we do have to offset with the housing is a car rental. We need a car rental here, where in a lot of Europe where we've stayed, we've been able to walk and we haven't needed a car. We'll rent a car here and there to do adventures, explore, and stuff. So it's kind of helped with offsetting the cost, or not paying for a car rental and housing.

Suzy

There are some places where you really do want to have a car for flexibility or there's a lot to see. Ireland being one of those places, I imagine, then if you can offset that with not having accommodation, it does make the overall travel expenses a little smoother.

Chad and Brittany

Yeah. I would recommend TrustedHousesitters. Your dates may not necessarily always line up, so you have to be flexible with that or work around that schedule. But it could very well benefit a lot of people when they're starting to travel. It's a big cost saver. Why we do the slow travel is so we can actually unpack, get into a routine, and truly immerse ourselves in the culture and where we are. We know that we're not going to hit everything. We know we're not going to be able to do every spot in that country, but that just means we get to come back and explore. For example, when we were with the school program last year, we were in Kotor, Montenegro for three months. It was their winter season, so a lot of stuff was shut down. But we knew we wanted to come back, and the opportunity came up and we went back for a month and a half. We were there before we got here to Ireland, and it was amazing going back and having the familiarity of the spot as well. Even the kids had said that it's cool being back to a place we've already been, but exploring even more so than what we did before. So you don't have to fit everything in all in one time you're there. You can always go back.

Suzy

And things really do change within the seasons. I find that you can experience a place totally differently, especially if there are true seasons, like from snow to tons of sun. And what are the kids' overall thoughts and impressions over the last two years?

Chad and Brittany

Mm-hmm. Very much. Mm-hmm. They have been great. It's amazing how resilient kids are. I don't think as adults we give them enough credit. They are, I think, more adaptable than we are for sure. In our experience doing the school program, jumping right into community right away was key, and the community aspect was more important to us than we had actually realized when we decided to go this route. So now the kids have friends all over the world in all kinds of different time zones. They get to talk to them on their tablets every once in a while, and it's really fun to reconnect and do that kind of stuff. It's a little bit harder without the community, so you have to actually be more intentional about going to places, going to playgrounds and going to places where the other kids are going to be. But they've gotten really close with each other; their relationship has really blossomed since we've been doing this. So that's always fun to see. Sometimes, you know, everybody has their ups and downs, like "I want to go home, I want to see my cousins, I want to do this." And that's fine. We talk through that and we can get through that. But you know, they always have something to look forward to if they're not feeling the best about it. If they're having a bad day, it's like, "We're going to go home soon, we'll see your cousins then." We get a lot of intentional family time over the summer when the other kids are off from school. So that's been fantastic for us. When the kids do say, "I miss my cousins," or "I want to go home," it's, "Well, they're in school just like you are right now, so they're not going to be able to play during the day." Because they're thinking about what happened in the summer where they were outside playing all day, they got to be with each other and stuff. So that kind of helps explain a little bit that we're going back in the summer, so they're off of school and you get to play with them a lot more than if we were there now. I mean, it is hard when you miss birthdays or holidays and things like that, but we have grown as a family. And as Chad said, they are so flexible and resilient when it comes to moving places on travel days. Levi actually said at the end of last year when we were heading home for the summer—we had about 24 hours of travel getting back from Italy to New York—when we headed back out this past year, Levi was asking, "How long's the flight?" It's like, "It's only five hours." He's like, "We got this, Mom. We did twelve hours before." And I was like, "You're right, buddy, we did." And for someone who's six years old to have that kind of mindset and to process that, it's just been really amazing to see. And then also seeing them fit into the culture and meeting new people on playgrounds and just walking up to kids and starting to play with them—they're just very comfortable, and it's been a joy. It's like, this is why we're doing what we're doing.

Suzy

I love it. We're doing the same thing this summer, having that intentional time with family and friends during the summer break instead of traveling as much during those two months or so, because then we can take advantage of some of the flexibility that they have that we find just doesn't always work out the way you think it might when it's during the traditional school year timeframe for friends and family. And your travel experiences led you to create the Nomadic Pathway app and resources. Tell me more about what Nomadic Pathway is and how it can help families.

Chad and Brittany

When we were in Syros, Greece, I had this captive audience that was doing the same thing we're doing—a lot of like-minded people. So I sent out a poll of what people would like, and Nomadic Pathway was born out of that. Our mission statement is culture, community, and service. And basically, it's a learning platform for families to actually learn the location that they're in. We realized that we could actually travel and still be in our comfort zone. As an introvert myself, getting out and talking to people and learning new places and things isn't my specialty. I wanted my kids to be a little bit more outgoing than I am. Brittany makes all the friends; I just show up. So Nomadic Pathway is basically a program that the whole family can do. It's not just for kids, but it can get you out of your comfort zone and learn the location that you're in. You're talking with locals, you're trying the new foods, you're learning the history, you're figuring out a way you can give back to the community you're spending time in.

Suzy

That is a really great way to, like you said, really focus on how to connect with the locations that you're in. You have the worldschooling checklist that helps people get started. What are some of the other resources that people can look forward to when they join the app?

Chad and Brittany

Originally it started with the World Learning Guide, which is basically a printable that's on Etsy. You can print it out and then you take it with you to your location, and then every location you can fill out a new one. It immerses the kids in the culture of the place. They figure out the flag of the country, the population. There's all sorts of different things for them to figure out: monuments, animals, wildlife, religions, that kind of thing. And then we decided when we started, we didn't have a checklist or anything to give us a starting point. So let's build the checklist. So we built this free checklist for people that can just get the ball rolling, just get the discussions started. And so basically the World Learning Guide—and we built an app after that so you can use the World Learning Guide in conjunction with the free app, and you can connect with other families that are on there. There's a leaderboard, so anybody that's competitive can—you know, the more things you fill out of your Nomadic Pathway, the more points you get, so you can see where your standing is worldwide. And it's just a nice way for families to connect with other families.

Suzy

Kids love any opportunity for a little bit of competition, right? And then those resources are great for families that are starting out that want a quick checklist on things to think about, because sometimes you don't know what you don't know. I also love that you have a quiz called "Where Should Your Family Worldschool Next?" because there's a lot of conversations in the Facebook groups and all these different places like, "Where should I go? What's a good location for me?" And our family is pretty much mapped out for like the next year or so, but summer and fall of 2027 is wide open for us. So I'm going to pop onto this quiz, "Where should your family go next?" and see what comes up as a suggestion. The first question talks about passport strength, because of course visas, all those different things to understand. And then budget plays a big role. That's why I talk about this a lot, because there are people who are traveling on a, you know, let's say shoestring budget and that's okay, too. Or some people have some more budget flexibility. I'm going to put us in the "comfortable with extras" category. Question three is talking about the crew, the ages of the kids, because that does play a role, right? Like some areas I think really work well for little ones, and then others maybe are when kids can navigate a big city on their own a little bit more. We're mainly in the primary age category now. "How long do you plan to stay in one place?" This is helpful for families that are like, you know, maybe they want to quick travel, two weeks or less, or they're like, "Hey, we really need to slow down three months or more." I like the one to two months or the three months, so I'm going to start with one to two months. "How important is finding your worldschooling tribe?" So this talks about finding other families. I'm going to put that this is essential. I do want to have some community when we're wherever we are, fall of 2027. Then six of eight question is "What matters most? History, culture, beach, nature, adventure." I'm going to go with nature and adventure. Climate is very important, right? Some people don't want to pack their winter jacket; others want those seasons. I'm going to put that we like four seasons. And language barriers, so this is helpful: how much English is spoken? Or are you down for the immersion—is that the whole point of it? "I don't speak the language, but I'm going to pop in and figure it out." I'll put it in the middle. So after going through those eight different questions, it pops up my top destinations based on my answers. And this is great: Sofia or Bansko, Bulgaria. And we know there's a great worldschooling community in the Bansko area. Antigua, Guatemala is also actually top of the list for that year. Mark and I have been there before; it's a great place. I know there's a lot of great worldschooling opportunities. So this is awesome. And then it even lists some other matches for our families: Chiang Mai, Puerto Vallarta, Costa Rica, Kathmandu—I'd love to get to Nepal. So this is an awesome way for families to get thinking about what is important for them with the destinations that they want to pick next, help them narrow that down a little bit based on the budget or the seasons, and then also gives them a list to help get them started. This is fun. What prompted starting this quiz?

Chad and Brittany

So the way we do it, we wing it a lot of the time. One of the things is the decision fatigue of where we're going to go next. And that's something you don't think about until you're in it. We've spent a lot of nights sitting around talking about where we want to go next, why we want to go next, what does it look like cost-wise to get to that place, is it even doable, are the kids going to have a good time. After months of that, let's try to build something that could narrow that down for us and give us a better starting spot instead of us just kind of looking at Google Flights and throwing darts at things. Let's give ourselves a bit more of a starting point, and maybe we can help other people do the same thing and create some value for other families.

Suzy

That's super helpful. Anything else you want to share about Nomadic Pathway? And we'll link at the end, of course, where people can connect with the app.

Chad and Brittany

The app is free. The destination finder is free. Just go to nomadicpathway.com; you can get the checklist for free.

Suzy

I love it. We've talked a lot about some awesome family travels you've had over the last two years, also about the resources you provide with Nomadic Pathway. But I always like to make sure we're keeping it real with some of the challenges of long-term and slow family travel. We'll definitely touch on the wins as well, but...

Chad and Brittany

I think the decision fatigue is what has been the hardest. When we set out, we kind of know the path that we want, but we don't necessarily book it all before we leave so that we have the flexibility to change our minds. We were in Spain from January to March, and we thought we were going to head up to Ireland right after in the beginning of April. And then we discussed and talked and were like, "Well, what if we go back to Kotor for a little bit and let Ireland warm up a little bit so it's not as cold?" And we decided to go back to Kotor, and we loved making that move and going back to a place that we had already been and giving us time there, because we actually also had a community there. The kids had some friends there already.

Suzy

It's nice to have some flexibility. And I will also say you probably had a lot of rain, because it did rain quite a bit in January, February in Spain. So maybe that contributed—you didn't want to go to Ireland and have even more rain.

Chad and Brittany

Have more rain. There was quite a bit of rain when we first got there. I think it was, what, two weeks of rain. Yeah, we got blamed for bringing it. We showed up and then the rain came, so...

Suzy

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, bummer. But let's also talk about the wins.

Chad and Brittany

We've done this for, what, almost two years now. And is every day perfect? No, but we've made it through, and the kids are thriving, we're thriving. That's one of the bigger wins. And when we're talking about things and the kids randomly bring up memories from our travels and stuff, it's like, this is awesome. I love this. Even the more difficult days have been still really good.

Suzy

I love when my kids sometimes say, like, "Mom, remember when we were in that country?" and then like maybe even the country is wrong, but I'm thinking the fact that they even have that as a reference point—so cool that they remember this story and connect it with a place that not every kid gets a chance to go to. Anything else to add to that, Chad?

Chad and Brittany

Yeah. Yeah. The resiliency has been great, just like the story Brittany shared earlier about the long flight and our six-year-old saying, "That's nothing. We got this." We had to sleep in the airport recently, and they actually—we made a fun adventure out of it. So the adaptability that they are getting as human beings is, I think, a big win.

Suzy

Anything can be an adventure with the right mindset, right?

Chad and Brittany

Yeah, you just have to go in doing worldschooling or traveling with your family—not every day is going to be perfect. You just have to go with the flow and figure it out, and it'll be okay.

Suzy

Let me wrap up with a couple of lightning round questions to get to understand you and your family a little bit more. I'm curious, if you could only visit or live in three countries, what would they be?

Chad and Brittany

I would live in Greece. Anytime we've asked the kids, Greece has always come back up for our family. So I would say live in Greece would be one big one.

Suzy

And was that particularly Syros or other parts of Greece as well?

Chad and Brittany

I think the fact that there's—I think there's two hundred and fifty or something like that Greek islands, which was something I learned, which was really cool. And they're all different. So you can kind of choose your own adventure of how you want to live in the same country. So that I really like about Greece specifically. And Syros was—yeah, it was really nice there. We enjoyed the simplicity of the island.

Suzy

So Greece is one spot, but you got two more countries. What would those countries be for living or traveling?

Chad and Brittany

Another one we wanted to travel to is Switzerland. That one's high up on our list. Just the pictures we see, it's just like, whoa. Have you been to Switzerland?

Suzy

Yeah, like two years ago. Gotta save up for it, but it's worth it. Absolutely.

Chad and Brittany

Yeah. Heard that part. And then the last one I believe is Thailand.

Suzy

That would be one way to balance the budget—hit up Switzerland and then Thailand, and then you know, just spread out the expenses over both trips. What is your favorite travel-related movie, book, or story, or things you like to watch in the travel-related world?

Chad and Brittany

Correct. Let's get the spreadsheet going, figure it out. So before we sold everything and we were making the decision when we were home, we as a family really enjoyed watching The Bucket List Family. And I think it helped the kids kind of relate to the kids that they had. The kids still enjoy watching it.

Suzy

They have 1.5 million subscribers and 500-plus videos, so a lot of different content that people could get an idea of what traveling as a family with three kids could look like. You know, and every journey will be different, but sometimes just being able to visualize it helps put into context what it could be like for you and your family. What is the first thing you do when you arrive somewhere new?

Chad and Brittany

We go to the grocery store. And I do the cooking. I used to cook for a living, so I have a pretty extensive background in that. So I love going to a grocery store in a foreign country, especially if I don't understand the language. I'll be sitting there with my phone and my Google Translate trying to figure out what stuff is. And sometimes it's like, "Well, this is not a winner, but I'm glad we tried it."

Suzy

And what's one piece of advice for a family just starting out?

Chad and Brittany

I think the best piece of advice I would say is go slow. You're not going to be able to see and do everything at one time. And if you try, you might not have a great time. You're going to have grumpy kids, you're going to be grumpy, everybody's tired, jet-lagged, all that stuff. There's some things you're just not going to be able to see. I think if you go into the mindset that you're not going to be able to see and do everything, then it will make it easier for you and your family. I think one thing that we've really tried to do is still have that routine. It's okay to have those days at home, just relaxing, 'cause the kids need a break, we need a break. And like Chad said, you're not going to see everything. You can always go back and explore another time.

Suzy

Like you went back to Montenegro and got to see it in a whole different season and know that it's always going to be there waiting for you. If people want to connect with you and your family and learn more about Nomadic Pathway, where can they find you?

Chad and Brittany

You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at The Traveling Slaters and Nomadic Pathway. You can go to nomadicpathway.com. The free checklist is at nomadicpathway.com or there's a link down below. I hope that you can get to it. Anyone can reach out; we'd be happy to answer any questions. Social media, just, you know, DM us at The Traveling Slaters and we're almost always available.

Suzy

I'm going to link all your social media, the checklists, of course that quiz. So if people are having that location decision fatigue, they can pop on there and get some insights on where they should go next. But this has been so wonderful to learn more about you and your family, and I appreciate you guys coming on. Thank you so much.

Chad and Brittany

Thanks for having us. Suzy, thank you so much for having us. This has been great. This has been awesome.