Unschooling Exchangers

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Comment by Sharon Wallace on June 19, 2009 at 12:53pm

Hi Paige and Bea!

We're just home last night after our 3 months in Washington State...GREAT time!

I've been looking at another home exchange resource...part of www.couchsurfing.com. There's a family exchange group there as well as an unschooling group and a homeschooling group.

Anyone wandering through Costa Rica for the next two months is welcome to visit.

More after I catch up on sleep...4 planes in 24 hours just about did me in.

btw Paige...there's a BUNCH of McKinneys here in my town in CR...mostly Baha'i faith people.

Comment by Paige McKinney on June 5, 2009 at 11:09am

I joined just now, Hi!

I'm Paige, live in SoCal, in Orange County, in a suburb about 15 miles (20 minutes) from the beach, Lake Forest (on the border of Irvine).

I have enjoyed some unique traveling within the states when I was 19-21. I traveled the country following the Dead around, living out of my pop-top vw w/a couple friends, for a summer or several months...before we ran out of money and had to go back to civilization for a real job (tho we did plenty of bartering while we traveled).

That experience really opened my mind up to EVERYTHING. I have not been able to travel with my family outside of the U.S. (Hawaii is as far as close as we've gotten). But I am very interested in bartering travel, (aka home exchanges!) esp in places we wouldn't ordinarily be able to afford, through traditional travel plans. I think home exchanging is a fantastic idea. And hope to learn more about it as I prepare ideas for future travels with my family.

I look forward to reading the information and experiences everyone here has shared.

Paige
mom to 3 boys: 11,8 and 5

Comment by Bea Mantovani on May 14, 2009 at 5:12pm

Hello! I'm Bea, living in Montreal.

Comment by Sharon Wallace on February 12, 2009 at 6:48pm

Here I am. We've been busier than usual lately, what with last month's earthquake (Maia was 30' up in a tree when it struck), and having discovered www.couchsurfing.com. Oooh, I'm so into socializing:)

Hi Jeni and Kelli! We like both Victoria and Santa Barbara. Did an exchange in Victoria a few winters ago...the winter when everything froze and it snowed. Not a shovel to be found. We went through Santa Brabara on our Amtrak Summer, and loved what we saw of it...mostly a nice railway station, but we did read up on the history of the town, and have it on our list.

I thought I'd post a list of our 2009 swaps, with links...you can figure out how it worked, and I'm happy to answer questions. SO...

We're starting our exchange year with our longest swap ever...we'll be exchanging for almost 3 months with a family of 5 on the south end of Whidbey Island, off the Washington coast. We've done two exchanges on Whidbey before, and loved them, so jumped at this one. We arranged it to coincide with a college term, and Maia will be at Skagit Valley College, getting her ducks in a row to take some art courses and get her GED. Or that's the plan so far. The family on Whidbey saw our listing in www.homeexchange.com, and wrote with the offer. We've visited them at their home twice already, while we were on other WA state exchanges.

We return home on June 18, and will be pumped up for couchsurfing and getting in touch with stuff that falls apart on the farm when we travel.

On August 24 we leave for our first of 4 exchanges in Europe. We found reasonable round-trip fares ($1,000 US) for 3 month tickets, and will start off flying into Barcelona for an exchange in nearby Girona (http://homeexchange.com/show.php?id=99783). After 3 weeks there, we probably take the rail to Amalfi, Italy, for a two week stay. http://www.homeexchange.com/show.php?id=89098. That family has already stayed at our home, so it's a non-simultaneous exchange. They brought be a 1 kilo wheel of Parmesan cheese. I'll remember them forever. Then we head to Provence, for a three week stay there. That family is here in Costa Rica as I type, staying at the cloudforest home of a friend of mine...they'll owe her 3 weeks as well. http://www.homeexchange.com/show.php?id=70914 From Provence, we will probably fly (low cost local airlines) back to Italy, to do our final exchange in a home in the olive groves, just over an hour north of Rome...http://www.homeexchange.com/show.php?id=101542. Then we fly home, again from Barcelona, on November 3. We plan to couchsurf for a few days here and there, especially if we travel by rail much.

It's by coincidence that all the exchanges are through homeexchange.com. We also use homeforexchange.com, and digsville.com, and there are other exchange websites.

So that's how our year is going to work. We save every cent we can for the trips...we don't have a TV, don't drive 2 cars, don't buy clothes, make all of our food from scratch and rarely eat out, and we entertain pretty much only at home. No casinos, amusement parks, no malls:) While we're traveling, we live just about the same way...shop in the markets, take public transportation, live on the local economy.

That was long. I just wanted to set it down in print how it works. Maia's best friend, who lives an hour from us here in Costa Rica, will be making the trip with us, which is great for everyone. She went to Europe with us in 2007 as well.

I seriously recommend this, y'all...we could NEVER EVER afford it otherwise.

Sharon

Comment by Kelli on February 8, 2009 at 11:29am

We live in sunny Santa Barbara, CA and looking for home exchanges possibly in the future.

Comment by Jeni Luther on February 3, 2009 at 12:13am

Hey! How wonderful to see this group...
We would really like to get into home exchange! We are a family of three in Victoria BC (gardens, ocean, bald eagles! three bedrooms, TOYS!)...this July we are heading to Glasgow Scotland and we'd LOVE to do an exchange with someone but having never done this before we are in the dark. How would you recommend getting started? Aside from Glasgow we would love to travel other places as well.
Thanks for starting this group Sharon...it sounds like you have LOTS of experience to share.

jeni (and Steven and the lovely wee Finn age 6)

Comment by Sharon Wallace on September 29, 2008 at 4:59pm

I've been MIA here...running back and forth between our (home-exchange) place in Seattle, and our cabin in Concrete. Damn, I wish they'd change that name:) Maybe it has a certain contrarian charm:)

Hi to Gail...Florida is always popular, really...especially after like November...gee.

Che, I did the same thing...joined everything I could even vaguely relate to...I'm thinking about the rock music group now. Gotta be versatile.

Helen, where are you? We stayed in Murren, in the Swiss Alps, as part of an exchange several years ago, and have one maybe coming up in September near Geneva.

I have this great idea for a 12-step program for the seriously addicted home-exchanger...we'll meet in a different country every few months:)

We need to attract some more international unschoolers. Although I'd love to spend some time in the US southwest. I spent one summer working on the Navajo Res in Monument Valley, Utah...a most amazing place. I'd like to do Jackson Hole, and Flagstaff, and, and....

Comment by Helen Schwartz on September 25, 2008 at 4:16pm

Hi,
I've done a couple of home exchanges, one in Switzerland and one in L.A. - we live in a small town in Washington State. We just came back from a not-back-to-school-camp and I am inspired to think about doing some travelling. Exchanges with unschoolers would be a fun way. Helen

Comment by Cheryl Etzel on September 23, 2008 at 5:00pm

I've just joined every group that looks interesting, lol. I would love to host a family, if it's the right time for our schedule!

Comment by Gail Higgins on September 17, 2008 at 9:55pm

Hi Sharon!! We've been discussing home exchanging since staying with you in Seatlle. We probably are in a fairly good location (NE Florida and not far from the beach) I am so ready to do some more traveling!

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