My 14-year-old does online school while traveling the world. He's more prepared for real life than most adults I know.

My son has done a mix of online school and world travel for several years.

It's helped him become more independent and resourceful.

Phil Lockwood My 14-year-old son has spent the past six years doing online learning while traveling the world.

Travel helped him become independent and resourceful.

When we're home, he runs his own businesses.

"Worldschooling" isn't ideal for every family or even my other kids, but it's been great for my son.

An hour ago, Colt was leaning over the side of a Zodiac boat in Icy Bay, Alaska, lowering a Niskin bottle into glacier-fed water.

"The things we're gonna be looking for are salinity, clarity, temperature, depth," he told me as he collected a sample.

"We're also going to be looking at levels of chlorophyll and plankton." Before heading back to our main expedition ship , he also helped run a Secchi disk test, tow a pair of plankton nets, and haul chunks of floating ice aboard for the ship's science team to examine — all part of collecting data for a citizen-science project for NOAA.

Colt is my 14-year-old son.

For our family, this is the latest destination in six years of global travel.

For him, it's also school.

In 2020, our family began combining school and travel — and Colt has kept this arrangement going My family spent years traveling around the world to places like Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

Phil Lockwood In early 2020, all three of my children were attending school remotely, same as just about every American kid.