FAQs

Absolutely! Hub participants are deeply steeped in various aspects of the hub country, learning history, geography, social studies, ecology, language, and all kinds of art forms. While much of this learning happens through experience, participants also learn from experts who provide engaging lessons, talks, and hands-on opportunities. While some sessions promote play and fun through experiences not connected to culture like yoga or horseback riding, we strive to keep 80% of activities connected to culture and place. We do not provide traditional education in reading, writing, and mathematics, nor can we support a family’s specific homeschooling objectives.

Yes! We encourage it! Upon enrollment, you’ll receive a 10% discount on your Standard Package fees for any future hub, expiring after 2 years. Our model is standardized across hubs, so if you like some of our variables like one-on-one language tutoring, Thursday Field Trips, or our weekly schedule, know that we mimic those elements from country to country. The cultural pieces, of course, change. You may also enroll for two consecutive months at one hub– for instance, both Oaxaca hubs. Please know that programming and field trips are identical each month in one country. To receive your discount for your second hub, simply Contact Us.

Also, don’t forget to join our newsletter here in the footer, as we sometimes offer promotions where you can enroll in more than one hub at the same time for deeper discounts.

We’re honored to join a small but growing global community of worldschooling hubs. We know, have met, and have talked with leaders of the Luxor Learning Hub, Worldschooling Pop-up Hubs, Wild Life Worldschool, the Hive Adventure, and more, and we have vast amounts of respect for each. All hubs contribute differently to the burgeoning worldschooling community and harness the gifts in our particular communities.

Deliberate Detour focuses on what we value most: cultural immersion. Our hubs draw together the elements that feed our souls: walks past gorgeous murals or ancient ruins, hands-on exploration of traditional craft, culinary discoveries through cooking, stories from history, market visits and fruit tasting, and so much more.

Our participating families travel the world because they love the richness of cultures all over the planet, find other ways of life fascinating, strive to absorb the beauty of these places, and dream of showing their children these gifts. They understand that immersive travel changes lives by opening minds, dismantling stereotypes, and creating respect… all critical for a more peaceful planet. Read more about our hubs here. 

We spend many months researching, curating, and negotiating all program elements to provide the highest-quality learning experiences possible. As we prepare our schedule, we consider high-traffic times, hotter parts of the day, instructor availability, and busy seasons to maximize comfort and ease. We build activities while respecting local customs like siestas. We listen to the needs of local staff and their family obligations.

All that is to say, our detailed schedule is a complex labor of love that evolves until close to hub launch. Enrolled families receive the entire schedule– with dates and times– 4 to 6 weeks prior to the start of their hub. They may receive a less specific schedule describing experiences earlier. Also, we share as much as possible on this site’s country pages (Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico) and within newsletters to spark excitement. Please join our newsletter at the bottom of this page. If you’re curious about a particular experience or activity, feel free to contact us.

Join our newsletter in the footer for up-to-date enrollment information for each hub. Periodically, we publish the ages of other participants.

To participate in the month-long hubs, children must be 7 to 15-years-old on the day the hub begins. To remain fair to all families, we do not offer flexibility with these requirements. Children of all ages are invited to participate in Thursday Field Trips. Children under the age of 3 are free, and children 3 to 6 pay to join their older siblings. Any child under the age of 7 who joins Thursday Field Trips must attend with a paying adult. Prices for these opportunities are shown on each country page: Guatemala, Peru, Mexico.

At this point, our programs support only children ages 7 to 15. We do not have tips or resources on securing babysitting for younger children. Younger and older siblings and family members are welcome to join Thursday Field Trips for additional fees. Children younger than 7 must be accompanied on these excursions by a paying adult. Prices for these opportunities are shown on each country page: Guatemala, Peru, Mexico.

We obligate each child to do their best to engage with the material, content, and opportunities put before them. Many caring adults have spent time curating and organizing top-quality, enriching experiences designed to open minds, deepen cultural understanding, and build connections between the children and between your child and the host country. We will respectfully but firmly guide all children to listen and participate in each activity put before them. Out of respect for different abilities, we will never force a child to remain engaged and sitting for an unbearable length of time. Each hub will offer at least two options for children who cannot sit for very long; this might be a Lego corner, a reading nook, a gross motor play area, or an art table. If your family follows an unschooling approach that eschews obligatory activities, please read more here on our About All Hubs page

We welcome children ages 7 through 15 in our hubs, and we do acknowledge the value multi-age groups have in creating compassion, connection, and understanding of different abilities and needs. However, we also know that a mature teenager might desire and thrive with additional responsibilities while a younger child might have their own desires. While we keep the entire group together often, throughout the week, participants age 7 to 10 and 11 to 15 might break off for their own activities, splitting up for community walks or experiences. Additionally, teenagers may be offered leadership roles within the group. These will be created and offered at the behest of hubs staff, and they may include supporting younger children, teaching an activity, researching a portion of an excursion, or leading the way on a walk.

Our hubs include a maximum of 16 children and two adults. While at the hub, sometimes one adult conducts activities while the other works in an office; however, when outside of the hub space, two adults remain with the group, for a ratio of 1 to 8.

While we try not to disrupt parents’ days, on rare occasions, we ask for parent volunteers for particular outings. For example, while wandering the winding lanes of a traditional produce market, we may require a ratio of 1 to 4.

Deliberate Detour’s founder, Stephanie Tolk, has traveled, lived, volunteered, and worked in nearly 50 countries on five continents. She’s spent a significant amount of time in each hub country. Stephanie and her team select host cities based on a specific set of criteria including the availability of a diverse set of learning and play experiences, cultural and historic richness, proximity to an international airport, crime and physical safety statistics, the allure for traveling families, and more.

Programs take place in English, and all hub staff meet our language criteria: a high-intermediate ranking with TOEFL and an upper intermediate ranking with British Council. All hub program participants can enroll in 6, 8, or 10 hours per week of local language tutoring (Spanish in Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico) after hub hours.

Hub staff intentionally sprinkle in phrases in the local language so that all children pick up basic sentences. For example, they may ask, “Estamos listos?” (Are we ready?) when leaving the hubs space for outings or “Ven a comer” when calling participants to eat lunch each day.

Our worldschooling hubs are designed with children in mind. We do a lot of work to create exceptional learning experiences for them, and we also work hard to build community between participants through thoughtful Morning and Closing Circles and paired activities. Our hubs are designed to give parents a break to explore on their own, work online, or rest and relax. For these reasons, parents are not included in hub activities.

We best serve:

• The Dabblers: Families considering long-term travel may test the waters, executing a shorter adventure before arranging something longer-term. Often these families seek a community to tap into and time with more experienced worldschoolers who can offer advice.

• The Short-timers. These families have a set amount of time to travel: three months, six months, or one year. They plan their itinerary to fit in everything they want to see before heading back to home life and often schedule in a worldschooling hub to anchor their time away.

• The Newcomers: Newer worldschoolers who envision a long (or permanent) amount of time away from home benefit from connecting with more experienced worldschoolers who may answer questions about education, pace of travel, and more.

• The Experienced: More experienced worldschooling families sometimes notice that their children need to slow down or that they long for more enduring peer relationships. Deliberate Detour Hubs may meet these desires.

• The Sapped: A family at any stage may feel sapped or drained! Families who need someone else to do the planning for a change… parents who need time apart from your children, we got you.

While your family may fall into one of these groups, our participants thrive when all of us– staff, parents, and children– share the same expectations. We’ve articulated our ideas on a good fit on the website here.

No electronics are allowed at Deliberate Detour hubs for participants of any age. Parents will receive at least one WhatsApp update per day during hub days and can reach their children through hub staff at any time in case of emergency. Enrolled families will receive more detailed expectations about communication and emergency preparedness before their hub begins.

In the event that a child brings any electronic device, whether or not it can connect to the internet, the device will be held in a secure location until pick-up time.

This depends on what you choose. Participants can be in our care anywhere from 18 to 28 hours per week. Children may be dropped off between 9:30 and 10:00 am Mondays through Wednesdays and must be picked up between 2:30 and 3:00 pm. Thursday Field Trips will be anywhere from 5 to 8 hours long. Parents may add on 6, 8, or 10 additional hours of language tutoring.

Please visit the country page you’re interested in to learn more about a typical day. And also please understand that, while we strive to offer this schedule weekly, plans may shift due to national holidays, strikes, etc.

Worldschooling families employ all sorts of educational modalities for their children. They might keep pace with their child’s peers at home by purchasing curricula or bringing along workbooks aligned with their child’s grade level. Some piece together learning with lessons from Outschool or Khan Academy, building upon those with readings or writing prompts. Other families lean on self-directed learning approaches, where a child’s interests and motivations dictate learning. Still others enroll their children in schools internationally, whether at a rigorous International Baccalaureate institution, an alternative school, or anything in between.

Deliberate Detour Worldschooling Hubs provide experiential learning opportunities and do not rely on any specific pedagogy or methodology. While we may reflect on an outing or field trip experience with a conversation back at the hub space, we do not strive to cement learning through essay writing or article reading. Parents should not expect that the child keep pace with peers at home, advance in reading, writing, or math, or move to another grade level as a result of participation in our hub. We provide real-world experiences that intersect with geology, geography, history, social sciences, and possibly religious studies, augmenting other homeschooling choices families have made.

We have a whole page on this site that describes worldschooling and offers resources for further reading, which you can access here.