When the trip becomes a school and the world becomes a playground

Bel and Javier tried it during a three-year family road trip to Nepal; Ingrid and Andrés did it in South America and involved their girls in educational projects, while Patricia and Florent have been nomads with two little ones for two years.

They are stories of families who embarked on incredible adventures in the belief that discovering destinations and cultures with their children would make them wiser, but above all, happier. This will be told on October 28 in Madrid, together with experts in pedagogy, education and children’s health, during the second edition of Mama Travel Fest, the only national event aimed at traveling mothers and families.

“Many people will say that our children have not learned anything by not going to school, but we have learned many things, we have learned to live slowly, to embrace uncertainty, to eat almost everything, including many languages, but rather everything to adapt to us. now accept everything that comes to us”, this is how Bel Sirvent sums up what her two little ones, aged 10 and 12, brought in their backpacks, after three years of traveling overland from Madrid to Kathmandu and back.

This family, known as La Vagamundo, he drove his van through places as diverse as Swedish Lapland, Poland, Iran or Pakistan, among many others, until he reached Nepal. The five did it together, accompanied by their dog, by their fears and insecurities and even, for about four months, by a young German for whom they made room in their little home on wheels.

The experiences, the best legacy of the trip, were many, as the matriarch of this daring family says, but yes, a large part of them came after overcoming all kinds of adversity, such as going through two confinements due to the pandemic, one of them – 25 degree temperature, facing mechanical challenges in the most inhospitable places, struggling with complicated bureaucratic challenges, suffering from health problems or being escorted by the military to be able to work in a school for vulnerable children in Pakistan’s Sind region.

But Bel, Javier and their children, Jara and Oliver, overcame everything, returning with their retinas full of enriching experiences and turning the most complicated into maturity. They will talk about these experiences in detail in Madrid during the Mama Travel Fest, before an audience eager to be inspired by their adventures, almost 300 families, including children and babies, eager to confirm with their speech that travel is a fantastic school in motion.

If you still need more confirmation, you’ll also hear the testimony of two other traveling families with great stories to tell. Like Ingrid and Andrés, an Andalusian couple consisting of a pedagogue and a teacher, who decided to show their three daughters that there are a thousand and one ways to learn besides sitting at a desk.

That’s how it was born Api’s Flight, a travel and learning project that took them to visit all types of schools with different transformative education projects over a productive year while jogging through South America aboard a 4×4. They thus pollinated many schools, and enjoyed the sweet aftertaste which hospitality leaves in all its varieties; being hosted by more than 80 families, invited by the singer Carlos Vives, received with affection by Pepe Mújica, former president of Uruguay, or feeling the voice of Jorge Drexler as close as another friend.

Together with them will also be Patricia and Florent, who more than two years ago decided to get out of the wheel they felt in, to become a nomadic family and share 24 hours a day with their two children who travel around the world in a motorhome. “We educate by living, we live by educating and that’s how we learn,” says the mother of Los Viajadores, as they have renamed themselves.

To complete this family travel festival that becomes Mama Travel Fest, the point of view of the professionals is missing, those who with their coherence and knowledge support what these three families have learned along the way, that travel is an incredible school and the world is a fun playground.

The researcher and the teacher Heike Freire, an international reference in Green Pedagogy, will talk about the benefits that teaching in contact with nature has on children’s development, and how travel is a fantastic opportunity to do so. There will also be a first aid workshop taught by pediatricians Elena Blanco and Gonzalo OñoroMoreover, Ares Gonzalez, teacher, parenting expert and father of four children, will provide keys to enjoying the trip with children and meeting the challenges that arise along the way.

Mama travel party It was born in 2022 in Barcelona to show mothers that they can continue to travel with their children despite fear and the external and internal voices that insist otherwise. After the success of the first edition, this innovative event comes to Madrid thanks to the support of YayI Insurance, insurance company that takes care of traveling families, Home exchange, the largest home exchange platform, and Andorra Tourism, a destination committed to family tourism, three sponsors fully in line with the philosophy behind this festival based on travel, motherhood and sustainability. Wondershare FamiSafe, a complete parental control app, also collaborates.

In addition to the talks, there will be children’s workshops, a free movement area for babies, a recreation corner and an exhibitor area for brands related to travel, motherhood and sustainability. This festival grows with Mama Sunday, a second day, Sunday, October 29 in space TRIPLE Ferraz, dedicated to mothers who have a few hours of self-care, chat and exchange of experiences.