A mom who decided to take her daughter out of school to travel the world instead has clapped back at haters who worry the youngster might be missing out.
Like most parents, Elena Ollick, 41, from Florida, assumed that when she became a mom she'd be sending her daughter to a traditional public school.
But soon after daughter Alexis started school, her teacher noticed she seemed 'bored in class' and suggested they 'test her for giftedness.'
'When the test came back, it showed that she was in the 99.9 percentile, and we were suggested a gifted program - which, upon further research, turned out to be just a program where they get more homework and more assignments rather than actually learning something more challenging or being transferred to higher grades,' Ollick explained during a recent chat with the Daily Mail.
That didn't feel right to the mom-of-one, so she started to look for other options, including homeschooling.
It was then that she came across a concept known as 'worldschooling,' which involves learning through travel experiences, and it seemed like a perfect fit for them.
'There's so much that you can learn when you're traveling - from going to museums, to talking to local people and having different cultural experiences, to even math like currency exchanges, train timetables and so many other opportunities while you're traveling,' Ollick dished.
The mom-of-one explained that they had always been avid travelers and had been taking Alexis on trips since she was little.
Alexis, who is now 14, hasn't been in school in three years and she doesn't have a set schedule and doesn't follow any curriculum.
She started to look back and realized just how much the youngster had learned from their endeavors around the world.
'We went to the Galapagos, for example, and she learned so much about marine life, evolution, history and all sorts of subjects [there], and then she came and created a report for her classmates,' she recalled.
'When we visited Hiroshima in Japan and went through the Peace Museum - which was a very tough experience with a lot of crying - and this set my daughter off on a rabbit hole of learning everything about types of nuclear reactors and nuclear accidents.'
Three years ago they officially took their daughter out of school and started 'worldschooling' her while traveling the globe.
That means their daughter, who is now 14, doesn't have a set schedule and doesn't follow any curriculum.
'She truly follows her passions, and whatever it is that she's learning and doing in the moment,' Ollick said.
'We don't worry about schoolwork. She definitely doesn't spend any time sitting and doing schoolwork. [Instead], we are focusing on exploring and experiencing as much as we can.'
She insisted that there's a slew of benefits to this type of learning, from her daughter having the 'freedom to explore subjects at her own pace, based on her own interest' to being exposed to 'so many varied types of subjects and ideas that she normally wouldn't be exposed to.'
Ollick said: 'She definitely doesn't spend any time sitting and doing schoolwork. [Instead], we are focusing on exploring and experiencing as much as we can'
Ollick is insistent that her daughter is learning more from seeing the world than traditional education would have provided.
'In general, you become such a capable human because you spent your childhood traveling - navigating airports, navigating train stations, exposing yourself to so many different ways of doing things,' she added.
'As Alexis was able to comprehend things like train timetables or platforms or airport boards or gates or anything like that, I had her navigate as early as seven years old.
'We would have her navigate in foreign countries, in foreign languages and foreign alphabets so that she would learn to be capable of figuring out anything she wants.'
They spend their days 'exploring' and visiting museums, and Ollick is insistent that her daughter is learning more from seeing the world than traditional education would have provided.
She often documents their lifestyle online, but she admitted that it has sparked a slew of backlash from people who claim she's not giving Alexis a real education and is 'ruining or spoiling her.'
'[They're just trying] to justify why they spent all those years in school and suffered, and why they spent all those thousands of dollars in college and suffered. But those are just blips on the radar,' Ollick said of her haters.
'My response to haters, honestly, is no response. Because if you don't see how much better it is to be able to school in whatever way works for your child and to have your child be free to follow their passions and interests - especially in 2026 - then there's really no reason to waste any of my time trying to explain it to you.'
In response to those who worry Alexis might be missing out on a normal experience or not learning enough, Ollick boldly stated: 'That makes me laugh.'
She said her daughter is 'a lot more motivated' than she ever was in school and is not being 'overloaded with useless learning.'
'She will come across something that she read. She will instantly Google whatever questions are in her head, or write down something that she wants to research for later at home,' she explained.
'She also gets on random subject kicks - like right now she decided she wanted to learn algebra again.
'There were other times where she wanted to learn biology, so she studied biology. It’s basically whatever it is that she’s interested in at that moment.'
She often documents their lifestyle online, but she admitted that it has sparked a slew of backlash from people who claim she's not giving Alexis a real education.
She said her daughter is 'a lot more motivated' than she ever was in school and is not being 'overloaded with useless learning'.
'As far as missing out on a normal school experience - do you mean missing out on dealing with bullies? Or missing out on dealing with girl cliques and pressure to dress a certain way, pressure to act a certain way, pressure to conform?' she added.
'Or are you talking about missing out on experiences with mean teachers? Or missing out on loads and loads of homework or stress or useless tests? Which part of the normal school experience would one think she's missing out on?
'She has more social interaction now than any of us ever did [in school]... She spends more time with other kids of different ages than anyone I know in public school.'
Ollick now runs her own company called Worldschooling Journeys through which she curates 'group trips' with other worldschooling families.
'It was started out of the desire to connect all the other worldschooling families who are traveling all over the world and are feeling a little bit isolated with their family unit from all the other homeschoolers and worldschoolers,' she explained.
'Our goal is to connect as many families all over the world that are living the same lifestyle so that they could have the co-parenting village that we all have lost a long time ago.'
She hopes that by sharing her story she will inspire others to start worldschooling their kids.
'If people want to continue teaching their kids outdated information as the world is changing, it is their prerogative,' she concluded.
'The best way to raise a kid that is ready to take on the world in these changing times is to teach them through life itself - to teach them not subjects, but skills: resilience skills, life skills, critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills. And that's exactly what worldschooling teaches.
'[My daughter] has retained and gained more value from traveling than she ever would at a traditional school.'