Have you ever written a Curriculum Vitae? It is a more detailed synopsis than a resume and usually used when applying for a scientific, educational, academic or research position. I had never heard of one before, but I guess they are popular in Europe and China, as we were asked to send one to the school that Mozart will go to in China while living with a family there. They are called CV's for short.
It was quite enlightening for me to pull together quickly, looking at her whole education background so far and trying an attempt to explain our unusual lifestyle and choices to folks who have no access to the regular internet ( thus no links) and do not speak English. This sample was translated to Mandarin by the language school we are working with and is a bit heavy on photos as they wanted that ( the educational facts are at the bottom).
Mozart is a fluent trilingual American child born in San Francisco, California area who has been traveling the world with her parents non-stop for the last 9 years to educate her as a global citizen. We started our world trip when she was 5 and she just turned 14, so she is likely the most well traveled child in the world with a kids record for the most global UNESCO sites visited.
She is a happy, out going child who loves to read, sing, make art and play and has a passion for world peace, people and sustainability/green issues. She plays the violin, piano and loves to compose songs. She is a Dragon in Chinese astrology and so is her mom, so it's exciting to first visit China together in a Dragon year.
We have been to 47 countries on 5 continents so far. We are monolingual parents, but wanted to raise her as a trilingual from birth in the world's dominant languages ( English, Spanish and Mandarin) as we feel one can not really understand a culture without knowing the language well. She wants to learn French next.
We are older parents, thus wanted more time together as a family, so took the risk to sell all our things to retire early to do this. We think experiences and time together are more important than things, so we live a simple life.
Mozart has been tested as an exceptionally gifted child, so we have chosen a unique way to educate her. ( She walked and talked well at 6 months old in 2 languages, taught herself to read at 2, tested at a 3rd grade level ( 9 years old) at 3 years old and 10th grade ( 16 years old) at 6 years and tested with top scores in math and language at Johns Hopkins University CTY gifted programs). She has done well in many John Hopkins University CTY classes online and in person. At 13 she scored higher than 97% of high school students who take the SAT.
We are interested in coming to China because we have great interest in Chinese culture and Mandarin. Mozart is the youngest, smallest and only Caucasian in her 1000 kid Mandarin high school in Penang, so is use to being in an all Mandarin environment.
Last year when she was celebrating Chinese New Year with her 83 year old Grandmother in Georgetown, Malaysia, they ended up being interviewed on Chinese television dressed in their Cheongsam traditional dresses.
Swimming with sharks in in Bora Bora, doing a camel overnight trek deep in the Sahara at 6 and riding a camel in Jordan at 10, learning to surf in Hawaii, learning archaeology in Pompeii, Ephesus, Troy, Mycenae, Delphi, Petra, Palace of Knossos etc ( amazing for a kid with a passion for Greek Myths and archeology), swimming with dolphins in Portugal and Florida Keys with marine biologists, seeing a ballet in Sydney's Opera House or Shakespeare at the Globe in London, celebrating Chinese New Year at temples in Asia or participating in Semana Santa in Spain, eating reindeer meat in a kota in Sweden, climbing the Tiger's Nest in Bhutan, playing violin on a Vienna stage or ending up in a Japanese film in Croatia, seeing world class operas in Verona in an ancient amphitheater, dissecting squid in California at a Johns Hopkins CTY science workshop, sailing the Turquoise coast in Turkey, cruising the Fjords of Norway, etc,etc etc...the educational opportunities have been phenomenal.
Doing volunteer work with disadvantaged kids in Harlem, USA that we took with us virtually for a year.
Touring Europe extensively as a family for 6 years.
Currently homeschooling around the world and is at a 5th grade level in Mandarin reading, writing and speaking, 6th grade level in Spanish reading/writing and doing some college and high school level work in English ( including music theory at JHU-CTY).
She is focused on singing/songwriting and is in a well known Master Class for artist development, plays the piano, violin, guitar and didgeridoo and performs a few times a week. She is also interested in acting and modeling and recently did a talk for the Dallas Public Libraries. She was the youngest speaker at the Global Education Conference at 13 and the youngest reporter at New York Fashion Week at 13. She recently won an award from Johns Hopkins University Gifted Program for scoring higher at 13 than 97% of high school students who take the SAT test and is in the highest group within their CTY gifted program ( higher than 2/3 in the program).
Currently a 7th grade student at a private Chinese high school in Penang, Malaysia in their gifted co-hort with classes like physics, algebra, biology etc.. She is pulled out for 2nd/3rd grade level Mandarin classes and top English class. Taking piano, violin, digital composing classes and choir too. Won a Chinese eleocution contest at 12, first time in 63 year history of the school that a Caucasian won. Was the youngest finalist in a singing contest where she sang a Mandarin Pop song.
Home educated during travel to Bhutan, Thailand, Jordan, Spain, Germany, Florida and California.
Skipped from 4th grade in Spain to 7th grade in Penang at private Mandarin High School at 10, starting with their special class for foreign students. Won an English elocution contest for a speech she wrote about Environmental issues.
Homeschooled as we traveled in Barcelona, Granada, Provence, French Riviera, Paris, Malaga, London, New York City, San Francisco, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Tahiti, Bora Bora, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and Penang.
Started a pattern of 5 months in the winter at the local primary school in Andalusia, Spain and 7 months of travel homeschooling mostly around Europe extensively, but also with trips to Africa, the Sahara and Turkey.
Early entrance to a 1st/2nd grade top public school in California at 4 ( where all her classmates were 7,8 and 9) based on her abilities and the school had never done this before. Still problematic because her reading levels were far ahead of class mates, but her writing skills were a challenge due to age related finger dexterity. Thus, we decided to "world school".
Started violin at 23 months old and piano at 3 and we've continued both as we travel the world as we can , often by webcam with teachers on other continents.
Another extraordinary post, chere Jeanne! I have so many comments for your last dozen or so entries but we are in the midst of our own travels. I'll get those comments in there very soon!
The wonderful thing about Mozart's travel experience is that you experienced it as well giving your entire family a "world perspective". Congratulations on your upcoming trip to China. Bon Voyage, Have Fun!
Glad you liked it Hullsedge!
Honored that you thought of my little multilingual kiddo like that princess...thanks!
Hope you are having wonderful travels and can't wait to hear what you've been thinking about lately!
Hello! If you will be in Beijing there will be no problem with internet connection. I have many friends who work and live there and it's not an issue. My friend runs About.com for China and is based in Beijing.
Thanks a bunch Meghan..that is reassuring! Do they use a VPN to get past the firewall? Can they easily get to facebook too?
We've got a great VPN ( Witopia is one of our sponsors) but I have heard lots of odd things about internet there.
Some don't seem to have too much of a problem using their VPN's but then sometimes I read about folks who seem to have a lot of problems with internet in China.
I was also surprised that the language school folks said the people at the Beijing school needed this CV because they have no internet access to us.
that does surprise me! Everyone here has a VPN and I have had no trouble with internet use and we have been here almost 2 school years!
Congratulations to Mozart and parents for such a wonderful, inspiring story. We would love to travel around the world learning along the way. Any tips?
So true ckolodin..the world travel and educating her like this has so enriched us all and it has been such a joy to have these experiences and memories together.
Sorry, I didn't get to answer your wise comment until now.
Sometimes these are moving to fast to catch all the blog comments.
Thanks so much Patricia! I try to put all the tips we learn on this blog as a resource for other families interested in traveling for educational reasons as a family.
I tell what has worked for us, but there is no "one way" to do it and each family needs to "tweak" it to their own needs.
Hope that helps! After 8 years of travel, there is a TON of info here and you can also use the search feature to find posts about language learning etc.