ArcticTerns has been built by a Worldschooling family for other Worldschooling families. We are operating as a non-profit and have put an incredible amount of time, effort and all our love into creating the program. Constantly juggling between our vision, the sustainability of the program, and the needs of all the participants.
We are not a travel agency, nor a service provider. We as a family are participants in the program we designed and aim to build friendships for life while enjoying all the fun activities the program has to offer. To keep this sustainable, the program needs to work for us as well.
This also applies to the rest of the team who invest a lot in the program and like to have a good time while enjoying good company and nice activities. When we say we want all the participants of the program to be able to have an amazing time, we literally mean everybody.
ArcticTerns was created to connect Worldschooling families. As a Worldschooling family we know how important it is to find community during our travels. Every aspect of the program is designed with this purpose only: creating deep, long lasting connections. This is the core of our offering.
To make community work, an investment from every participant is needed. The more you participate and bring in positive energy, the more value of our program and the community you will experience and create for yourself and the rest of the community. We try to carefully select families that will add to the positive energy of the community. We do it together, and together we create a vibe that none of us will ever forget.
ArcticTerns organises self directed learning activities for all ages, aimed to create social connections, through exploration of our environment. We are not a school that teaches a traditional curriculum. What we offer are fun, educational, extracurricular activities.
All our activities are accompanied by one of our facilitators, who coordinates the activity and the community.
Our facilitators are not (necessarily) traditional trained teachers. We work with a (mostly young) enthusiastic, likeminded team, who we trained to guide the program we have created.
We do not only offer a kids program, we offer a full family program, with activities for all family members. The activities are partly divided in age groups, and partly designed for the whole family to join, where we expect a parent to accompany the children.
4. A large range of activities to choose from
What we create is community. This is the core of our offering. We work hard, year round, to develop a community with likeminded international families and/or teens, where participants can create deep, long lasting connections. All the activities we offer have been designed to build and strengthen this community.
We have created a large diversity of activities in order to offer an interesting program for our diverse community. For the community to thrive, active participation by all family members is key. The program is not designed so that all participants join all the activities, but for everybody to choose the activities that fit their family. Participation in all activities can be exhausting. It is possible when it fits your family, but then we ask you to please guard your energy.
In our program we might offer certain outside activities that come with an extra cost. We have not included these activities to keep the program accessible for people with different kinds of budgets. If you plan to participate in these outside activities, please budget accordingly.
The program does consist of certain mandatory activities. We expect all participants during the opening, the closing and during all feedback meetings. All participants are expected to join any group meetings for their age group. As these moments are seen as an investment in the community, we ask everybody to be there and actively participate.
5. We respect the locals
ArcticTerns gained knowledge and connections in the towns where we host our programs, which allows us to build our unique assortment of activities while always keeping the price affordable. We have built partnerships that guarantee a certain level of quality and liability, which allows us to keep the program sustainable. Therefore we will not always go with the cheapest offer, but we arrange group offers where we can.
As we build long term relationships, we have set up certain regulations for the community, to ensure the locals are being treated respectfully. As a community we treat the locals respectfully during our whole stay in the hosting country.
6. We do this together
We put our full effort into creating the program and strive to give all the participants the ingredients to build community together and have an amazing time. We try to communicate the details of our offering as clearly as possible to create realistic expectations, so every family can see if it fits them.
We expect participants to take responsibility for their own experience by immersing themselves in all information we provide, doing sufficient research about the hosting country and it’s cultural differences, and be openminded when things turn out differently than they imagined.
We do everything in our power to make your participation as pleasant as possible, and we are very willing to see where we can work together to solve any issues in a way that works for everybody. We do this always with the boundaries of the program, the best interest of the community, and the sustainability of the program in both our minds.
