The School at the Tent
Nayla enjoys the school at the tent a lot. These are important moments when she can quench her thirst for learning and where we help her to discover mathematics, writing and reading. She then sits in the confined space of the tent or in the wilderness, and takes her pencils. For us, it is very important. We are then at her side to teach her and to give her the necessary basics for her learning. She already knows many letters and has been able to write her name for a long time.
We also spend a lot of time reading stories, mainly in the tent, when the weather is bad. In her trailer, it is also her privileged moment to read her books. Then Nayla tells the story out loud so we can hear it. She also likes to create, we spend time doing things – like origami in Japan. When the weather is fine, she brings out her paintbrushes and paints with euphoria. She also likes to look at the map of the world and follow our route. Lately, she learns songs in all languages, simply by listening to them through a small speaker in her trailer. Then she sings at the top of her voice as soon as she has the opportunity.
For her, a Monday looks strangely like a Sunday. On the other hand, she knows the north, the south, the east and the west. She is only 4 years old, and the school will gradually take up more and more time, integrated in our nomadic life.
Nature as a teacher!
Nayla loves to live outside, and she helps us to set up the camp or run after her ball. Above all, she never gets bored. Nature is an extraordinary teacher. She plays in streams, chooses flowers, selects dead leaves with autumn colours, bathes in lakes or natural hot springs. She discovers the cycle of seasons and the life of animals. Insects are an eternal wonder, but she has also discovered deer, Japanese cranes, snakes, water monitor, scorpions, monkeys, foxes, turtles and tropical fish. She crosses completely different environments: deserts, high mountains, tropical forests, oceanside, the winters in the Far North, the islands. And once again, it is new experiences, like water scarcity, or life in altitude.
“And her passion?” asks a child in South Korea.
Nayla loves the water. Since the age of two, she knows how to swim! She is as graceful as a dolphin. Coordinated and agile, she climbs trees, downhill skies at two-and-a-half, and is cycling alone at three.
How long will you continue this life?
This question comes back in a loop. We plan to cycle through the Northern countries. This life of nomads and simplicity, which we create every day, is a choice of lifestyle. The most important thing for us is that each member of our family is in balance. And the result is that we feel in harmony and happy. Nayla is extroverted, open to others, empathetic and speaks several languages. She is coordinated, athletic and full of life. She is assiduous and takes advantage of every opportunity to learn.
Celine Pasche is an anthropologist, a mountain leader and a writer. Xavier Pasche is a photographer and an architect. Since 2010, this Swiss couple is cycling the world. In 2013, Nayla Pasche, their daughter, was born in Malaysia. Now they are living a nomadic life on bikes as a family.
