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19 | Friday, November 4, 2 0 1 6 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com World travel brings a new appreciation for home by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff Living and learning can be done anywhere. Just ask the Tan family, that returned home in July after what they call a year-long `ed-venture' around the world. Barb and her husband Clay, who are both teachers at St. Mildred' s-Lightbourn School on Linbrook Road, had taken a year sabbatical and were home-schooling their sons Connor, who is now in Grade 5, and Caleb, who is now in Grade 8, on the road. As they set out on their travels, which took them through more than 20 countries from summer 2015-16, Barb, who had meticulously planned most of the trip, set personal goals. Spending time together as a family while learning and trying new things and slowing down and reflecting on her life, priorities and the world around her were priorities for her. Perspective, purpose, passion and perseverance were also a few words Barb used to describe what she hoped her family-- especially her boys -- would experience and embody by the time their year-long trip was complete. Recently reflecting on the year that took them to countries China, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Nepal, India, Egypt, Kenya, Italy, Switzerland, France, England, Spain, Ecuador and Peru to name a few, the family members told the Oakville Beaver they've returned with a new Oakville's Tan fam ily has returned from a year-long, around-the-world adventure. The fam ily is pictured in their Oakville backyard with a few of the souvenirs they brought back. From left, Connor, 10, with a sweater from Equador; Clay; Caleb, 12, holding a bowl from the Amazon; and, Barb, showing off a necklace from Kenya. | Graham Paine/Metroland appreciation for the life they live. Barb said for a family that hadn't really travelled outside of the U.S. and Canada much before their trip, her children were so resilient in accepting change and new cultures as they also persevered through some challenging moments throughout the trip. "Living outside my comfort zone became my comfort zone," 12-year-old Caleb said, as his family sat around the kitchen table of an Oakville home they have been renting since their return. They plan to move back into their Bronte home, which they rented out while they were away, sometime around next summer. After a year of experiences that included sleeping on a bed of leaves with the Maasai people in Kenya, Caleb said he' s realized how lucky he is to live in Canada. "We have a lot we take for granted," he said, referencing all the material things readily available in Western cultures. "We really don't need that much. A lot is just for comfort." The Tans described how food, water, shelter, electricity comes easily to those living in places such as Canada, but in other countries around the world, it' s a struggle to get the necessities, such as safe drinking water. Caleb recalls feeling bad, while staying at a bed and breakfast in Nepal, when he saw five people huddled around a fire to cook his family eggs because they had no fuel. That' s the kind of perspective, Barb said she hoped her children would gain being on the `edventure' -- seeing for themselves the struggles others face and the comparison to North America. "I really felt the boys got an age-appropriate sense of that," she said. "It doesn't mean they don't love their comforts, like many of us do, but they at least now have that understanding that that's not something all children have." 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