Are you thinking of trying out one of Boundless Life’s programs, where you can live overseas for 3 months, with your kids at a school, and a co-working hub so that you can work remotely?
We did the Tuscany Cohort from April to July in 2024 and had the most amazing time - I have done a separate blog on things to know in Tuscany, this one is more for general things that I wish I had known before we went!
Fees
Firstly, I should say that Boundless Life is not a cheap option.
Looking at their current pricing for a 3-month spring cohort in Tuscany, it’s €1,700 per month per child for the education, €450 per parent per month for the Boundless services, and rents vary depending on the apartment, but these range from €2,900 per month for a one-bed apartment, up to €6,500 for the fanciest 3-bed apartment.
Most of the additional activities that they offer, including the after school extra-curriculars, cost extra money on top of this, although school excursions (field trips) are all included, and parents can go along too if they want.
We got a 10% discount on the education for our second kid and we had a regular 2-bed apartment. You can see a tour of our apartment here.
You can also get a €400 discount on your first month’s fees if you let them know that “Lisa Wilkinson” sent you!
You will need to pay the fees before you start in three payments (one per month that you are away) via credit card payment to Canada.
When I looked into our credit card fees for international transactions, this was 3.5%, which would have meant we paid hundreds of dollars in bank fees!
I did some research and found a credit card - the CBA Ultimate Awards - which had no international fees.
Everywhere in Tuscany (even the small fruit and veg market stalls) took credit cards, so we put everything on our credit card and didn't really use cash at all. It would have saved us almost $2,000 over our trip I reckon!
It also included travel insurance (you can activate this online before you leave) and airport lounge access, which was awesome, plus you earn Qantas points for every dollar you spend.
Education
For us, the education at Boundless was the best part, and why we would 100% do it again without any worry that our kids would fall behind academically. Our kids were 7 and 10 years old, so I can’t speak of the younger kids’ experience, but ours absolutely loved it!
The kids are outside every day, rain or shine. As well as the fortnightly excursions, they’d explore the town, visit parks and playgrounds etc every single day.
As our Finnish education centre coordinator Petra said - “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing” :)
This means that you need to make sure they have proper clothes depending on the weather. They were given hats, however the hats were too small for my kids' massive noggins, so we brought our own, as well as raincoats. We didn’t have any gumboots or anything, and only one pair of sneakers each, but that was no problem.
They take their shoes off when they arrive at school, so they will need a paid of inside shoes. Ours used thongs (flipflops) or just wore their socks, but other more organised families had slippers for their kids. If your kid can’t tie laces, make sure they have shoes they can put on on take off.
You don’t need to pack any food for your kids - lunch, morning and afternoon tea are all included. The lunches were lovely hot meals, snacks were things like fruit or crackers, and they will cater for all dietary requirements.
Our boys were given a Boundless water bottle to take to school, which they could refill at a water cooler in the classroom and it seemed like the teachers did a good job of encouraging them to drink water during the day.
The education centre also has a big selection of books that the kids are able to borrow, which means you don’t have to worry about bringing a bunch of books for them to read.
Older kids will also need a laptop or an ipad for their learning. They didn’t spend too much time on their devices, and they didn’t have to be anything fancy - ours had cheap Chromebooks and they were fine.
One of my kids is neuro-diverse and I was a bit worried about how he’d take the massive change and settle in to the new school. The teachers both kids had were absolutely incredible - literally the best teachers that either of my kids have ever had!
They made all the kids feel welcomed and loved from the very first day. They helped them to be independent, while providing amazing individualised support when the kids needed it, and really targeting the learning to how each kid learns best.
At pick up each afternoon they’d have a chat about how each kid went that day, if they had any concerns or issues, and I could tell how much they cared for the kids. They were just amazing and we all miss them so much. I’d honestly do Boundless again just for my kids to have the education that they had there!
And returning to their home school was easy for us - the kids were actually further ahead than their friends. They really didn’t miss anything and when I think about all the additional experiences they had, their education in Tuscany was so much better than staying home!
Housing
The Boundless homes come set up with pretty much everything that you need for your stay.
Our kitchen had all the usual - microwave, stove, oven, toaster, kettle, Nespresso machine (you can order more pods through the Boundless team), blender etc.
They also have kid friendly plates, bowls, cups etc, which was nice.
We aren’t big cookers so there was nothing that we felt was missing, although other friends had ended up purchasing additional things like an air fryer, rice cooker etc. We much prefer to eat out!
Each home is set up with fast wifi (very fast by our Aussie standards!). We also had a smart TV and a combined washer / dryer, which had an app that I needed to download to be able to use it properly. We struggled a bit with the machines, especially the radiators, as there weren’t any instructions.
You will have a cleaner that cleans your place once a week (twice a week if you have a Boundless Homes +), and they also change the linen and towels. You need to have the house tidy on the morning they visit, as they stick to a strict timetable and don’t need to be dealing with your kids' crap everywhere!
People always have lots of questions about SIM cards. We used Airalo e-SIMs (you can use my code for US$3 off - LISA0331) and found them to be good especially as we visited a few countries, although friends had purchased local SIM cards which were cheaper.
Community
I can’t talk about Boundless Life without speaking about the amazing community they create!
From our very first night where they had planned welcome drinks, the welcome ceremony and brunch on the first morning at school, the parents lunch in the first week that the kids were at school, all the way through to the most epic farewell party at a vineyard (while the kids were having a movie night at the school), there were so many opportunities to enjoy the company of the other families.
Every Wednesday afternoon we’d go to one of the local parks (which had an awesome cocktail bar) and the kids would play while the parents chatted, it was lovely!
There were lots of other activities that the Boundless team had put together as well. Many of these were outside of our budget, but most of the ones that we went on were great.
We had some parents who loved to organise events - we did wine tasting on one family’s incredible balcony (twice!) while the kids ate pizza and watched movies inside, and I know that other groups held a weekly movie night, where parents would take it in turns to watch the kids while the other parents went out.
You can also book babysitters through Boundless, although we never did this. I know that you need to get in quick though!
Honestly though, some of my best memories were the nights when I’d send a WhatsApp out to everyone (we had a whole cohort WhatsApp group) seeing who was free for dinner and often more than 20 people would show up!
It was just a really great community full of like-minded people, and the older kids would look out for the littler ones so that the parents could relax.
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So - would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY YES! No question, I’d sign us up again tomorrow if we had the money!
Please let me know if you have any questions at all about our experience!