We took a family gap year and our kids attended school in three countries

Feeling worn down by the logistics of family life, Lisa Lucas and her husband rented out their London home, stored their belongings, and set off with two backpacks and a carry-on. They planned three stays—Tsukuba, Japan; Great Neck, New York; and Leiden, the Netherlands—spending three to four months in each and traveling for five weeks before and after each stop.

Lucas pivoted her marketing consultancy toward travel writing and speaking, while her husband’s academic research helped secure legal residency so the girls could attend school. In Japan their 8-year-old surprised them by asking to go to a local school; both girls walked to school, changed into indoor shoes, helped serve lunch, and cleaned classrooms.

In New York they lived with family outside the city, the girls rode a yellow school bus for the first time, and mornings were more complicated—no uniforms and the sobering reality of active-shooter drills.

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