to want to go on a family gap year?

[LittleFrieda]

I have 4 chldren. DS1 is at university, his course finishes in 2016. DS2 is in lower sixth and plans to go off to university in Sept 2014. My two youngest children are 6 and 5 (a big age gap). In Sept 2014 they will be 8 and 7.

I would like for us to rent out our house in Sept 2014 we would get a substantial sum of money for its rental then set off on a carefully planned adventure traversing the globe, DH, me and our two small children (who will be 7 and 8), once DS2 heads off for university.

I have costed it out and planned for flights for the older two to join us three times a year and stay/travel with us for the duration of their holidays. And I would of course be here to help DS2 with his application and move from home to wherever it is he may go for uni.

Are there pitfalls involved with taking children out of school for a year? We would obviously try and make sure they keep up to date with whichever level (tut) it is they are supposed to be working at.

Obviously we would sacrifice our jobs to go.

What are the pitfalls to this scenario?

I'm desperate to do it.

Sounds amazing. One little thing that sprung to mind was that I'm guessing your 7 year old would miss their SATS (assuming you are in the Uk). Does that matter? how does the school then assess your child for yr3? Just curious as haven't got to that stage in the school system yet.

Do it as for the guilt thing about being able to Di more with younger two

I had same on smaller level as am planning take younger two on special holiday older two not going ( they don't want to ) but I talked to them about feeling bad that things are Differnt to when they were younger but they both encouraged me to do it and pointed out that holidays they had were younger yes we're cheaper but still magic and they appreciated sacrifices I made back then to take them

i was thinking about living in france. how about 6 months from easter to sept?which would mean sch more likely to keep places open. even if a year, when i went travelling i was amazed at how much had stayed the same in the time i was away. think your kids would slot back in no trouble.

Another vote to go for it.

A cost you might not have factored in: vaccinations. Some are expensive (e.g. rabies) and need about 6 months to get all the needed shots. If your older DC are going to visit, they might need them too.

Good luck

Ooh watching this thread, I would love to do this!

Yesterday I got a letting agent to come and give us a rental value on our house and it's much more favourable than even I had imagined (I'm normally hugely a bit optimistic ). We really CAN do this if we choose to. Brilliant but terrifying.

I discussed it further with DH at the weekend (he's v much in favour but has some concerns also, work isn't really one of them Nor is it one of my chief concerns. You are probably getting a flavour of how unsuccessful we are careers-wise. ).

My main concerns are:

Leaving my big boys behind
Schools on return
Elderly family members
My house (will tenants look after my house?)

Im so glad so many of you think you'd like to do this too. I hope you'll share your ideas.

I'm going to sound out the head at school after half term, and see whether she'll look favourably on an arrangd absence. She told DD off today for wearing a coat that is "too fancy" to be a school coat, so I can't ask before half term. I fancy she might be pleased if DD was absent for SATs.

Do it!

I met a family while I was on honeymoon in the BVI's they ad children with them and were sailing around the world with the boys -they were schooling on the boat and I've always thought what a great idea. I'm planning a mini world tour of a month this summer to travel to Oz and asia, which will mean having to cover work loads but it can be done. How exciting.

• I think big boys will love being left behind

- Schools are schools and great if you can get back in but you can deal with that on your return - Family members - you will only ever be a sleep away (maybe two sleeps) - Tenants - I'm a tenant you do get good ones - but beside that a pot of paint on your return and a few fixes won't be the end of the world and you may feel like a refresh when you get back to fit in all of your new pictures from your travels.

Have you factored in the income tax you'll need to pay on your rental income -over and above your tax allowance?

go for it! What a remarkable learning experience for your children! No classroom can re create what you are planning! So jealous!

Great idea, you won't regret doing it, you might regret not doing it. I hope to do something like this when kids are a bit older

Do it before the aged p's get too old and frail.

Ok, so I'm going to be flamed but... I have three children (8, 6 and 4), they love going on trips but I can't really imagine that they would like to be on the move off and on for a year. I think it would be exhausting constantly trying to find things for them to enjoy, other children who shared a language for them to play with, places to stay that were suitable etc. I have travelled a lot (backpacked for months at a time) and can't imagine doing it with children for such a sustained time - the heat, the dust. I think settle on a couple of places and put down roots there for a few months. If there are other places you want to visit too, then go during the long summer holidays.

lalalonglegs - hmm. We get 5 weeks hols a year, take one week at christmas and one week at Easter, and we have 3 weeks left for the summer hols. Not long enough to really explore the world and not even long enough to look after your own children for their school summer hols. We'd like to remove ourselves fom the pressure of work and from any sort of timetable. I don't think we would be constantly on the move. DH is half German/Austrian and my parents hail from an English speaking country that is not the UK. We never get time to explore these aspects of ourselves, let alone show them to our children.

lalalonglegs - but you are right in many respects. My children would hate to move on at too regular intervals.

DH and I took the kids (pre DD2) around Europe for 8 weeks three years ago and it was not long enough!!!

DS turned 7 wehn we were in Berlin and DD was almost 5. We flew out to Paris then used a Euro train pass to get around. Travelling with kids was a whole new experience and one not to be missed, we got as much (if not more) out of it than the DC's did.

We plan to do it again in 2014 but around America this time when DD2 is almost 3, before DS thinks we are too un-cool to travel with ;-)

Do it, OP.
Definitely.

OhTheConfusion - Can you tell me roughly where you went in Europe and how long you spent roughly in each place and where you stayed. It sounds very exiciting and the sort of thing I would like to do.

I know it's probably a bit naff, but I would like my children to feel a teensy bit European.

Glad you don't think I am raining on your parade too much, LittleFrieda. Good luck with it all. Overall, I agree with you - life is too short and if this is your dream then you should try to fulfill it .

lalalonglegs - Oh really not raining on parade. It really is sensible to think of all the pitfalls, and you are right, little children thrive on routine. And there will be grim days, when we all wish we were at home among everyone and everything we know and love. But I hope most days would be interesting and capable of widening and balancing our outlooks.

DH reminded me tonight that about three years ago I talked about buying a boat and spending a few months sailing in the Med. He thought that was hair-brained as not suitable for small children and also too cramped and basic (and boring) for more than a very few weeks. He likes my reworked idea much better and I think he is keen save for his mother who lives alone but is quite frail.

Oh we want to do the USA.Drive across-slowly!But we have a mortgageso looking at other options ie taking 3 months off in between jobs and selling.

Anybody got any great ideas re funding do share!

LittleFrieda? I will gladly tell you about it! That said I am outing myself as how many self employed mothers of three with a DH who teaches took their kids around Europe for 2mths

Save, save and save some more? it is expensive!
We still had DH?s wage coming in when away to cover all the essential bills that leave the account every month (mortgage, insurances etc) so we opened a separate joint account, transferred our travel budget into it, and only used it when away. We also took the ?emergency? credit card JUST INCASE!

We lived in a popular costal area so we let our home to holiday makers over the summer and paid a friend to handle change over, cleaning etc. This made us a whopping £4000 profit after paying friend £800 . This was put back into the savings we plundered to go!

PLAN PLAN AND PLAN SOME MORE!!!

We saved a fortune by purchasing 2 lots of InterRail passes that let us travel 10 times in 22 days (so 20 days of travel in 44 days altogether). We were away for 56 days all in and flew out and back so this was more than enough. The rain passes cost us just over £1800 three years ago including pass loss/theft insurance. By doing this we saved over £1000 compared to the travel any day option. We also hired a car to see more of certain countries.

We flew into Krakow to begin with, We stayed in the Novotel 92 x double beds) and got it quite cheaply? £40 a night if I remember rightly through a hotel comparison site!
The salt mines were a great trip with the children but mostly, like everywhere we went, we wandered around, ate local food and soaked up the atmosphere.

We then went to? Austria via Chez Republic, into Germany (Munich only), Switzerland, Italy, South of France, Spain (Barcelona only), back into France, Belgum, Netherlands then Germany? we flew home from Berlin.

We used a selection of accommodation? family rooms in hotels, Apartment in Barcelona, holiday let in France (+ a few nights in Disney Paris).

We tried to book an apartment or cottage once a fortnight to make sure we had easy access to a washing machine! We had the shoes we wore plus sandals, DH and I had larger backpacks and the DC?s had little ones to hold their own toy, ds and a snack.

That post took me so blooming long to write!!!

Other tips, we all used the same body wash, shampoo, toothpaste and deoderant so we only carried one of each thing and just replaced as we went.

It was warm so we only took mac in a pack type jackets... super light and really dry!

OHTheConfusion. Thank you so much for sharing that. It's giving me lots of food for thought.

We're off on holiday for half term. Where I hope we'll get time to flesh out our plans a bit and share our concerns. So please forgive me if this thread goes quiet for a week or so.

And thank you all. It's so nice to know there are like-minded people out there.