To take DC out of school for a year and travel

[ShillyShallySherbet]

Having a moment of madness I think after watching race across the world but interested to hear whether anyone has done similar to this and the pros and cons.

Both myself and DH’s work contracts are coming to an end in September. DC will be going into year 3 and year 5. We are currently looking for new contacts but if nothing comes up we have enough saved up to get by for a while. Or we could take advantage of the fact there’s nothing tying us down and just throw caution to the wind, take the girls out of school for a year and travel. AIBU?

This doesnt happen in the UK? They go back in their corresponding year and that's it, they may need a little support to catch up but that's it. The only thing to note is that if one child is year 5 maybe try to avoid coming back just before SATs, better afterwards.

Lots of kids go into Secondary having done the whole of their life in home ed up to that point. 2 of them at my sons school are regularly top of the year, most are well beyond where the other kids are or catch up if they have missed something very easily as they are used to learning independently and being motivated. A year travelling would be an amazing experience and you can always follow the national curriculum (downloadable easily) if you want them to slot back in easily.

I think it's a great idea. There are lots of ways to learn and there's so much to learn beyond the school curriculum.

On fence....life is short go for it and what an experience but also school is very important. Your child might not be able to return to the same school. What schooling you doing whilst away...home school is amazing if you can. They learning so much you miss a day at school and missed so much

This. We did it. If anything my two have learnt so much more than they could’ve in those 10 months otherwise. We went to the far east.

I’d do it. I’ve seen others do it and it was great. Didn’t affect the kids academically either - but they got a much broader perspective of certain subjects like history, given they learned about the history of far flung places from the perspective of the locals.

You need to speak with the school & check whether DC would be able to rejoin when you return.

In my area there is a squeeze on school places and they wouldn’t hold the place for you, also you wouldn’t get a choice of school when you returned, you would get the one(s) with spaces available.

I think you need to be really clear in your own head about what you are doing and why. Home education is fine and there are loads and loads of things that your DCs would learn while travelling that they wouldn't learn in school. However what would you expect them to learn? How would you ensure the basics were still being learnt? Would you except them to join school again when they got back? How would you make sure they were reasonably up to date with the school curriculum if they were fitting back into school when you got home? Clearly on one level it's fine: Home education is perfectly legal and lots of people so it and the kids learn well, but think you've got to have some goals in mind. Especially if you are expecting that they will pick up school again after the year and not continue to be home educated. You are very unlikely to be able to reserve school spaces for a year, so be prepared for coming back to them needing to go into year 4 and 6 and there not being spaces in the school they left. What would you do then? Would they go to a new school? What about if there was a place in one year and not the other in the school they left? Would one get to go back with their friends and the other not? Would cope with the practicalities of them being in different schools? Would you move both of them for ease? Would you keep home educating for year 6 at least? I don't think it's bad or wrong, indeed it could give your kids brilliant learning experiences that they would not otherwise get, but you need to accept the depth of change this will cause and the possible bad issues. It could be awesome, but you need to address your and their expectations in every area and work out how to fulfil these expectations and manage, and minimise the negatives if situations don't turn out as you want, like if one or both can't go back to their current school.

I haven’t read everyone’s replies but just wanted to say that we did this as a family a few years ago. Our dc were 8, 6 and 2 when we set off so the older two missed year 4 and year 2 respectively.
We had to re-apply for a school place for the 8 year old - we did it about a month before we came home. The other two were starting new schools/nursery anyway so we just applied as normal.
We did very little ‘school work’ in the year we were travelling. The child who missed year 2 possibly suffered a bit with missing phonics but she soon caught up. The one who missed year 4 didn’t fall behind at all.

It was an incredible experience and we have zero regrets. I can dm my blog from the time to anyone interested.

If I was in your position OP, I would be on that plane having the time of my life with my children in a heartbeat, life is so short stuck in a never ending cycle of eat, sleep, work(school), repeat! Until we eventually shuffle off our mortal coils. You could also home school on the go💫

I was 14-15 (4th year senior in old money) when my parents took me to live in USA for a year. I went to school there and sent home work towards my O'levels here. Brilliant experience and not at all regretted even in an important time for exams. Frankly if one goes on to higher education ee can take GCSEs too seriously - i got 11 of them all the same and am so pleased my parents didnt think it was too risky at that school age.

Go for it. It is pretty amazing and unique that both your works would allow it and the children are old enough to enjoy and thrive on it but will be able to catch up academically

im in Australia and I know several families who have done this very successfully.
home schooling doesn’t take too much time as one on one is so much more productive than being in a class of 30!
If you can afford it I would jump at the chance! It would be such an awesome experience for your family. Far from teaching them they can’t drop everything for fun 😏 you are teaching them to seize opportunities and make the most out of life!

You absolutely should do this if you have the opportunity. School is just that, shcool . You can get an education anywhere, look at world schooling. My children are year 8&9 and we have asked them would they like to travel for a year or 2 and I have looked how to teach them their GCSES. They have said they want to do their GCSES at school so I can’t argue with that. Primary school I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. There’s more to life to sending our kids to an institutionalised system and I wish I’d seen it sooner. Go for it, you won’t regret it

Go for it! My aunt took my cousin when her Dad unexpectedly passed away, and it was such a positive experience. It’s given her a lifelong love of travel, and respect for other cultures. She coped fine going back to school, and learned so much that you can’t get from a book.
Kids catch up easily on education at that age, and it sounds like they’re not fussed about missing school and their friends. I’d love to do it!

We went to phuket for a year with our two age 3 and 7. Enrolled them in international school and dis a year. It was the best year ever and all we hear for the two years since we returned is, when can we go back to thailand. There were many many families we met doing the same thing. We wanted a base and our work is remote but we couldnt home school soninternational school was the best option for us. There are around 30 schools alone in phuket with facilities you can only dream of in the uk and the cost is way way less. Budget wise we spent so much on food it was our biggest expense as kids woukdnt eat thai food so had to have import foods feom the imported foods shops

Yes yes yes!

I went to school with a family who did this. The boys were aged around six and four. They just returned the next school year. The eldest is a surgeon now and the younger is a lawyer. I would go for it.

I took my kids out of school and returned them academically way ahead of their peers without putting in full school days - it's really easy with one child per class and all the resources out there. White Rose maths, spellings, lots of reading and discussion (why did she say that, can you predict what will happen next, how would you describe this choice, what is another word for that, did you notice how that word made the setting seem really scary, what does this book seem to be about?) and maybe practice in different kinds writing exercises connected to the books and places you're visiting (a diary entry from the point of view of a favourite fluffy bear who has just been to the market, a list of instructions for how to have a great time in X, an advert for their favourite restaurant using persuasive language, a letter from a book character describing their imagined experiences in this place, a newspaper article with sub headings describing an exciting event, a numbered recipe to make a local dish etc). In Maths, if you follow White Rose you can't go far wrong - stay on top of tables, place value, make them use the local timetable and currency).

That's not taking your kids out of school to travel, which is what OP is asking about. No doubt it was a great experience, but it was more like a temporary relocation than travelling.

Fair enough, but I did have to deregister them at their uk school and I wanted to share that it was a positive experience in taking them out of their current school, moving to another country for a period and then moving back. That we got a lot out of the experience and that it all turned out ok. Whether or not we home schooled, we could have done that and expefience would have been similar and I think actually better to home school during this period.

This is an interesting take. I think teaching children they can follow their dreams and passions can also be really good parenting. I don’t see a year of traveling as a year on holiday. It’s a huge learning experience especially for the 10 year old. Our neighbours did this, rented their house out for a year and went off when their kids were about 11 & 9. The kids went back a year at school so they didn’t miss anything in that sense when they got back.

if you’ve a call to do it, do it. Your children will learn a lot and so will you and maybe it will prevent them from settling for mundane lives themselves. It will get them to realise that there’s a whole world out there!

Also fair enough - my response was a bit snotty, sorry.
You're right, your experience is useful.

It's ok, valid point to be fair and i could have explained myself better to add value to the op. I am always fine with constructive critisism ")

i think you should just do it. And this comes from a former primary teacher!

I taught English as a second language straight out of university. I spent 8 years abroad in total and met many families who did this with their kids. To be honest, a lot of the families I met actually wanted to travel for a short period of time and stayed ages, some of the kids now have grown up and are now in university or are having their own adventures abroad.

as for ‘getting behind’, when you actually break down what kids learn in school during the day- learning social skills, playtime, a bit of writing and maths, you don’t have to work hard or do much to make sure they keep up. In fact, nowadays there are plenty of homechool apps or online schools that they’d only need to log into 1-2 hours a day.

In fact, they may end up making more progress. A lot of the curriculum they’ll learn through travelling - eg let them handle some of the currency and get them to figure out how much dinner actually cost in pounds , have them learn new phrases in Spanish, visit museums and follow their interest to tick boxes like science , tech and maths . I very often feel that school ruins children’s curiosity and thirst for learning, and travel may help reignite that .

I say just do it