educating kids on the road

[tilba]

Would love to hear from anyone who has taken off around the world with school age children and educated them on the road. It is a constant dream of mine to blast off for a couple of years with our two daughters in tow (primary age). There are some pretty good distance education programmes in Australia and NZ, has anyone used these. School teacher Godmother was horrified at the idea but my husband is very supportive of the whole plan/dream. Did anyone experience this kind of life as a child or if you have done it as a family I would really love to hear your story.

Haven't done this but didn't an old Blue Peter presenter do this with his kids for a year? Seem to remember reading about it anyway, so you could try a google search.

There was an article about a family who did this for a year a few weeks ago in the travel supplement of the Guardian. It sounded great. I think they did take some work with them but the two eldest boys (twins) stayed back a year at primary school when they got back.

Found it

travel.guardian.co.uk/activities/family/story/0,7447,869658,00.html

Wild Thornberries!

Peter Duncan

Good Lord Tilba. You must be light years younger than me with tons more energy. It is all I can muster to find matching socks in the morning never mind upping sticks and travelling to another time zone.
Best of luck.

Have a look here for details of a travelling family (sailing was their thing.

In Canada when I was 18 I met a woman who had left California with a 2yo and travelled as far as Edmonton, where I was staying, with her son who was by then 9yo. She was on her way to Alaska. I thought it was pretty cool.

I'm exhausted walking round Safeway with 3 wee kids

Thank you NikkiD. I have just read the article and am totally inspired though I did laugh about the Safeway comment ! I battled through our supermarket this afternoon with 3 toddlers jammed in the trolley so I could keep them under control and not loose them in the thousands of people shopping for Chinese New Year. It was a total nightmare and I'd had a total humour failure by the time I'd reached the checkout.
I have read a lot of family sailing stories but we are both a bit nervous of the pirates that are absolutely ruthless around here. We live in Hong Kong and they are a real problem all over most of Asia now and have heard of several very nasty and tragic incidents.
Anyway thank you to everyone who wrote back. I have only just discovered mumsnet and think it's just fantastic

wellcome Tilba, and yes, mumsnet is indeed fantastic but just be prepared to let the laundry pile up and your children go hungry while you sit hunched over your computer checking out the latest threads on mumsnet

It's addictive.

That sounds fantastic Tilba,
If your kids are primary age, surely they would not loose out too much, it's not like they are about to sit their GCSE's. And even if they were kept back a year on your return, then that would be a small price, for the experiences they will have gained. I think it's great that your DH suports you on this, I always fancied doing something like that before I met DH, and would only marry him on the condition, that if I ever,brought it up once we were married, he would at least hear me out and consider it seriously.

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Yes, schooling is horribly competitive here. The kids are really pitted against one another and the teaching is mostly by rote and dull dull dull. They kids start at 2.8 yrs and you can expect homework from then onwards ! I do my best to be creative and relaxed at home and create a balance to their day.
Was very keen on home schooling but my daughter really was desperate to go to school with her friends. Also we all live in tiny flats and up in the air here and it's just so good to have a break from each other occasionally . So I guess I've ended up educating my kids in a system that i really don't like but didn't/ don't have the energy to beat. Also it won't be forever.....I keep dreaming of the road!!

As a teacher from Queensland Australia - there are a number of distance education programmes that are available for children at each stage of their schooling. A colleague of mine used them with her daughter and found them excellent. I think that travel and linking whatever you are doing and seeing with some form of learning is effective. Your children would be experiencing and learning so much more than 'academic' subjects and you would have the advantage of education seeming more 'useful' as it related to wherever and whatever you were doing at the time.

I know a couple of families that did that in Australia - took their children out of primary {junior) school and travelled around Australia for one to two years.

Wrote this 2 years ago. Finally the dream is a reality and we are just waiting for our camper trailer to have the finishing touches before we set off. The girls 6&7 have started school this year in Victoria by correspondence and so far fantastic. Most days we are finished by 10.30 and we have the day at the beach,with friends etc etc. We leave soon for Darwin (taking 4 months to get there) and then about another 5m to go to W.A. and drive down the coast to Melbourne.
Still really interested to hear from anyone else who has done this or is doing it.
Tilba x

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not doing it but am jealous

Wow! Just Wow!
Would love to do something like this - you've got me thinking now .......
Have FUN!

I HAVE NEVER Been ON holiday aboard with my children.
But I use to be moving round the country lot of different school
I went to 9 differnt schools and live in 9 differnt place as child.
And it didn,t do any good because did not any gcsse at all.
And half time i did know who my friend, the dream i had been dance my dream never came true

I hope you find better education for your kids
in england or where you live good luck.[smile ]

We went "round the world" with DS who was nearly 7 years

We taught him as we went round we had the syallabus from school and work books

He did school work every day unless we were on an organized day tour

It was in his SATS year and he got top marks for everything and learnt alot more besides

This was the SPRING term

It was DEFFO BRILL

Hi there, well we have been on the road now for over 6 months and life is fantastic. Both girls ages 6.5 and 8 are doing correspondence and doing really well. We have just arrived in Perth Western Australia having driven 20,000kms through some pretty amazing country. We have met fantastic people along the way, had some superb campsites..mostly free camped all through the Northern Territory and Western Australia, Kids are now expert snorkellers and swimmers. It has been a really special experience for us as a family. Most nights it's just us around a camp fire and eveyone mucking in. No TV , newspapers....anything distracting....it's been the best year of our lives. Tilba xx

Wow, you've done it! I just picked up this thread and assumed you were in the planning stage but have realised that the original post was a long time ago. I am really glad things are working out for you. We are emigrating from the UK to Australia next year, partly to give our kids a different, less pressured, kind of life. It's great to hear stories of dreams come true. Have a fab rest of trip