Sabbatical with children aged 5-9

[Newmummy9]

Hello,

I and dreaming about doing a sabbatical in the next year- flexible on timings as my husband works for himself- thinking 3/6 months.

Children aged 5, 7 and 9. I would be happy doing a bit of home ed/keeping their reading/maths ticking along. They’re easy children. No worries about getting them back into their school when we come home- that’s sorted.

We would like to do something a bit more ‘constructive’ than travelling around SE Asia, but don’t know where to start looking. Would like them to learn a skill or experience a culture on a deeper level than as a tourist. Not really sure what we’re after- looking for inspiration.

We thought of doing a ski season but not sure of logistics of doing a long term season let.

Also thought about sailing but sadly neither my husband nor I are competent enough to do an adventure like this- we’re more flotilla in the med level sailors!!

Any thoughts gratefully received!

Having lived abroad and seen how miserable most kids were who were dragged around on these sort of extended trips I just wouldn't do it to my kids. The older two will definitely have firm friendships which will suffer. I don't believe it's in their best interests.

Thanks for your thoughts. Maybe we should aim for 3 months then. They have 2 months off every summer hols and we don’t see many of their close school friends over the hols as we live remotely and usually have a 3 week holiday away and the rest of the time they’re very happy entertaining themselves, exploring local places with me doing walks/picnics etc.

So I’m not overly concerned about them missing their friends.

It’s partly why I wanted some sort of purpose, like skiing, rather than it being a bit aimless.

You should look at some Instagram accounts of families who do exactly this. You'll get loads of ideas and advice from them.
https://www.instagram.com/stories/theroamingrascals_/ This family were travelling for 6 months or so. They now live back in UK but do lots of travelling. They just did a school exchange in Japan. It looked incredible!
https://www.instagram.com/therichardsons04/ This family live in Bali now, also from UK. Their kids do world school. Might be worth looking into that too.
I wish I had these opportunities when my DCs were small. I've late 50s now but still love to travel myself.

I think the difference there is that all of their friends will be in a similar boat - they won't all be seeing each other every weekday over the summer, but being away in term time means that their close friends will move on and become closer to other children.

That’s so helpful- thank you. Will have a look

You absolutely definitely should take this opportunity, we've travelled quite extensively with ours, oldest is nearing the 30 country count, but we have never seized the opportunity for a really extended period of travel, the longest we've been away is 5 weeks I think. We are heading into GCSE territory so it's definitely not happening for us now! I have of course travelled for extended periods of time both on my own and with my husband before the kids came along. As for school, yes of course friendships move on while you are gone, but friendships change anyway, for sure when they move to secondary, but even during their primary school days the dynamics change. If their best friend had moved on whilst you are gone, someone else will come along and replace them soon enough. All will be fine.