Has anyone started home ed when children are very happy at school?

[Inconceivable]

I am considering taken my children out of school and home educate whilst we are going to do a (lengthy) world trip. However, both my children do enjoy school very much and I was just wondering how to handle that transition. Personally I think they are not as happy as they think they are as the pressure is quite high and they always seem quite tired. But they never complain about school and always look forward to going?

Am I mad to consider this? And, any tips on how handle the transition from school to home ed?

No experience of this as my DS is 4, how old are your children? I don't think you're mad though, a round the world trip is one hell of a learning experience, they certainly wouldn't get anything similar at school.

Are you planning to send them back to school afterwards, or is this the start of HE longer-term?

Inconceivable.

Yes we have taken dd out and are just starting H.ed. Our reasons were to make more time for music and she missed alot of school due to this.

It is difficult making the decision when they are happy and so many times I have questioned if I was doing the right thing.
Fwiw, this is what we did.
I mentioned it to dh who suggested I had lost my marbles. So I decided to do some research, stumbled across these threads and got to know as much as I could from books as well. This was just before Easter.
I went back to dh with the facts and we talked about it until around June. When we were sure that we would be happy and it was a good idea, we mentioned it to dd, let her ask a million questions and really left it up to her. I was so mindful of not deciding for her, in case she hated us in later life. She is really excited and looking forward to it, but has her moments of jitters the same as we do. Oh, we deregistered at the end of last term. There is a lot to consider when they are happy but if you do your homework the decision is usually clear cut, imo. Ask your questions on here, everybody is helpful and have usually been where you are now. Good luck.

I'm also considering something similar. It might not be a very long trip (3/4/5 months?) but I will take my DC's out of school for it. So far my planning has worked out that when they are in year 1, 3 and 5 would probably be the best time - which considering DS is only just going into year 1, gives me another 4 years to plan!

It would just be a temporary thing though and they would (probably) go back to school afterwards. I think taking them out for a trip like that is very different from taking them out to home ed at home.

As for are you mad to consider it - well, probably, but then who really cares! It'd be a great adventure.

Thanks everyone for the reactions. They are going into Year 1 & 3 In September and we are planning to leave next year.

Although we are not sure when we are back and whether we will settle back in the same area, the idea is that they will go back to school eventually. Unless we all love it so much that we change our mind!

Sounds great, I'd say just go for it and see where you end up!

How do I manage the transition though? I was planning on taking them out of school and telling them we are going on a long holiday but not actually telling them we probably won't be back.

Schooling wise I wasn't actually going to worry to much. They can and do both read by themselves and for maths I was just going to let them handle different currencies in different countries and maybe talk about distances we travel but not actually do anything formal. Would that be ok do you think?

• too much

good luck.

where you travelling too?

remember c4 programme last year about familes who travelled abroad.

Travel such a education anyway.

Is it worth speaking to head agreeing on year out and getting into routine with what materials you need before you start travelling.

I would just stick with maths, english and science and rest wherever the world takes you.

We spoke to the school but they are not willing to keep their places open as the school is quite oversubscribed. In a way it is fine as we are then completely flexible for the future and don't have to worry about keeping their places. They are gone!

The travelling is part of re-evaluating how we can and want to live our life. I feel we are just completely stuck in a conditioned wayof thinking with two full time jobs and pressure at school for the children. It just doesn't seem right and we want to get away from it for a while.

It sounds like an amazing experience for you and the children.
My DDs were all 'ok' at school, got on well with the work, had friends, never complained about going, but they were always tired and stressed and when offered the chance of HEd the 2 younger ones (7yr old twins) jumped at the chance. DD1 who was 8 wasn't too sure and even tho I was convinced HE would be the best thing for her, she stayed at school for another few months after her sisters left, and then one day made the decision for herself and we haven't looked back. None of them wanted the fuss of saying goodbue to their friends, they just wanted to leave, tho we have kept in touch with a few good friends.

You might want to think carefully about whether your children will resent you for taking them away from their friends and something they seemingly enjoy. Maybe it would be better to be open about the fact they won't be going back there. Tell them what a fantastic experience they'll have travelling, show them maps, landmarks etc and tell them they can keep in touch with any friends they want to.

Cx

ps if you don't mind me asking, how will you manage financially? DH and I would love to travel with our girls but just can't work it out financially. Thanks.

Inconceivable.

I think you should be completely honest about not knowing if you are coming back to the area.
One of things we personally had to justify to ourselves (I know this is only us) why are we thinking of taking our little girl out of school when she is doing well, has lots of friends, loves school and is very settled?
Our answers were all positive moves to make her life better, more manageable and the pros out weighed the cons.
It was entirely her own decision as we didn't think we could make that decision for her.

Blogs are a good start for people who have done similar stuff

Start here as there are loads of road schooling families www.vagabondfamily.org/family-profiles/

Enjoy your world trip, we do travel but aren't on the road all the time. We spend more time holed at home than on the road. Its been a wonderful experience and one we will continue to do as long as finances enable us too. We are structured so we do set aside days for school on the road but it is VERY flexible. We would sometimes school on sundays when most places are closed, we could school on sat if we don't want to be in the midst of all the crowds and go out and about in the week.

With a year 1 and 3 that would be easy as you don't need to do to much but I have a secondary age child. Remember the success to long term travel with family is slow travel and taking it nice and easy. Your days aren't going to be filled up with activities so there is definitely time to home ed if you go down the formal route.

www.vagabondfamily.org/family-profiles/

formatted link to be clickable

Yes, perhaps being completely honest with them would be better. I find it a difficult decision as I don't want them to have a meltdown about missing their friends in school. Although one of them said yesterday she doesn't want to go back in September so she might not mind so much!

We are not planning to move around too much munashe as I think it will be too tiring. And thanks for the website although I was already aware of it and have read it extensively. It is a great source of information and fantastic to read what other people are doing.

Financially, we are lucky that we have a house that is paid off (which we will rent out to provide us with an income) and we have savings. We won't be able to travel indefinitely unless we find a source of income or stop along the way to work, but we will be able to manage for 1-2 years if we are careful.