Travelling & Home Ed

[MumHadEnough]

Hi Everyone,

My dh and I have a dream, its just a dream but the more we talk about it recently the more its becoming very very tempting.

We'd like to give up the rat race, sell the house, buy a motor home and go travelling for a couple of years.

My son (almost 7) has some behavioural problems and really struggles behaviourally at school. I have to say the school are excellent at supporting us and he's a really clever boy but we think he'd learn so much more being "out there" if you like.

Could someone give me some pointers on where to start with what I would need to teach him if we went ahead with this. Is there some kind of minimum curriculum that I'd need to follow, or do I just take him out of school, tell the school we're leaving the country and teach him what I think he needs to learn.

Thanks in advance everyone!

Hi there,

It really is that simple! You have to write a letter of "de-registration" to the school. Look on Education Otherwise website for examples if you need to.

The Head is obliged, by law, to remove him from the school register and inform LA that you are home-educationg ds. You do not have to get in touch with them if you choose not to. End of story!

Some LAs, depending on which area you're in, "try it on" and send forms/letters and, in few cases, actually try to pressure for visiting and monitoring, but they are acting outside the law and will go away if you appear to know your rights.

How lovely, I hope you go for it. We're saving for a campervan and will be doing the same one day soon [hopeful emoticon]

sorry, forgot to say, no need to follow any curriculum either.

Thanks Kayteee for the info. Will have a look on the Education Otherwise site. If there are any other websites you can recommend that I look at I'd be really grateful.

".....or do I just take him out of school, tell the school we're leaving the country and teach him what I think he needs to learn."

Sounds good enough to me!

He'll be learning loads from all his experiences anyway, but i'm sure you know your son and will be able to provide him with some formal stuff if he wants that. There are curriculums specifically geared towards HE if you want to buy some. But if you're carrying a laptop with you there are loads of sites where you can download worksheets etc or he can do work online, read ebooks etc. So you don't need to carry loads of heavy curriculum books if you don't want to. As I said he'll learn loads through travelling and probably develop new interests along the way too!

wow

yes he will learn a huge amount

well done for being brave enough to even think seriously about this!

Thanks people.

You know that way sometimes you just get sick of the rat race and want out, well I'm going through that at the moment. I really really have had enough of my life.

I have ordered a book from Amazon about a couple of spent a year going round Europe with their 13 year old.

This is definitely something I want to do, whether it be now or in 5 years, but no longer than that.

Then again, I want to emigrate to Australia too. In fact my life just isn't long enough and I don't have enough money to do all the things I want. Bring on the lottery win!

Good luck. Do you need 7 bag carriers???
I envy you in a way, I'd love to pack up and travel but work keeps us here for now. Oh to be the children and be free to do as we please.

I would LOVE to do something like this. Don't know if I'd ever have the guts.

Do it do it do it so I can live through your updates.

no idea about the legalities personally but sounds brilliant. Hope yu have a blog if you do go ahead with it.

We did it for a year in Australia with dds 6&7 yr olds and then another 5 months in Southern Africa aged 7&8. Our kids did correspondence with Distance Education Centre Victoria...it was fantastic. We sent the work back to Melbourne every fortnight and the teacher would write back to the kids C/- the next post office. We are about to do it again for another 6 months, they are now 9 &10
Correspondence entails a fair bit of dedication and work. I am not sure in your situation it would be the ideal. Your son will absorb so much from the places you go, the people and other people living on the road and just hanging out as a family. I just warn you.....the life becomes addictive!
Have you checked out The Thorn Tree ? There is a kids- to- go forum and a lot of families post inspiring travels on it.
Look forward to hearing how you get on. Tilba x