Has anyone gone travelling with their dc? Is it a mad and foolhardy plan?

[kitbit]

We're in Spain and will be moving back to Britain next year. After partaking of a bottle of wine last night (therein lies the key, I think!) we have cooked up a crazy plan - we will be selling our house and will be running our business remotely when we move (web based), so we are considering going on a bit of a tour with ds, who will be 5. We can continue working to support ourselves, won't be paying rent or mortgage in the background, and I want to home school ds for a year. Also, because he started school here 2 years earlier than they do in Britain he has a good grounding already in the stuff he would be doing in reception and has a head start so we'd just need to make sure he continues, keeps up, and stays in the way of studying.

Are we mad to even consider it??? Someone please talk sensibly to me!!

This is fine kitbit - enjoy it while you can, as long as you are confident in your abilities to home school your DS and ensure his reading, writing and arithmetic are OK.

I'm very happy with the idea of teaching him, I'd love to home school him completely but I don´t think it's going to be possible once we settle as I will need to work, but doing it in this situation I think would be OK!

Have you done something similar Anna?

No, but one of my cousins did this with her children when they were little. Her elder child (DD) got her International Baccalaureate with 43/45 last year, so it didn't do any long term damage (quite the contrary). And a friend of mine has done it twice - once for a few months and once for a year - and her children are doing really well at school too.

The consensus seems to be that the very important thing is to keep your children reading and writing daily - it is easy to forget about this when you are on the move. A daily email to classmates/Granny is great.

We met a couple travelling with their 5 year old when we were travelling. This was in Vietnam. They had had no major problems.

The only thing they did say was that he was getting very bored and missing having children of his own age to play with.

We would have ready access to a laptop as we would have one with us for work, so emailing and participating in online activites would be easy to keep up, as would keeping in touch with other home-ed communities, so that would work...

..but I'd also considered the playtime aspect, I suppose a 5 year old has different priorities about what's interesting!

Thanks Anna and RB, I'll bump this a few times if nobody minds to see if I can catch anyone who's got more thoughts too!

I think this is a great idea! Just keep him reading etc. every day and let him play with children as you travel around. Do a bit of research in advance maybe on child-friendly places as well.

Our ds has travelled with us a lot and is happy to play with children wherever we are - on our most recent trip to Burma, for example, he was playing football with some children at a monastery and they had a very emotional farewell at the end of our visit!

It'll be a fantastic experience for him and, as you say, the opportunity to take time out of schooling (and work) to go on a big trip doesn't come up that often.

We're thinking of doing a big trip with our ds next year, when we'll be moving countries too but we'll only have around three months maximum (we thought about taking him out of school for a year but it turns out that wouldn't work with his age and the move of education systems, unfortunately).

Have fun and let us know where you go and how it works out! Very exciting!

I think it is a great idea! I really envy you.

Have a look at this website, they are friends of ours, and they are travelling round the world for 3 years. They have a little boy who is 4, he was about 3 when they started.

www.malaysiansinmotion.com/

All the best,