Around Oz with kids

Hi Jess & Kirk,

This new release book may be worth a read - "Adventures in Caravanastan".
Its about a family's 45,000km trip around Australia with an 11 month old Toddler in tow. Its available from www.randomhouse.com.au or maybe the bookshop at Exploroz may even stock it or get it in.
There has been lots of posts on this site over recent times about schooling etc. Try the search function as well.

All the best

Cheers

Hi Jess and Kirk,

Great to hear about another family with young children opting to go travelling for an extended period. We have seen numerous families with young children on our travels and what always strikes us is how happy the children are.

Have you read the article (under the "articles" buttton in the blue header bar above) on travelling with children. There will be blogs that are also relevant, and a search may be worth a try as this topic comes up pretty often.

Perhaps a bit more info will help to give you better feedback. Possibly the biggest issue will be your accommodation - will you be tenting, using a camper trailer or a caravan? Do you plan to stay on bitumen or go off the beaten track, and so on.

There are more "must see" places than you can see in a lifetime and a lot of what you do will depend on the weather, and the time of year that you are in any given place. Search this site for heaps of info.

At the ages you children are now, formal education shouldn't be a big issue and it appears that schools are pretty supportive of travel plans. Start by talking to your school as they may have some suggestions. A good supply of books, paper and pencils would seem a good start. Just getting them to draw about what they have seen and done each day will get them started.

Hopefully you wont need to resort to DVDs for entertainment. There is so much to see out the window as you drive so if you are able to encourage them to really be observant they will acquire some invaluable lifetime skills. Try to break up long drives with frequent stops where they can get exercise and explore. And dont worry about them getting dirty - it is inevitable and they will not be harmed by it!!

HTH, have a wonderful time.

Val

Congrats on getting out there with the kids. We have just finished almost 3 yrs on the road with a 3&5 yr old when we started. A lot of people we met said they were waiting till the kids grew up. They will miss out on so much. Schooling will depend a bit on which state you come from as each has its own rules for schooling. We home schooled ours which was great as we had the flexibility to do the schooling around what we were doing.
Some people we met were doing distance ed which could be a pain getting stuff sent to you all the time. Another couple we met simply had the school set out the years work for them, so there are a number of options. You need to work out what you are allowed to do and what works best for you.
We never had a dvd player in the car as we wanted the girls to experience seeing Australia not just watching movies. We had to back of the car set up with books and pencils for them and they would often do some schooling while we drove.
Must see places depends on what you are into but I would say everything is worth a look. We had people say to us don't go here or don't go there it is boring but we went and loved it so if there is something or somewhere you want to see then go and have a look as you may enjoy different things to others.
Some of our favourite places were Lincoln national park (whalers way), Andamooka, Flinders ranges, S.A., Steep point, Coral bay, Quobba station, Kimberly's, WA, Lichfield national park, Kakadu, N.T. Cape york QLD. We were in a offroad camper trailer and 80 series cruiser so we would free camp when possible.We had an 80 ltr Evacool fridge freezer in the trailer which was very economical to run. We had solar panels to charge the batteries when not driving.
We have a web site if you would like to have a look. It may have some info that might help. It is not finished yet and we have more to add to it, have a look at it herehttp://www.kidsandall.webs.com/
Hope this helps and you will find heaps of good advice from people on this site and welcome to an amazing experience of travelling Oz.

Josh

Hi Guys,
when are you leaving and where are you leaving from ?
do you have a rough idea as to where you want to go?
what is your vehicle and accommodation setups,
do you intend to free camp or not most the time ,
are you going to work along the way.
I ask this as we also are leaving in late January for 9 months on the road with our 2 boys 7yrs and will be 11 yr old and we too are a little nervous and very exited at the same time LOL! and we just like to compare notes if you know what I mean :)
My wife is trained as an early childhood teacher and she is currently teaching infants and primary school and that's why we are doing the trip in 2010 as my eldest boy will be in high school in 2011 and we prefer not to disturb his studies when he starts that chapter of his schooling life,well all I can say is GO FOR IT!!

I hope we meet out there sometime Cheers.

Good luck with this, we were going to something similar back in the 90's but that went pear shaped and it will still take place, but just me and the wife. This is a good web site to check out, hope it's ok to post on this thread. It;s one we will be using in our travels.

Cheers
Dale
Busselton WA

http://ozcamps.net/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=29

Hi we are starting our 5 yr adventure around the country on 20th Nov, we are doing it with a full 22 foot semi off road van with all the mods, with a 5yr old, cant wait, as you have referred more and more families are getting out and about now, and it is a life experience for all concerned, all have a great and safe trip,

You wont have a problem finding much of the help you need on this forum. Here's a link to information planning a trip and other stuff. planning a camper trip

Hello, in weeks time, we are beginning our trip around Australia with 4 kids and 2 dogs. The kids are twins aged 2, 5 year old and 7 year old.

We have sold our house and are now counting down the days until we leave. We have had mixed reactions from our friends and others. Many comment on how crazy and busy it will be to take 4 kids but it is like that at home anyway and we figure if we take the rush around to school, work, other committments, and jobs around home ie gardening, house maintenance, pool cleaning etc out of the equation, life should be a bit more relaxed for us travelling than it is at home really.

We look at the kids growing up so fast and almost getting lost in the busyness of life, that we just want to spend some great time together and form a very close bond as a family which will remain with them for life.

Re schooling, we are in SA and I rang DECS and they said the easiest option is distance education which we have organised through Marden Open Access College. They treat all kids needs individually, provide all the school work and have been flexible about when and how we return it to them ie our preference was no work for the first 3 months of our trip and then post back work after that. So our children will do year 1 and year 3 while they are away. I am also contemplating keeping our eldest back one year when he returns because he is young for his year, which then puts less pressure on him while we are away to keep up his schooling. This was our choice rather than home schooling as with all the other things to plan, I could not contemplate trying to organise that too.

We have bought an iveco truck and a 21ft van with 2 bunks but with 3 kids, you should be able to buy a triple bunk van fairly easily. We are going to try to free camp a lot because places I have rung Caravan Parks to try and book for the first month of our holiday, since it is school holidays, they are charging $15 per child (even the 2 year olds ) on top of the site fee which is making caravan parks $90 per day for us.

We have a large fridge 140 litres in the van and one in the car. We go through heaps of food with lots of boys!! We have no idea of the best places to go. Others will help with that but we just plan to go anywhere and everywhere because kids see the world in a different way and generally find something enjoyable wherever you go.

Good luck and enjoy.

Hi Jess & Kirk,

Good on you!! you and your family will have a GREAT time, we are a family of 5 (kids are 15yr, 9yrs & 7yrs) we started our trip back in November 08 (we are travelling with no time limit, sold the house ect). We have NO regrets, we have a 23 ft van with shower toilet ect as we may be on the road 5 or more years.

When we first started out I home schooled as my eldest decided to stay in Brisbane for a while, now he is with us home schooling a 15yr old is beyond me so the kids are all enrolled with distance ed for next year (as others have stated, the rules for education vary in each state).

We do have DVD players in the car, although they don't get used much at all, we only ever travel 250 - 350 klm's per day (or the kids get really ratty). We have a Toyota Landcruiser 80 series 1997 model and we love it, we would only ever have a Toyota (that's our personal thing though everyone is different).

We are also looking at the Engel fridges - have done a LOT of research and its the only fridge we would buy. As for places of interest it will vary - we have paid big $$$ for so called tourist attractions only to be VERY dissappointed and on the other hand we paid $22 to see the turtles come up and lay their eggs at Mon Repos (QLD) it was at night and the kids still rave about it!!!! Some of the free camps we have spent time at are just awesome as well with swiming holes and walks ect.

We have board games and cards (sometimes it can rain for a fews days and cabin fever will set in) however you may have to look at something else with your 3 being younger.

Places we would go back to for sure are:

Uluru, The Olgas, Tassie, Bundaberg, Longreach, Tumbarumba, Echuca, Kununurra, Molly Springs at El Questo, Great Ocean Road, the list goes on.

The thing to remember is everyone has a different opinion, do what suits you and yours and most of all have fun and enjoy the experience.

Feel free to contact me if you have any more Q's carolinehys@yahoo.com.au

We have a website http://www.travelingoz.webs.com

Cheers
Caroline