Travelling with children

Have a look at thread 84847, there is a web site mentioned there where a family spent six months travelling.
Have a great trip.
Cheers.
Baz

Hi there guys, I'm not sure what advise I can offer, but I reckon you'll soon realise it was the best move!
My wife and I, 2 kids (2 & 4) and 2 dogs are currently on the roam, have been for 7months now. Come April, we'll be heading west again too, departing from north NSW, so might see you on the road somewhere :)
I'll be doing a months work at home in Perth, then plan to travel up the west coast, and then back down the center, and once again to the east coast.
I'm guessing your kids are a bit older than ours, so don't really have relevent info regarding 'school' learning, but it has been great to watch our boys grow and learn about things a lot of others will never think about.
We try to stick a lot to bush camping, so out of holiday season our boys don't really see too many other kids, they have however grown so much more confidant around older people, be that good or bad?
When it comes to budget tips and menus, I guess one thing we really rely on is keeping it simple, simple stir frys, pastas, and rice dishes, that and simple meat and veg meals. Also bulk up on generic brand tins and packets, once you get used to them, they taste great and save so much!
I have so much info, but could go on for days and bore everyone reading, don't hesitate to enquire more!
Most of all, just enjoy the ride, and you'll learn all you need to on the way.
Cheers
Troy

Hi John & Loz,

My Wife 8yr old boy and me are currently about 9weeks into our trip arpound OZ (and through) and we are also doing the distance Ed thing, we've found it to be a lot more work and time comsuming than we thought, if done properly and all tasks and activities completed it's easily a 3 or 4 hour sitting and thats just with one child, we have just recently been in touch with his teacher and she has advised/allowed us to spare the "activivity stuff if struggling for time. It really isn't something that we have found we can do while we are on the road we need to be set up in the van with plenty of table space.

The main thing I have noticed with time on the road for me especially, is learning to slow down and relax, I'm sure there are some people who are of a really laid back nature, and find the lifestyle immediately satisfying, but I reckon it took me the full 6 weeks we did in Tassie to really start to get into the swing of things and not be consumed with itineraries, and time tables and to make sure we are set up in the fastest practical time, and to realise that our pack downs don't have to run like the McClaren F1 team, and God forbid that some days we actually have a sleep in and eat breaky at 10am and sit around doing nothing all day........

A lifetime ofself employment and high pressure time tables and deadlines and trying to squeeze every little thing out of a two week trip wich we managed to squeeze in when we couldn't really afford the time of work, makes for a certain amount of "adjustment" of your personality for this style of travell.

We were about 3 weeks into our long awaited and much anticipated trip and I was really having a few mental battles wondering why I couldn't relax and wasn't enjoying it as much as I had hoped, fortunately we set up site in a C'Van park next to an old couple from Q'Land (in Tassie) and he had sensed my stress level in making sure our camper was dead straight with our site and that everything was perfect and level and so on, so later on during an informal drink and a chat with them he told me to stop trying so hard to "have fun" and that only "time on the tour" will get you into the right frame of mind.

So hear we are 6 weeks later in Western Vic and I/we reckon the trip is just getting more and more enjoyable.

Gee I've ranted on a bit havn't I, but anyway there my thoughts of life on the road so far so to speak, if your new to the caper, just be prepaird to take the time to work out what is best for YOU and YOUR family.

Cheers...........Browny

Hi John & Loz, we have only travelled for 4 months at a time (with 5 kids of primary school age and beyond) at the longest so never worried too much about schoolwork however we did meet plenty of families doing distance ed. on the road and the one thing they had in common was that neither the parents nor the kids were having much fun with the school work. I would probably advise you - as a primary teacher myself - that I would just do the bare basics of reading and maths - even less than the bare basics - and then if when they started back at school after your trip ends and they have to repeat a year that it wouldn't be the end of the world. They learn so much on the road that can never be learnt in the classroom and I don't regret one minute that I have kept my kids out of school for over the years on several trips. And yes I loved Kelly Dennerly's book - truly inspirational!

Hi there! My wife and I and 2 kids (6&3) are heavily in the planning stage at the moment and have the house on the market. Once house sells and Kedron and Landcruiser are ready for pickup, We are off!! None of us can wait. We will have no time restraints, no commitments and hopefully no worries! Go around once, go around twice...... Time with my kids and my wife is the utmost of importance and travelling around oz, what a better way. Life is to short, and have been told many times before that most people do it at the wrong end of their lives! My wife is a teacher, so we will be home schooling our kids. She can watch and study their development, and the life experiences they will be getting is something they will not get sitting in a class room. My wife was just saying last night that when on the road and especially in caravan parks etc, for a small fee she can offer tudoring services to people like your selfs to make sure kids are on right track and any areas that you could focus on. For me like your last response, it gonna come down to be able to relax and enjoy the whole thing. I am taking tinny this time, so fishing will be a great escape for me at times and valuable time with the whole family. Also provide cheap/healthy/yummy meals. We travelled a few month with our first child in a pop top when she was about 1-1.5. We found it very hard at that age and don't think we were in the right frame of mind. Couldn't relax! Pulled the pin and came home. This time have 2 kids, both sleep in their own beds, toilet trained, easy going and love spending time with mum and Dad! So relax and Enjoy every moment. John

G'day John & Loz,

We are currently 6 months into our trip around Oz. Originally my thought was to go with Distance Education for our 6yo as it was structured and gave me everything I needed to teach her.

After some research though, we changed our minds and went with Homeschooling (Qld based). This was for a variety of reasons:- cost, freedom of own lesson planning, and less rigidness of timelines etc.

When we approached Qld Homeschooling they gave us (and actually continue to provide) tonnes of resources mostly internet based to assist with lesson planning and the like. Very supportive and made what seemed a very daunting task, quite simple.

We also found books like the Excel (pascalpress.com.au) workbooks really good for providing a guideline of what she should know and at what stage. They also helped explain the phonics principles that I would have no clue about explaining (I'm not a teacher - and "just because" doesn't work in explanations real well)!!!! Then there is the schoolzone workbooks that are lots of fun with their bright pictures and stickers and the like.

We spend a maximum of 2 hours in one go per day. I might break it up into 1 hour lots (literacy and maths for exampe) to keep the attention span at bay. And sometimes it's less than 2 hours. We miss days, but make up for it too.

The best thing that we do though is get the 6yo to keep a scrapbook of where we go. She does that with Dad (gives me a break from being the teacher!) and it's awesome. It's our memories of this fantastic time and we look back at it quite a lot already. She writes a paragraph on the place we've been at on each page, sticks photo's in (Big W seem to be the cheapest to get photos printed), draws pictures and might also cut up brochures to stick in. This is really on top of the 2 hours we do, but isn't done every day and is probably more important than the lesson plans.

Sometimes we make up missed days by doing a bit on the weekend, but generally, she's learning so much with the trip, we aren't too worried about missed days. It's up to us to make sure she's progressing and I think 2 hours one on one is quite comparable to a school day with a classroom of 25+! Sometimes making a friend at a van park is more important than reading sight words - socialising with other kids and using imagination in play - all part of the learning I say!

We also have a 2.5yo, so the scrapbook is his memories as we don't think he's remember much, which is a bummer.

Most of all, the trip is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The family has bonded so much and when we think of what it'll be like when it's over, we shudder! Enjoy your time!!!

Shane & Lou

Hi John and Loz,

My husband and I, plus our 1 year old son and Ridgeback, are getting ready to travel Australia too. We also have our house on the market and have decided to sell and travel to take time out of the pressures of work, mortgage etc. This is an interesting thread for us to follow, as I also wonder how travelling with a young child will go and am interested in ANY advice.

With our house going to auction in a few weeks, weekends full of open homes, chasing a little fella around, and working from home etc, we have such little time to research and at the moment I'm imagining that when the house sells we'll pack our camping gear into the camper trailer, hop in the car, turn to each other and say, 'where are we going first?'.

I'm not scared about that, but not sure if it'll cause a lot of stress and worry once we're on the road. And with entertaining a toddler in the back seat, when WILL we get time to research where we are going? How will we know certain things about the places we're going.

So my question is, what's the best way to plan where you are going when you are consumed by entertaining children?

I'm also wondering if we can only travel for 3-4 hours each day, and it's a very slow trip, if it's realistic to think we'll travel Australia in 6 moths ... whether we'll just get half way, if that!

GOOD LUCK!!!!

We did trip for 12 months a long time ago and the first thing I would do if I were you would be to ditch distance ed. Go the home schooling route and focus only on the key areas of literacy and numeracy. The kids and you are immersed in the other stuff.

Don't travel too far on the days travels - long trips do no-one any good and you'll be surprised how much fun kids can have just being out there in the middle of nowhere. You don't have to get to the next town to have fun.

Try to get everyone into a camp set up and pack down routine as soon as you can (even the 6 yr old). Give them all jobs to do and they will feel important to the whole setup/pack down process and also to the trip.

If you like the look of a place - stop and enjoy.

Pack lightly so you are not forever shifting stuff. You will really need to know the difference between what you NEED, REALLY WANT and the other stuff. Over packing can be a killer.

Work the budget thingy as you will need to find a balance between being a spend thrift and stingy. Good luck with it. We found roadside picnics & packed lunches were great cost savers. The number of take-aways and cool drinks from the shop were kept to a minimum.

All food was purchased at major towns sufficient for the next major town with a bit left over. This meant we avoided the high costs associated with outback places where possible.

Take lots of photos and keep a diary and make sure you label your pictures straight away otehrwise you forget what the photo is of.

DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF - it is all smalll stuff

Hello John and Loz, I am in the third month of travelling with my wife and three kids aged 5,4 and 2. We have learnt many valuable lessons since packing up the house and setting off. One thing you will notice is everyone has differing opinions, so use what is applicable to you. We are in a 25foot van with ensuite which we initially thought was going too big to lug around. We quickly learnt that in a van this size, you can also fit heaps of stuff, and packing for four seasons, a year on the road and five people...well you can imagine what made its way into the van. It did not take long to realise that if we packed every area of storage, our weights would have been ridiculously over. Even though we "packed light," we have just shipped four boxes to parents for storage! It might be helpful to emphasise to rellies and friends that you DO NOT NEED GIFTS any bigger than a match box for birthdays, christmas etc while on the road.

It takes a while to adjust to living in a van without the pressures of everyday life. It is a godsend to have an ensuite for those parks that may not maintain their amenities blocks as you might at home. We have also learnt that you need to question pricing for children depending on their ages. You will pay a lot for some very ordinary parks when around the corner there may be a great park for much less. We have free camped a couple of times and will be doing a lot more now that we have just received our Camps 6 book.

Don't stress over making sure you have everything you think you may need/want before you leave. There is plenty of opportunity to purchase along the way - after you learn what is important.

We enrolled Emily in Dist Ed, and like the other thread replies, have found it full on - taking hours a day(and that was only the first week of school). This was frustrating, and Emily got peeved at having to do school work while her brothers played. We have now stopped for eight weeks and have Em going to the local school. She loves it! Dist Ed can wait till after easter.

While we did not make a daily plan for the trip, we had an idea of what we wanted to do for the first few months. Let me say not one thing has gone to plan other than the bare bones of the travel. Weather, road closures, flooding and family illness totally changed two months of our trip. We are now on Western Qld in a great place, meeting great people we would have otherwise not experienced.

However you do it, it wil be great - with some challenges along the way. Some tips..

Pack light - no you won't need ten changes of clothes for each season and 5 pairs of shoes each, don't be afraid to be spontaneous, make every experience a learning one for the kids, involve them in the routines, allow interaction with wild life (friendly), eat simply, don't worry about dirt, have shade/awning for outside play/activites/eating, test the height iof camp chairs to table for eating comfort, leave the iron at home, use the best quality equip you can afford, let your kids socialise with other kids and older people and try to have an interest/hobby that you can pursue on the road.

There really is so much to say...

Good luck.

Ant and Nat