LisaT

We have lived here for 2 years now but haven't bought as we still have our uk house and are undecided where we want to be yet. We have been thinking recently about putting all furniture in storage, buying a camper or pop top caravan and spending 6 to 12 months travellin g round Oz. We have 2 boys aged 3 and 5 so I will need to do some home schooling with them.
Has anyone done this? How did you cope with living in such a small space for such a time and did the kids benefit from it or do you feel you made a mistake doing it.
Would love to hear peoples views on this.
PS. We also have a dog we would take with us.

HelenTD

Hi LisaT, God, you're brave, I wouldn't do it with my 2 boys. As yours are so young, they wouldn't miss much of school, and there would be plenty of opportunities to teach them things along the way. Have you tried looking at home schooling sites in Perth? You might find a blog or two from people who've done it (and survived). I've met people who converted a bus into living and travelling accommodation, to have more room for their family on the road. Having a 4WD is important travelling around WA and other states, so if we ever did the trip, we'd probably go for a proper 4WD and a separate pop-up camper trailer.

LisaT

Thanks for the tip. My boys are good friends and generally pretty good. They like being outdoors and are active that way. But they can sit still and do activities too.
Lots to think about though.

quoll

They dont really need home schooling at that age other than the usual parenting things that people do with their kids - have experiences, read lots, keep journals etc. It isnt mandatory to send your kids to school in Aus until they turn 6 and even then no one is going to get their knickers in a knot if you dont send them.

I think it is a great idea and would have happily done it with my kids when they were younger, had I not had to go to work to pay the mortgage. As it was, we still did quite a bit of travelling all over and they enjoyed that. We also used to do a lot of bushwalking with backpacks - dont think I would have done it that way for a whole year though!

JenniGee

What a great idea!

I took my two girls on the road when they were very small. They were aged 3 & 2 at the time & we travelled Central America - Mexico, Guat, Honduras, Belize....the difficulties I found were mainly around the different modes of transport & the constant packing & unpacking of backpacks, because we stayed in hostels & homestays...since youre thinking of having your own transport that also acts as a home, you'll be spared all that

At such a young age, your boys will mainly only need what you can teach them, so don't worry too much about schooling if it's going to be a year - don't children not really get into proper schoolwork until age 6 anyway in Oz? My own thoughts would just be that it's important that they socialise & learn about getting on with other kids though, just so they can make friends easy when they settle into school, so any opportunity you find, let them mix with other children on the way.

Hope you have a fantastic trip!

moneypenny20

I wouldn't do the home schooling for such young children. Seems pointless to me. Yes I'd have them 'drawing' pictures of their travels, making scrap books of stuff picked up at various locations and explaining stuff to them but other than that, nah.

I think they're the perfect age to soak up loads of stuff and have a ball before they need to do the regimented school thing.

I'd do it, sounds like a plan to me

comet555

One of my husbands colleagues (an Aussie) drove around in a camper for about 10 months last year touring the country.

They had 7 kids in total under the age of 10, this included a baby that was about 6 months old too! They had the time of their life and had saw and experienced a lot in that time. They actually drove two vehicles I believe because there were 9 of them in total, so they had a camper and then an 4x4 pulling a camper trailer.

They did home school their kids but they had a few that were older than yours. At that age I would just work on reading and maths in general and not really follow a set curriculum. Making some scrap books along the way would be great and the kids could practice cutting, gluing and drawing too. By the time this family returned from their trip their kids were doing work almost a grade or two above them, which is generally a good thing.

I think it would be lots of fun even with all the driving. They actually did spend a week every so often in a rented place to break it up a bit and have a bit of normal life on occasion.

Anyway, I think if they could do it with that many kids then it can be done. I thought they were crazy at first but once they were finished it was actually something we figured we'd like to do someday.

Jan4kids

I'd go for the seperate Caravan rather than a Camper, at least then you can leave it whilst you explore rather than make sure everything is stowed away safely each time you need to pop somewhere...I'm speaking from experience here

The dog will probably cause more trouble than the kids, Holidays with dogs take a fair bit of forward planning and many National Parks do not allow dogs at all.

Jan

LisaT

Thanks for all your comments. Yes I have to say I am concerned about taking the dog. I am already aware that dogs aren't allowed at so many places and he would restrict us a bit. But we wouldn't consider doing it without him. Another thing to give some thought to I think.

thanks.XX

punoo

Hey awesome idea!!! Just go ahead...best time..no schools to miss. If u r worried about the schooling u can just teach the kids alphabets, numbers etc along with the evryday stuff u will descover.

We are flying to brisbane in may, plan to buy our campervan hiace with 5 seats n 2 double bed. We plan to spend 1-2 weeks in Brisbane..do all admin stuff plus meet recruitment agencies than leave for our campervan trip. We have 2 boys 2 year old and 1 month old(than 5mth) )
V r very excited about the whole trip. Will send u a pm n we can exchange tips n maybe see u on the road somewhere!
All the best.