Travelling around Australia
 

Hiya,

We emigrated to Australia in July 2009 and totally love it here. We are seriously thinking about travelling around the country for 12 months. We have 2 children, one is 3 in July and the other 6 in a few weeks. He's started at kindergarten this year, which is the only reason I am a little nervous about saying "yes, let's do it!" I know it's only the early stages of his education, but I wondered if any of you had done something similar and home taught?

Cheers
Rachel

Re: Travelling around Australia
 

The ONLY thing I knew about australia as a kid... apart from there were kangaroos and rolf harrises was that australian children were educated by radio... all of em... didnt you ever watch skippy as a child ffs???

in my limited experience I have found that The australian education system is fantasticly supportive of kids exploring their country... our now 14 year old had 3 weeks off during school to sail from somewhere on the north coast back to perth with friends... no worries, no questions asked... They did maths stuff and fished and read comics and fished and learned geography and fished... and did a bit of sailing too... sat and watched the stars at night... visited some amazing (fishing) spots...

So long as you keep the reading to them up and encourage activities such as reading to em, looking at maps.. numbers... counting things on the way... take plenty of "doing" materials and supplies with you... why the heck not???

An experience like that at ANY age outweighs any loss of sitting with yer buum on a seat in a stuffy classroom... You can make it the learning experience of their lives...

Also you can tap into online resources and Home Educating support groups if you stay internet connected... or at least check in regularly at libraries if yer dongle aint working...

Wish we could consider doing that right now for ours...

You're lucky buggers!!!

Re: Travelling around Australia
 

Thanks very much Eddie :thumbup:

Re: Travelling around Australia
 

I'm a wee bit jealous- been here over 2 and a half years and apart from a day trip to the Blue Mountains and a lunch at Avoca, I haven't been out of Sydney to explore. (Well, I do go to Woy Woy and Toukley, but that is to sit in a spectator gallery of a swimming pool and watch my daughter go up and down.)

Re: Travelling around Australia
 

I reckon he'll learn more travelling around Aus than he would in school over the same period. You could talk to the school about what you are doing and they may be able to give you stuff for him to do. Otherwise you could just buy workbooks. Personally I would just talk to him about the stuff you see and how things work. You'll be surprised at how much 'school stuff' comes into quite general conversations.

Home schooling in NSW is quite heavily regulated (although not as bad as Queensland). You'd be better saying you are doing an around Australia trip rather than home-schooling.

Re: Travelling around Australia
 

Would love to do travelling but we are stuck where we are now as 13 year old is in high school.

Good Luck with it :fingerscrossed: