Jenny and I have decided to pull the kids out of school and take them travelling for a year. We leave this summer.
We've toyed with this possibility for many years. The idea is that there's more to an education than classroom learning. Our hope is that travel will challenge them and provide new experiences which help them grow and learn about the world. That's the theory. It's also just plain fun and a way to enjoy having the kids before they grow up and don't want to hang about with Mom and Dad anymore.
This does mean that we have to "home school" the kids for a year. It's a scarey challenge considering how hard it is to get the kids just to do their regular homework! We're now officially "teachers in training". R* will miss Year Seven and K* will miss Year Four. Both will return to their current schools when we get back and hopefully won't have a hard time catching up.
Our first trip will be back to Canada for a family visit in the summer. Then we'll come back to the UK and spend September and October travelling around the Alps and down the length of Italy. After a quick stop back in the UK, we'll then fly to Malaysia which will become our base for six months. From Malaysia, we'll do several trips which will likely include India, Australia and China. Later in the spring, we'll return to the UK and do some more trips around Europe taking advantage of the fact that it won't be high season.
As I said, we're still formulating our plans so things will change. I decided go public on this blog now since any ideas, contacts or help with the planning are welcome and might change when and where we go.