A Child’s Thoughts On Fulltime Travel

Mum, Dad, my two sisters, baby brother, and I are travelling around Australia in a campervan.    We’ve been on the road for over year now.

 

Travelling Australia can be boring when you are driving, because there is almost nothing to do except watch the scenery passing, read, or listen to an audiobook.  We usually drive two or three hours at a time, maybe two or three times a week.  When we drive, we usually do not stop until we get to our campsite.  When we are in the car, Susan and I usually read or listen to an audiobook, though Susan will often draw with Edmund and Lucy.  I find some books can make me sleepy.  Lucy will usually point out windmills we pass, and everyone points out cows, animals, water, and watertanks.  Be cautious reading in a car, reading while going over hills can make me car sick.  I like reading, but sometimes I can’t read in the car because I get carsick.  Usually I find the cure to help car sickness is sleep. It is boring being in the car, but we find things to do.

 

You have to be careful with campsites; some are really good, some are not.  We like to find a playground at a campsite, but we can’t always.  I like to play tag and ride my bike, my sisters also like making fairy houses.  If there is something I want to do, I try to find someone to play it with me, but if not I’ll do something else by myself.  At Belair National Park, we played a long game of hide ‘n’ seek tiggy.  At Cobungra, we got to ride on the other kids’ quad bike.

 

We find it hard to keep in touch with our friends. We like to find new friends at campsites.  It can be difficult to find friends because sometimes there are no other kids at the campsite.  Sometimes I meet the kids again at another campsite, other times we don’t see them again.  It doesn’t bother me; I can always make new friends.

 

We are home schooled.  When we do schoolwork, Mum is very strict.  I like to look at old equipment and try to figure out how they work.  At Coober Pedy, I tried to work out what the old machines were, and I looked at an early telephone in Warnambool.  I’ve learnt a lot about history; what people have done, how they’ve done things, where they’ve been.  i  read books about the towns we are in, some of these books are interesting, and others are boring.  One time we found a clean skeleton while we were four wheel driving.  We worked out from the long tail that was still together that it was a kangaroo.  When we are at tourist places, we always read the information on the signs.

 

I like travelling full time, but I don’t like being in the car for long periods of time.  Sometimes I feel like I never want to stop travel.

 


If you are interested in hearing more about how the kids feel about their travels:

Peter has set up Adventurous Childhood, a website of his own where he is now blogging.

His sister, Susan, is now blogging at Life and Views.

 

 

homeschool road school education children kids travel

 

homeschool road school education children kids travel

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Comments

  1. I really enjoyed reading your take on travelling, it reassures me it is the right decision we are making for our family! Glad you are loving it, and learning so much. Though the driving gets a bit tedious at least there are worthwhile adventures on the other side!

    • admin
      Twitter: livinontheroad
      says:

      He was very focussed on the time in the car when he wrote this as we had just done a long drive down the Great Ocean Road.

  2. I like reading what you are doing Peter. Tell us if you find out how more old machinery works.

  3. Our family of 3 is traveling with our soon-to-be 7 year old daughter. Sometimes she loves the travel and sometimes she says it’s BORING. She has her own blog where she writes about it at times.

  4. I’ve always planned on my girls adding to my blog. I really should get that started. Great article Jeremy!!!

    • admin
      Twitter: livinontheroad
      says:

      Thanks Jackie. It is a good idea as part of homeschooling! He was very focussed on the time in the car when he wrote this as we had just done a long drive down the Great Ocean Road.
      Lovely idea, Jackie.

  5. great to hear from a childs point of view

    We are from Tassie and have rented our house out for 2 years, we are currently in whyalla as my husband got work and plan on leaving here in May and heading North then West into the Kimberleys with our 2 kids Max (6) and Zoe (4) the plan is to travel travel travel and work when we have to. Great to read about your travels, wondered about the kids and making friends, they get along well so don’t think it will be a problem, more the budgeting of money and hoping the camper trailer is up to the job. look forward to reading more

    • admin
      Twitter: livinontheroad
      says:

      Hi Allison,
      We rented our house initially for a year, but plan on keeping it as a rental. When did you leave Tassie?
      You are not too far from us at the moment, relatively speaking. We are at the other end of South Australia in Andamooka for a few weeks for work. We have found that it is pretty easy to pick up work, and we have worked just under 1/2 the year but in many different places. The stopping to work is fun, too, as you get to know the town a little better.
      I actually thought when we headed off that we’d have trouble fitting into a campervan, even though we had ‘only’ had an average three bedroom house. Now, I am actually thinking our campervan is getting larger and we have so many luxuries in the van. It was originally me (Amy), who wanted all the extras and mod-cons. Now, it’s me who’s thinking we have ‘over-catered’. I needed them more in our ‘transition period’.
      Re friends, I think I said it in another post, but I am the one who stresses about friendships, not the children. As I write this, I watch all four playing almost on top of each other at the playground we are parked next to. Jarrad is working in Roxby Downs, so Peter, Susan and Tamika are having three weeks of school at a one-room school in Andamooka. It really is a lovely little school (I am quite passionate about homeschooling, so this is high praise) and they are enjoying playing with the other kids.
      We’ll have to keep in touch, as you are planning on moving the same sort of direction as us over the next few months. Lake Eyre is expeected to fill by June, so we’ll head up there and then down across the Eyre Peninsula to Western Australia (we think).

      Amy

  6. Kristy Harris says:

    Peter, I am so glad you like travel as much as you do. My daughter Kiera also gets carsick sometimes, so that isn’t fun. What has been the best thing about living in the campervan?

    • admin
      Twitter: livinontheroad
      says:

      Usually when I get carsick it is because I am reading so I ask Mum to put on an audiobook.
      The best thing about living in a campervan is that we can go almost anywhere and still be at home. If I get hungry, I can just go into the campervan and get something instead of having to wait or buy something.

  7. Marillia says:

    Nice to know how you can make new friends at the new sites (when there are more children around). And the audio books look like a big saver on long car rides

    • admin
      Twitter: livinontheroad
      says:

      Usually I can always find people to make friends with wherever we are. The audiobooks are really a big save, particularly when we are on long drives.

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