Going Off-Grid: How to Raise Kids While Travelling Often
It is great for your children to experience as many cultures and different people as possible. Whether you think you want to take a sabbatical and just travel, or you are fortunate to be able to go on lots of holidays throughout the year, you need to think about how to best raise your children. Here are some of our top tips for raising kids when travelling here, there, and everywhere.
Be Prepped to Travel
If you are travelling often, you need to make sure that you are always ready to get out there and travel. You might pick up a great deal that means you just want to get on the road again. Make sure you are aware of when your passports expire. These are what will most likely hold you back as you try to travel. It is possible to have your passports renewed abroad, but it is incredibly difficult. Try not to travel if you know your passport is going to expire soon.
What about insurance? If you travel often it’s worth looking at annual travel insurance. This could be a great way for you to make sure you are more protected financially throughout your travels.
Consider Home Schooling
Some parents prefer to pull their children out of mainstream education so they can travel the world instead. There are many advantages and disadvantages of doing, so but it can lead to some amazing adventures and life experiences for your children.
If you think you want to go travelling for a long time, you should consider home-schooling your children along the way so they will not fall behind their peers. There are many ways to do so. You can devise your own curriculum or try child-led learning. Alternatively, if you do not view yourself as a teacher, you should look into one of the home-schooling education programs available online. This might be a better option for your children.
Teach Your Kids How to Stay Safe
Just as you would teach your children to stay safe in your local supermarket or park back home, you need to make sure that they are able to keep themselves safe as you travel. One of the biggest problems when travelling can be a language barrier. Just as you might teach yourselves a few key phrases, you need to make sure that you also teach them to your children.
You never know when this might come in handy. There are several places you could travel to that are much busier than your hometowns could ever be. While you might be able to keep a close eye on your smaller children, older ones might get easily separated from you while exploring. Buying them a phone with a local sim card will allow them to keep in contact with you when you are out and about, and will allow them to keep in touch with friends back home when you have Wi-Fi.
Embrace the Changes
Choosing to uproot your lives and head off travelling can be an incredibly difficult decision. You also need to consider what it will do to your family. Arguments are likely to happen on the road, but you need to make sure that they are just petty squabbles and nothing more sinister. If you think that travel will bring you all closer together than ever before, you should definitely take the plunge and see what is out there for your family today. Start planning your first big trip away together as soon as you can. You won’t regret what it could bring to your family.