Slightly (!) nervous of running away to sea with my family

[mike_bryon]

There are other options to home schooling.

We have employed a teacher for 3 or 4 months to run school on passage. The last time was last year on passage from the med to the Caribbean. We offered a cabin, full board, flight home and a weekly allowance. We advertised on the website gumtree and had over 200 applicants. We ended up with a fantastic teacher.

We have also placed our children in local schools. For example our children attended school in Venice for two years and as a result speak Italian fluently. This is easy to organise and free in the EU. They have been in a small private school here in the Caribbean for almost a year.

 

[Bajansailor]

Here is an excellent article by Dave and Jaja Martin about their trip around the world with two little kids on a 25' (yes, 25') sailing yacht - they later moved up to a 33' yacht after their 3rd child arrived on the scene, and then the five of them lived on board in high latitudes, even in winter, for the next few years.
http://www.selfsteer.com/pdfs/GOB_ND05_Martin.pdf

All of the boat kids I have come across here have certainly not 'missed out' by not attending school regularly - I met one family in the 70's who went around the world with two little children (and a third arrived a bit unexpectedly in New Zealand), and all 3 kids later went on to university.
Met another family with two daughters, one of whom was the same age (12) as me at the time - one daughter loved the cruising lifestyle, the other one hated it. We tried to get our parents to do a straight swop - the wee lass who hated life on the sea would have loved to move ashore, and I would have loved to have moved afloat - but strangely our parents were not too keen on the idea at the time.....

 

[rogersimms]

Hi

I suppose you really have to think where and what you are doing for the next 4 years. 14 year old's and up can be really difficult to deal with and thats in a brick built house. we spent 3 years in the med and we did not meet any teenage liverboards. It was a different matter for the 8 year old she would always find someone to play with especially if they had a cat.

Do you intend to pay for the exams in 2 years time some of them can be over 800 pounds sterling. there is not much support in the UK for home education while abroad so you have to be on top of things right from the start.

I could spend a few hours just chatting with you but my last question is are the kids all in agreement or is it just your dream.

We are in Cochin for the next few days and hopefully will be getting under way heading for Thailand and Malaysia. I hope there will not be too many things to repair so I can spend some time with the kids, but then its a boat and the repair list keeps on getting bigger.