Traveling with school-age children

A story from an inspiring family

In this blog, Kim shares her travels with school-age children. But even if you’re not planning to travel for an extended period with your kids, this is a lovely and inspiring blog to read. Kim takes you along on their adventure in beautiful but cold Norway.

This blog is written by Kim.

Introducing ourselves - our travels with school-age children

We are Corné, Kim, Jet (10), and Aron (2). Our biggest motivation is freedom! After traveling for three months through Australia and New Zealand in 2017 with our then 4-year-old daughter, we knew for sure: we want to travel!

The funny thing is that while we were on the other side of the world, we spoke to people who all wanted to go to Europe. Apparently, you always want to see what is far and unknown. We realized that we didn’t actually know Europe that well, and since we had enjoyed life in a camper so much, we decided to buy one ourselves. This took some time because the old Mercedes 609 we bought with a B driver’s license turned out to be too heavy. So, we had it inspected, and Corné got his large driver’s license (C1). After that, we customized it to our liking and added plenty of storage space. With 2 children, 2 adults, and a dog, you can use every inch of storage space in a camper.

On to Scandinavia - traveling with school-age children

After selling most of our belongings (and storing a bunch of boxes in our parents’ attic), we departed on May 2, 2022, for an indefinite period. First, we spent 8 months in Scandinavia, most of which was spent around the Arctic Circle. Kim was very eager to visit the Lofoten Islands. However, we arrived there in the middle of summer, and it was so crowded (compared to other places in Norway up to that point). Yes, the pictures, houses, and nature are incredibly beautiful, but our hearts are more drawn to Senja (which is just above). It’s also stunningly beautiful but not yet touristy at all.

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Our highlights in Norway - traveling with school-age children

Our wish was to experience a “real” Scandinavian winter. Since it wasn’t very safe to do that in a camper with temperatures reaching -30°C and two children, we spent 2.5 months in a stuga. What an experience! From ice that sang as it froze quickly and hard, to cutting down your own Christmas tree in the forest, to ice fishing, and weeks of no sunlight. The latter started to wear us down a bit. We had little energy and ended up spending too much time in front of the TV with tea and chocolate. On our way home, we truly cried when we finally saw the sun above the horizon again.

Highlights of our time in Norway were:

– Hiking Offersøykammen (436m straight up with a toddler in the carrier)
– Wonderful hikes in Senja
– The islands of Luroy and Onøy, which are less known but super chill.

Tip: AltijdWat travel guide Road trip through Norway with children

Our future plans and traveling with school-age children

Due to family circumstances, we returned to the Netherlands, where we ended up staying much longer than expected, but we are on the road again. The plan is to go to Portugal in the fall of 2023 and spend the winter in Morocco. The plans are still vague. Will we drive the Silk Road? Or will we find land somewhere for our dream of a small permaculture community? Or maybe even all of it? One of Corné’s big wishes is to go to Costa Rica with the family. He has been there before and wants to show it to his children. Kim’s greatest wish is to snorkel with whales and walk the Camino de Santiago together.

Traveling with school-age children - tips!

I think the most frequently asked question is: ‘How can you travel with a 10-year-old daughter? She is of school age, isn’t she?’ Usually followed by: ‘Do you practice homeschooling?’ In the Netherlands, you are not only required to attend school but also obligated to attend school. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, you can say that once you have enrolled your child in school (even if they were not yet five), you are required to keep your child in school. A homeschooling exemption must be requested before your child has been in contact with the school system.

The first logical step is to talk to the school (if it’s about a trip of, for example, one year). See if you can take schoolwork with you and whether they are willing to arrange it outside the school attendance officer’s regulations. You can have a conversation with the relevant school attendance officer from the municipality where your child goes to school, but they usually follow the rules, so you won’t get permission. Of course, there are exceptions with officers who do agree, but the one from our municipality did not.

Because we wanted to travel for an indefinite period, we chose to unregister our daughter and myself from the Netherlands. This eliminates the compulsory education requirement. Our municipality did not ask for a new address after I indicated that we had not yet found a definitive new place to live.

If you choose this step, there are several factors to consider, such as the loss of your rights to benefits and child allowances, and your pension contributions will be halted. For us, these are things we don’t value highly. We primarily want to give our children the experience of life and the world.

Child-led-learning

Currently, we practice child-led learning. This means that we follow our daughter’s passions and interests, support her, and try to stimulate her with new experiences. Right now, that includes playing the piano, writing a book, doing word searches, and learning all about her three snails that she has named as pets. If she expresses a desire to pursue a study in the future, we will help her find the necessary (online) education to do so. Additionally, we visit many museums, she speaks English very well, and we learn a lot about the culture and history of all the countries we visit.

Holistic lifestyle coaching

In the meantime, we are also busy growing our holistic lifestyle coaching business. Our dream is to coach other people/families in finding their path and leaving the golden cage they often create for themselves. Feeling stuck in your current life creates a lot of tension and can even result in physical complaints and burnout. We were those people five years ago and saw no way out. Now we know exactly what it takes to reorganize your life. And to those who say, ‘I have kids now, so I can’t travel full-time and see the world anymore!’ I have one thing to say: ‘Take a look at our website or Instagram :)!

Follow Kim and her family on Instagram @puravida.family and coaching.puravida, and check their website www.puravidafamily.eu for more inspiration on traveling with school-age children.