Making the best of motorhoming with children at school (1 Viewer)

[mojomuddywulf]

Hi there, so v new here and this is my 1st post.

We first began to use a motorhome late 2013 (Hymer B544) when James was 2 and Els was 5.

We have had four years of priceless memories and we want to do more if possible. In Oct 2017 we changed to a B694.

This Feb year we are taking the children out of school a few days either side of half term. This makes FEB half term a 2 week break and so we have time to ferry down Bilbao, Ski Pyrenees for a bit, take the bus down to Portugal.

We leave bus in Portugal , fly home.

I fly back out (advance party) for a week or two with other family and then mum/kids fly out to join me for the two weeks of easter. At the end of Easter school hols we head back to Northern Spain and ferry back. It basically means a couple of us manage nearly 6 weeks, children get to have a full 4 weeks away in warmer climates early Spring. In addition we endeavour to make the most of good UK weather, long weekends in the summer around other stuff that goes on. This spring plan seems like the best we can do whilst the young uns are at school.

Are there many members here who also have children in Primary / early secondary school and do you have any tips , suggestions or ways you manage to make the best of the motorhome travel opportunity?
kind regards
Andy Preston

 

[Riverbankannie]

Wow, sounds like you have a good plan. Hats off to you.
You are giving your children a lifetime of happy family memories, but then I think you know that!

 

[scotzsue]

Great plan for you all. Just make sure your insurance is happy about your van being left abroad without you being there.

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[bluesurf989]

We book the ferry to santander the day after they break up from school in the summer hols and return the day before they go back to school Easter and other holidays we enjoy devon and cornwall..

 

[mojomuddywulf]

We book the ferry to santander the day after they break up from school in the summer hols and return the day before they go back to school Easter and other holidays we enjoy devon and cornwall..

ahh yes thank you , may do similar summer sessions

 

[mojomuddywulf]

Great plan for you all. Just make sure your insurance is happy about your van being left abroad without you being there.

Thank you for the note of caution.

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[haganap]

Hi Andy
My lads are now 21 and 19 but we have been motorhoming since George was 8 and Harley was 6. We used to often take them out of school for various trips away but I understand that this has now been made more difficult. We often took them out from say Thursday and Friday for the following half term week picked them up from school in the motorhome on the Wednesday and then just drove to make as much of it as we could.
We often utilised the Feb half term week for Skiing trips and took them out for three days being such bad parents that we are. In the early days we would write to the school requesting time and giving some ideas of what we would be teaching them on their days off. Things like history and Geography as well as language learning abroad and never had problem. However in the later years we would often be threatened with fines etc so we taught them to be more "poorly" on those days. It would always annoy us as other than coming out of school for these extended holiday days they had a 100% attendance record.
Obviously the motorhome life never done them any harm as they have both tuned out to be compassionate caring intelligent young men. George is a serving Grenadier Guard shortly off to Afghanistan for 4 months and Harley is studying history and politics at university and hoping to go in to teaching, so all this fuss about a few days off doesn't seem to of done them any harm.

We met so many wonderful people (and some not so wonderful) on our adventures and I don't regret a moment of it.

enjoy it and make the most of it.

 

[Feltwell]

Sounds like you're doing better than me. I'm the restricting factor in our house - 25 days annual leave is a pain in the **** really, I'd happily earn a bit less and have more holiday, alas the business I work for does not entertain this - neither do the vast majority of others. It won't officially allow me more than 2 weeks off at a time, which is daft really, but my boss turns a blind eye to the 3 weeks I'll take in August - it's not really worth driving all the way to France for just 2 weeks I think.

The kids & my better half (who works in a school) get the 13 weeks of holiday a year. I wouldn't take the kids out of school for a break, that's plenty of opportunity to go away in the school holidays I think, but that's our choice and I'm not going to criticise anyone else for what they choose to do.

 

[mojomuddywulf]

Hi Andy
My lads are now 21 and 19 but we have been motorhoming since George was 8 and Harley was 6. We used to often take them out of school for various trips away but I understand that this has now been made more difficult. We often took them out from say Thursday and Friday for the following half term week picked them up from school in the motorhome on the Wednesday and then just drove to make as much of it as we could.
We often utilised the Feb half term week for Skiing trips and took them out for three days being such bad parents that we are. In the early days we would write to the school requesting time and giving some ideas of what we would be teaching them on their days off. Things like history and Geography as well as language learning abroad and never had problem. However in the later years we would often be threatened with fines etc so we taught them to be more "poorly" on those days. It would always annoy us as other than coming out of school for these extended holiday days they had a 100% attendance record.
Obviously the motorhome life never done them any harm as they have both tuned out to be compassionate caring intelligent young men. George is a serving Grenadier Guard shortly off to Afghanistan for 4 months and Harley is studying history and politics at university and hoping to go in to teaching, so all this fuss about a few days off doesn't seem to of done them any harm.

We met so many wonderful people (and some not so wonderful) on our adventures and I don't regret a moment of it.

enjoy it and make the most of it.


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Thank you. I have no qualms about the kids missing some school. Indeed, I don't think young children learn that much of what they need to equip themselves merely within the confines of school anyway. Great pics, memories skills and confidence for life, for sure . Els did a bit of a log of our feb half term run down, last year. She is v keen on the seafood in Portugal, can't wait to return. Broken Link Removed

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