Category Archives: Travelling with Kids

Parents as teachers – a good idea? When the kids want to settle down.

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School in China

We slowly begin to understand that we are settling down. The last products from abroad have been used up: the facial soap from Malaysia, the toothpaste from Mexico, the deodorant from the U.S.. The first visitors have come and gone and made our temporary apartment a home. Our children start to lose their excitement about the fact that they can actually drink the water from every tap.

And though our hearts still every now and then reach out to Asia and the Middle East, we arrive more and more here in Switzerland. People around us are wonderful. Michael has been working for more than a month now and our boys have settled into their new school incredibly well. It all runs like clockwork.

It’s time to bring a little order into the chaos in our minds. The eight months of camper travel brought countless hours in which I had to just sit and watch a barren landscape go by. And during those seemingly endless moments many questions were answered and new impulses given. Somehow I have the feeling that I have made a big step in my personal development through this passive processing.
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(Good-bye) holiday in Asia

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After the hand over of the camper and before settling in Switzerland we had a holiday in Asia (where else…?). Upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur, we were reminded of how much we missed Asia and how attached we are to this part of the world.

With pleasure we would like to share a few holiday pictures:

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Our 9 tips for successful (long term) camper travel with children

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We travelled in a small camper with our two boys for eight months and hardly ever argued with each other. We laughed a lot and enjoyed it equally as much and were asked again and again: How do you manage in such a small space?

We are happy to pass on some tips:

  • Travel slowly, have few plans and no expectations. That way, spontaneous and short-term decisions can be adapted to the mood of the family. If it was too hot, we drove into the mountains or to the coast. If the family needed to relax, we stayed in a restful place a bit longer, if we felt like peace and quiet, we searched an exciting nature trail.
  • Although spontaneity is great, a daily routine for the family is as important in a camper as it is at home. Or perhaps even more important. The size of the camper space seems to increase the more a routine sets in. Cooking your own meals and eating “in” can also help keep a routine.
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The hot sulphur springs – Lenny’s essay

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At 8.00 pm my family and I went to a

hot sulphur spring in USA, Colorado.

At the hot sulphur springs there were

24 different temperature pools. I was

only allowed in five of the pools because

you have to be 12 years old to go

in the other 19 pools. I am only 9!

The sulphur smelt like rotten eggs.

The water was very slimy and very

warm. It was really refreshing.

One pool was indoors, that was my favourite,

the other three were outdoors.

The fifth pool was filled with

normal, cold water and it had a

slide. One pool had a little water fall.

I had a really good and refreshing time.

When it is time to go home….

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A wise man (thank you Aka) recently wrote to us: “As paradox it may sound, but the world of your children will actually get bigger once you settle down.”

He, of course, wasn’t so wrong. Our boys have seen, experienced and learnt over averagely much in the past years. Their world is full of colours and shades. Until a few months ago there was nothing more exciting for them to follow their parents around the globe, to go on adventures and get to know different ways of living. They had to give up a lot for it, but gained at least the same (or more) back in return.

Slowly Desmond and Lenny grow into small adults and during this process an inner voice has popped up. At the moment it is a mere whisper, but their Mama and Daddy know that the time has come.

Time to find their own truths. To make their own mistakes and their own decisions. Time to experiment, time to release the cord. Time to explore their own world – not ours – and to make it bigger.

We had three great job offers in exotic destinations. All three of them were tempting, but if we have learnt something in the past years, it is, that not everything that shines is gold.

Once more we look back at our lives and marvel how everything seems to fit and make sense. Since my youth I was fixed on the desire to live and work abroad. I was jealous of everybody who managed to do that. I was restless. That wish has been fulfilled. We got to personally experience (and also through the many other working foreigners we met in the meantime) that such an „expat“ life isn’t always easy and that adjusting to a working process in a foreign culture isn’t just fun and glory. And although I wouldn’t want to miss the gain, the challenge and lesson of such an experience (and surely would accept such an offer again in a few years), I feel that I am momentarily “healed” from it.

We will miss life abroad and surely we will want to travel again (and hopefully do so, too), but at the moment it is good the way it will be. What more satisfaction could parents have then to know that they created the ideal base and environment for their children to develop freely?

We are at home in Switzerland. We don’t expect gold there. And no shining. We know what we can expect there. And that is a lot. A very lot. Children can still be children in Switzerland and parents can use their energy to do something for the future of the world.

We will arrive back in Switzerland on 29th September.

 

 

Desmond’s essay: How do sea elephants live

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A while ago my family and I saw a colony of sea elephants in California, U.S.A. We were very lucky as they spend most of their lives travelling undersea routes searching for food and trying to avoid predators.

There are two species of elephant seals: the northern, which is called M. Angustirostris and the southern, which is called M. Leonina. We saw the northern elephant seals that live on the Pacific coast of the U.S.A., Canada and Mexico. At the end of the 19th century they were nearly extinct, but since then their numbers have recovered.

The sea elephants moult from April to August while lying on the beach. Moulting is losing an entire layer of skin and all their hair. From December to February the sea elephants breed and give birth. In March and August, adults leave to Alaska for feeding.

During moulting the sea elephants are dull tan or brown colour, after the moulting they are a shiny silver. Young males have rat-like noses. As they get older, their noses widen and get longer and begin to look like an elephant’s trunk. That’s how they got their name! Sea elephants look like big seals with two small fins on the side and one big flipper tail. They also have big, cute eyes Sea elephants can weigh about 2,5t.

Teen-age sea elephant males like to play and mock fight. They eat fish and squid and their predators are the Great White sharks and the Killer whales (Orcas). The life expectancy of the sea elephants is 20 to23 years. They normally dive to about 30meters depth and spend about 30 minutes underwater.

If you see a sea elephant keep a respectful distance and never get between one and the water. They are unpredictable (could be dangerous).

I was really lucky to see one!

An essay from Desmond (10): A tour to the “Isla Espiritu Santos”

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We were on a tour in the early morning to an island called “Isla Espiritu Santos” in Baja California in Mexico. On the fast and small tour boat there were two of our friends, four other passengers, one guide, one captain, my parents, my brother and I. We were all wearing a hat to protect us from the sun.

When we were heading to the island on the boat the marine police stopped us in their little motor boat, it was just to look at the paperwork. It was very loud and windy while we were moving, I said: “It is so windy!” After about five minutes we saw the first sea lion, even though we were about two hours away from the sea lions’ colony. “Look, some dolphins!” Lenny shouted. There were about ten dolphins! We followed them for a while and took a lot of photos. Then the captain turned the boat around. About half an hour later we came across a natural rock arch way, and we went through it. There were a lot of crabs that didn’t look too inviting and countless of these weird things. We asked the guide what those weird things were, and he answered: “Those are sea cockroaches.” “So that’s what it was”, I thought.

In the distance we saw a little rocky island it was the sea lions’ colony. I was so excited! As we got closer I could see a sea lion close up for the first time. They were big, brown and they looked a bit like a giant dachshund made from rubber. The second thing we noticed was the smell it was really bad and their communication sounded like burping. Every one took photos! We went around the little island and then the captain stopped the boat. It was swimming time! Not only was I excited because I would swim with sea lions, but this tour also included wet suits and flippers. That was the first time I wore a wet suit and flippers! All of us went snorkelling except the guide and two other passengers, they went scuba diving. The guide said: “Don’t go near to the sea lions’ island because the male sea lions will get angry!” When I jumped into the water I noticed that it was very cold.

Every one talked about how close they got to the sea lions, while the boat headed to the lunch stop. The lunch stop was a small sandy beach and had a lot of nice shells, but since it was a national marine park we couldn’t take any shells. The water was crystal clear. It was warm weather. There were some other people there, from some other tours. The lunch was simple, we had: cheese sandwiches, chips and juice. Yum yum!

After a while we saw some whales! We asked the guide what kind they were. “They are hump back whales”, the guide answered. Soon the scuba divers would explore a sunken Chinese ship. That the Mexican government sunk on purpose! The rest of us went some were else to snorkel. The guide said that there were lots of nice fish. He was right because when I jumped into the water I saw the first sign of nice fish. And when I went closer to the land I saw a sea star. There were a lot of nice and colourful fish. And the water here was warm. It was only about two meters deep. The captain shouted: “We have to get the scuba divers.”

We got back about six o’clock. I was finished. It was a fantastic trip!

What can you learn in one week?

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Recently – on a day when our homeschool was particularly difficult, when the two roles of “mother” and “teacher” didn’t want to go hand in hand and when our boys got distracted by everything and everybody (look, there is a pretty hummingbird outside, have you heard the firecrackers, when will the bread in the oven be ready…) – I read an interesting article on homeschooling in British Columbia, Canada. Incredible how much assistance and support homeschooling families receive there.

Amy, the home schooling mother has to hand in a weekly report of their educational development. Her testimony has inspired me to make a list of what Desmond and Lenny have learnt last week. Not a bad list:

  • German (Desmond repeated the German grammar of the 4th grade and Lenny copied a German text and practiced his cursive writing).
  • English (new words and more grammar, both boys finished an essay).
  • Math (Desmond practiced his written division and Lenny the times tables, both solved math text problems).
  • Desmond learnt a few phrases of Spanish from me and used them in the supermarket.
  • They got introduced to some new food: pink grapefruit and a minestrone soup.
  • We made our own silver jewellery during a two day workshop.
  • Lenny learnt to “chat” on Skype and practiced it with Desmond.
  • They learnt how to remove rust and dents from vehicles and how vehicles can be sprayed.
  • They learnt a lot about hummingbirds (because there are many on the campground).
  • They learnt how Mexicans celebrate their festivals (especially with fireworks …).
  • In the book we read together before going to bed, we learnt the basics of gene technology in plants.
  • We learnt a few new facts about the Mayan culture (on Monday we are going to look at the Sun and Moon pyramids).
  • Desmond and I went on a photo tour in San Miguel de Allende and he learnt a lot about the ideal light conditions and the importance of details. – They both created several, colourful Lego-robots and scorpions.
  • Both of them learnt from us how difficult it can be to make big decisions and how to weigh up different aspects.