Young Australian Family Choose Travel to Educate Kids Rather Than a Classroom

April 17, 2011 - PRLog -- Amy and Jarrad and their four children under 10, known only as Peter (9), Susan (8), Lucy (5), and Edmund (2) have been travelling Australia since January 2010.  The family wishes to experience Australia, while providing a first-class educational experience for the children.  What is even unusual about this family is that they are young; Amy (28) is a qualified naturopath and pharmacist, and Jarrad (31) is an electrician.
Amy and Jarrad explain that although the kids used to “have so mnay toys that we could hardly find the lounge room”, that now they have learnt how to entertain themselves.  The kids don’t have a TV; Peter and Susan read for at  least four hours a day, and all of the kids spend a lot of time playing outside and enjoy riding their bikes.  
They estimate their travelling costs are roughly $14 per person per day as they tour the country.  Amy and Jarrad married and bought a house in where they lived for nine years before starting their trip.  They have worked in five different small towns for a total of about 8 months since they started travelling, but they say, “Working in these small rural and remote towns let’s us get to know the locals, and learn more about the areas that we are travelling through.  People are always so welcoming, and the kids and adults are very welcoming.  We have been invited to Australia Day naturalisation parties, and Christmas street pageants in towns where we have worked.”
The kids enjoy travelling.  Peter says that his favourite place in Australia so far is Mt Hotham, Victoria where they spent 10 weeks at a nearby free campsite in their caravan so that the older three kids could ski daily with their father after finishing their school work.  Susan loves searching for pretty rocks, so her favourite places have been Gemtree NT where she fossicked for garnets, and Coober Pedy where she found several opals that have been made in to necklaces.  Lucy’s favourite place so far has been The Coorong where they got to see a Sea Lion on the beach and play on pristine snow-white sand-dunes on the narrow peninsula.  Edmund, who was only just one when they first started travelling, just enjoys having his brother, sisters, and parents around all the time.
Jarrad and Amy are passionate about the children’s education.  They say that Peter and Susan spend hours daily reading novels on their e-readers, the high-tech solution to not having the space or weight-allowances to carry many books.  The children work on their maths, English, and Latin with their parents.  They have learnt about Aboriginal myths and culture in Central Australia, studied rocks in places as diverse as the Twelve Apostles, Mt Connor, Kings Canyon, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Coober Pedy, and Gemtree.  They have gone to museums small and large across four different states so far, and discussed astronomy on clear nights in remote locations.  They have learnt about different ecosystems, animals, and plants while in National Parks.  They have learnt about Parliment House, the War Memorial, shipwrecks, gold rush and migration stories that relates to the place they are at.  Peter, Susan, and Lucy seem to remember these things they learn much better for the fact that they are relevant events and places, rather than just a name from a book.