TRAVELING AUSTRALIA WITH 2 KIDS & A BABY

So travelling with kids is always an unpredictable, chaotic, memorable time, however throw in living and working on the road, home schooling and just general van life and it sure is something you must be prepared for.

We want to share a few HINTS & TIPS that we found invaluable and helped us to keep our sanity, our kids in one piece and the overall experience for everyone an awesome one!

First let me tell you a little bit about our three kiddies!

Leo (our bubba boy) has just turned 1 (now) but was only 3 months when we hit the road full-time. Living on the road has certainly helped shape him into a curious, adventurous little guy! Despite having an early entrance into the world, life has been go go go from day one!

Betty (our middle child and our only girl) is 7, she's super creative, also an outdoors girl, she always loved getting stuck into her school work. Year 1.

Ari (our eldest Boy) is 9, loves being outside and exploring, loves a chat, he is very energetic and just thrived being on the road and absolutely loved selling our Mats at Expos (and was quite the natural). However, i’m not going to lie he was definitely the least enthusiastic about homeschooling. Year 4. don't let pic below fool you!

The BIGGEST piece of advice we can give anyone is the most important...

GET RID OF ALL EXPECTATIONS!!

There are going to be days where the kids don’t shower (sometimes days on end haha!), or they have cereal for dinner but it's not the end of the world! The usual 'Home life' for us is normally very regimented and routined and early on in our trip I had to really learn to just LET IT GO (for the sake of my own mental health). Removing that pressure on yourself really allows you to live in the moment and enjoy what a magical experience it is to travel Australia with your kids! Cause after all, we didn't go to all this effort to get on the road and travel to only make memories you'd rather forget right?!

Here are the top 3 tips that we hope will help you as much as they helped us. 

1 - Try and find a great online education program, I was pretty adamant about distance education as I wouldn't be able to write my own curriculum to save my life, however if I had my time again i would go online. Distance Ed was super overwhelming and difficult to navigate, online seems easier to follow and catch up where you left off. Even if you're not in a full internet service area, when you are it is easier to catch up! Plus trying to keep track of the books, papers etc in a caravan was a constant nightmare!

2 - Entertaining the kids! Without a doubt making sure there was room to take the kids bikes and scooters was one of the best decisions we made! They got so much use out of them at each of our stops and it was how many a friendship was made. It also provides mum and dad with a little peace and quiet as the kids would take off and we wouldn’t see them until they came back looking for food! Obviously there are days when you are doing a lot of driving, and as much as you want to avoid it the Ipads are really a necessity on the road. For that downtime in the car, particularly when you have a sleeping baby, it was a handy way for the older kids to have a little chill out time too! Overall though the kids really become masters of making their own fun, there is so much to do and see and something new at every stop that the entertainment is really the world around them!

3 - When we headed off on our journey Leo was just three months old, so we really didn’t know what to expect travelling with a baby! However he was actually the most easy going and adaptable of us all! Obviously there wasn’t room for a cot so we put Leo in the top bunk and we invested in an incredible baby bed rail off Ebay before we left, it gave us peace of mind that he was secure each night.  Link for the Bunk rail here.

One of my biggest regrets by far was having a very basic pram - BIG MISTAKE…HUGE! You must must make sure you invest in an all terrain pram that is heavy duty but also easy to manage, it will make your life a hell of a lot easier. I ended up selling all my set up (pram+capsule) and getting a City Select Elite - with the larger wheels! THE. BEST! 

It's incredible how quickly babies adjust, for the rest of us it took a good two months to really settle into van/travel life, it's a big change for everyone.. including the kids, so definitely give it time. It's not the same as going on holiday by any means. 

We are back home (for now) and we def endeavour to hit the road again. This time with a few changes to our setup and lifestyle. We call it...

Tidy Turf Mats Great Aussie Tour 2.0 - Watch this space.  We hope to do the Cape in March 2023!