Alternatives to school work while travelling

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What do you think about children doing school work while travelling? Are you happy to skip all the school work? Or do you take work with you?

Honestly, I don’t understand the stress around children missing school while they are travelling. I have never been worried about our son falling behind, or missing key information.

But, despite the number of times we have travelled we still get asked “What about school”? So people still think it’s a concern. This questioning comes before we leave, and then while we are travelling.

My response is always along the lines of “We will all learn more from being out in the world”. People then generally agree… or make comments about asking the teacher for activity sheets, or recommend activity books from Kmart.

We don’t take any school work when we travel because we take the opportunity to learn from our surroundings.

This post is based on shorter term holidays for children under 13 years.

Fun alternatives to school work

Deciding not to take any formal school work does not mean we do nothing for weeks on end and let our brains turn to mush. Although, if that’s your style, your will get no judgement from me!

Learning opportunities can be found everywhere.

Some simple ideas to get you started include

• Keeping a journal or diary for writing and observational skills.

• Writing postcards. Send these to the school or family members to track where you are.  Also, finding the post office can be an adventure in itself!

• Sending postcards to yourself to see how long they take to arrive. You might beat the postcard home, or it might never arrive!

• Collecting stamps is also fun. This works great if you are sending postcards home.

• Playing card games or travel sized board games.

• Getting creative with awesome colouring books. I use these too! We also have postcards that can be coloured first. So you get to colour, post, and collect the stamps – Win Win Win!

• Snapping holiday pics. Allowing the child to take their own photos provides engagement and gets them to focus more on what they are looking at. They can add these to a travel journal.

• Counting money. Don’t underestimate how much fun it is for children to count money, especially if it’s a different currency to home. Take the time to look at the pictures on the notes, and if they are a different size to your home currency.

• Travel planning. Encouraging children to be involved with the travel planning is a great learning opportunity. This could include choosing where to eat then doing the ordering and handling the payment. Or watching the screen for when the flight gate will open and making sure everyone is ready to go.

Interesting places and activities

Seeking out interesting places and activities will not only be educational, but create lifelong memories.

Places we have visited and loved include:

• Angkor Silk Farm near Siem Reap, Cambodia.

• Phare Cambodian acrobatic circus that supports disadvantaged youth.

• Art workshops such as batik painting in Bali .

• Poopoopaper in Chiang Mai Thailand that makes paper from elephant poo.

• Cooking classes with market visit in Bali and Vietnam.

• Outdoor activities such as kayak tours, boat trips, hikes etc

….the list is endless when you travel! I really could go on all day!

Also, doesn’t that list above sound far more entertaining and engaging than being in a classroom all day!?

Obviously, this is not a complete list of everything that is possible but I hope it shows there are some really interesting activities that can provide wonderful educational opportunities.  Hopefully the question of should we take school-work while travelling is staring to dissolve in favour of immersive activities.

PLAN | Head to the Travel Advice page for more travel planning advice.

How to find child friendly activities

With the wonderful internet you can research until your heart is content, or your eyeballs fall out from too much screentime.

Information sources can include:

• Web search
• Travel bloggers with children the same age
• TripAdvisor reviews
• GetYourGuide has great inspiration (Tip: you can often get a better price going directly to the activity provider, but GetYourGuide is still great for ideas, or if you want to safely pre-pay for activities. I personally use them lots).
• Social media groups
• Ask other travelling families for advice and recommendations

Still considering school work while travelling?

Not convinced about skipping the school work while travelling? Or your child really wants to do the school work. That’s cool.

Best thing to do is speak to their teachers and see what they think.

The teachers may:

• Provide activity sheets to take with you
• Suggest books to read
• Promote keeping a travel diary
• Encourage a show-and-tell when the child returns
• Recommend age-appropriate activity books
• Provide access to online programs such as Reading Eggs or Mathletics

TIP | Have you heard of packing cubes? They are seriously awesome and have their own dedicated post here.

Longer term travel and education

As mentioned above, this post is based on short-term travel. If you are planning longer term travel then head to these awesome travel families for ideas on education formats. Suggestions include World Travel Family , Trip in a van and yTravel Blog.

Final thoughts

Whilst we have never taken school work while travelling, we have always sought out engaging and interesting activities. I personally have learned lots from these experiences too!

Overall, don’t let anyone stress you out about taking your children out of school to travel. The children will be fine!

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