around the world
TRANSCRIPT
Around the World in Eight Months – Series 1
Follow the Paynes on Their Journey Around the World
Over the next year our newsletter will follow the cultural experiences across South East Asia of Neil and Nikki, our Kwintessential Consulting colleagues, who have decided to take a gap year along with their three children (10, 8 and 5 years old). You may wish to share these updates with colleagues or friends who are thinking of embarking on something familiar. Feel free to email any questions relating to their travels and we will forward them on.
Over the next year our newsletter will follow the cultural experiences across South East Asia of Neil and Nikki, our Kwintessential Consulting colleagues, who have decided to take a gap year along with their three children (10, 8 and 5 years old). You may wish to share these updates with colleagues or friends who are thinking of embarking on something familiar. Feel free to email any questions relating to their travels and we will forward them on.
Why did you decide on going on an around-the-world-journey?
As with most people, our days were spent treading the same wheel, consisting of the usual child centred ‘getting up’ routine: arguments as to where their school bags and shoes were, bribery to get them to eat their breakfast without jumping up every two minutes, school drop offs – and knowing inevitably that something key would be missing from their bags, racing to meet the needs of a hectic work day, rushing to collect the kids, arguments as to whether they’d really put their shoes and bags in the right place, dinner, homework, putting them to bed, cleaning up and collapsing exhausted on the sofa knowing it would all start again the following day.
What did you do about changing the routine?
This continued as normal until a time in which we’d both had bad days and decided that enough was enough and that there must be more to life. We were also keen to see more of the children, rather than the fleeting pressurised moments that we had around the school day and after school clubs. Additionally, we love language and culture and have always wanted to pass this love to our children, particularly as we are firm believers that anyone who can navigate different cultures and respect differences will thrive in whatever they chose to do in life.
How did you go on?
How do you think will the trip benefit you?
The children have spent their spare time learning about the religious denominations of Sri Lanka and will visit a Buddhist temple next week. Additionally they are learning about Sri Lankan plants and are now well acquainted with cinnamon, coconuts, different varieties of bananas, lime plants and lychee plants.
The need for ‘segregated’ subjects such as maths, English and geography are deeply entrenched for most of us who have been through the UK education system and we’ve not yet escaped this mentality. We love the idea of a more ‘holistic’ education in which geography, politics, RE, maths etc. are discussed and reinforced as we experience different parts of our travels; e.g. as and when they arise, but we will undoubtedly gravitate over the next few weeks towards a more structured programme of education.
How did you prepare budget-wise?
In terms of budget, clearly we needed to save for this gap year, but we are trying to do everything as cheaply as possible and our living costs for the year (inclusive of flights and accommodation) should be far lower than those incurred in the UK over a comparative year.
We are struggling a little with the ‘guilt’ of taking the children away from friends, routine, school and family but hopefully this will subside as we become more settled in our gap year. We’ve deliberately not established formal travel plans as part of the reason for taking a year off was to escape the pressures of itineraries. However, we hope to visit Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
What is challenging for you?
We would love to hear from anyone thinking of a similar venture. If you have any questions then feel free to send them
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