First steps to our dream!

We have dreamt of traveling, or should I say I have dreamt of traveling with our little family, since we were a family of 3, then 4 and now 5.  After many, many conversations, hubby came to realise that this would be a fantastic experience too!  So, what was stopping us?  Well, a stable income/job, schooling for the kids & our mortgage.  So we decided it wasn't an option right now...  Until we found out that Tony's work was closing.

After our eldest, Amelia (now 5.5yo), began prep, we found that she was completely exhausted and her mood and whole life was being affected by her exhaustion.  Even attending a maximum of 4 days a week (I don't think she managed a full week once the whole term), it was still too much for her.  Then I happened to be speaking to a fellow parent who suggested part homeschooling and keeping her home one day a week for the rest of the year, to give her time to adjust.  That was the beginning of our homeschooling journey.

We had already briefly spoken about distance education for when we eventually got to go on our trip, and after reading up about homeschooling in Victoria, and many, many discussions about whether it would work for her and for us, we decided to trial part-homeschooling.  The plan was for her to attend specialist subjects at school and for us to teach literacy and maths at home.  But that was short lived.  We entered school holidays with the plan to begin part homeschooling at the start of second term, but we saw such an improvement in her behaviour over the holidays, that we decided to keep her home for another couple of weeks, during which time we noticed she was more relaxed and happy; the children were playing better together; and we were all happier for it!  So we decided to keep her home and homeschool fulltime.

All of a sudden we only had one hurdle left to jump!  So, what to do with the house?  We tossed back and forth on this topic over and over again!  We have grown up in a society where we were exposed to numerous typical drama tv shows and romantic movies where girl meets boy, they get married, buy a car, then a house & have a family of their own.  So our conundrum was: do we follow society's norm & stay put, paying off our mortgage and providing a stable home for the children ...or turn everything upside down?  We are yet to do anything in order, so why start now ...right?  After countless discussions we decided selling up would mean travelling stress & debt free.

So with that last decision our trip suddenly became a reality!