2000+ external kms and 1000s of internal miles

So the last blog post I wrote here was in Lauterbrunnen Switzerland on September 1st, 2018! I did warn regular readers a while ago I would not be a prolific blog poster 🙂

Since that last Swiss post though, I thought in this post I would try and give you some ‘stats’ to try and cover what I have been up to in this time that you might not have picked up from my more frequent posts on my social media accounts on  Facebook Twitter Instagram alone.

Most of these aren’t very scientific and a lot are simply based on gut instinct but nevertheless hopefully these will in someway convey what I obviously am incapable of doing in the traditional travel blogging way!

Number of days since last post	99
External miles I have driven	2000+ kms
Number of punctures on the tyres of our motorhome	1
Internal miles I have travelled	1000’s
Number of free nights in the motorhome	40+
Number of days I have shared with my family meaningfully	90+
Number of days fully pre planned	10
Number of days I have planned ahead on average	1.5
Number of days that were sunny / warm days	80+
Average external temperature of these days	18c
Average hours spent outside as a family per day	6
Number of our new average™ days	70+
Number of truly incredible days	20+
Number of gut wrenchingly hard days	5
Number of people met and actually chatted to	300+
Number of similar World schooling families met	60+
Number of home / World schooled children met	150+
Number of new friends for life	10+
Number of full books read	5+
Number of podcasts listened to	10+

As I hope you can appreciate it is impossible to truly share everything that goes on in anyone’s life fully online and this blog was never meant to do that but I would like to pick out a few things from the above and expand on these for my own peace of mind which hopefully might also help others in some way who find themselves reading this post and blog…

Internal miles

Living as a family of 5 in a 2.4m by 7m motorhome 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a total of 250+ days now has certainly forced myself to rethink some of my parenting, marital and work habits 😯 I have collectively called these my internal miles and I have travelled even more of these than the external miles I have physically driven!

By taking that leap to self employment all those years ago, it means that I already didn’t have a commute to one place of work. However on the road I also now have more headspace outside (mostly in the sun!) due to also making the conscious decision to only work enough hours to pay my share of our reduced on the road bills whilst also reducing my outgoings on physical ‘stuff’ we simply don’t need.

Before we set off, I had hoped that by leading a more minimalist and considered life it would free up time for ME so I could do more running or learn a new specific skill. I have actually ended up using most of this extra ‘free’ time to connect deeper to my children, my wife and others both offline and online. This personal growth has come about by engaging with others in discussions even I might have shied away from in the past, reading more, listening to challenging podcasts and spending more time in the company of other genuinely inspiring and unique individuals.

I don’t want to get too spiritual or New Age Hippie on you (well not in this post 🙂 ) or go into the details of some of these conversations but I truly think the following image is the best way I can sum up my personal philosophy on life at present as I am finally getting closer to my own peace…

I have also noticed a HUGE change in all three of my children since being on the road but even more so since my last blog post and I think their most rapid period of growth was when we were all in La Herradura with other Worlschooling families and their children…

La Herradura

Until we arrived in La Herradura, which is a small village on the Costa Tropical just North of Malaga in Andalucia, Southern Spain, we hadn’t met or hung out with too many other World schooling families on the road. However an incredible lady who knows the area well has created an AMAZING group for like minded families in this village (see the web site here) and we must have met over 50 different families from over 15 different countries in the 5 weeks or so we stayed there over two different stays.

Not only was my personal development increased substantially being surrounded by so many like minded and inspiring individuals but each of the children made friends with children regardless of their sex, nationality, age or traditional educational level.

We also were able to let them direct their own learning as much as possible meaning they attended a private Spanish language school 3 hours per week, had paining lessons from a professional artist, shot cross bows and did archery, made and sampled multiple traditional Spanish dishes, hiked in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, snorkelled and swam with fish as well as making friends for life.

What better preparation for life could we give them than show them that despite the division the media and those in power want to create between us children are children the World over and people are inherently kind!?

Our new average™

Above I have also jokingly added a trademark to this line in the table but only to try and get across that our new average day is NOT the same, better or worse than anyone else’s average day. I also highly suspect your average day is also not the same as anyone else’s however you are spending it at the moment.

However I think it’s really important to state that as with most aspects of life, if there are aspects that you don’t like about your current average day you do have the power to tweak things whenever you want.

For example, by simply getting up 30 minutes earlier to meditate (via an app such as Headspace) or by going to bed without filling your head with the latest Fear News on your TV or phone you can break unhelpful habits and let your mind have more calm and therefore peace.

With the above caveats in mind, several people have asked for the following sort of thing so here is our new average™ day at the moment…

• Wake up naturally when the sun is up – around 08:00 to 08:30. We do NOT have any alarms in the motorhome and it’s usually the eldest who wakes us all first or the dog.
• We then have breakfast in the motorhome together which is either cereal, porridge, pancakes or bread of some kind.
• If it is a work day for me or Mrs Nomadic Dad we try and leave the rest of the family and work somewhere else with our laptops and leave the other adult with the kids in the motorhome to use as the homeschool / roadschool classroom. If this isn’t possible due to us staying in a random car park miles from a cafe with decent WiFi then I often put my noise cancelling headphones on and either use a high bed in the motorhome as a standing desk or my famous door desk which I am typing this on now 🙂

• Whoever is homeschooling then children usually works through at least one Maths, English and Science based task with all three of the children. These could be a workbooks based on the curriculum back home in England, lessons on Khan Academy , ideas and topics we want to discus with them or educational videos on YouTube. After this they all have to learn some Spanish via Duo Lingo or a similar app and then have self directed learning time where they can draw, read or do self directed learning using Khan Academy or similar again.
• We tend to usually have lunch together on these days but if not then the children have lunch and we get outdoors before taking a siesta around 2pm. 
• Whoever is working usually rejoins the family around 5pm and then we try and watch the sun set around 6pm before the children have an hour (ish) of non educational screen time. The children also usually end up chatting to friends back home via WhatsApp, iMessage, Hangouts, DIY, Animal Jam or Fortnite at least a few times per week.
• We eat dinner around 19:00 or 19:30pm and then two of us go and do washing up. 
• Sometimes we then stay up playing cards, chatting or go for another walk with the dog and the children start getting ready for bed around 20:30 ish.
• Both myself and Mrs Nomadic Dad tend to stay up until 22:00 or so but then either do some more work, watch a film or sit outside chatting before heading to sleep ourselves.

There was some more I was going to write but the sun went down a while ago, the moon is now up behind me and I actually still want to go and spend a few more hours time with my family so I will leave this post here 👍

Next up for us is spending Christmas in an Air B&B we have treated ourselves to and spending time with some lovely family who are coming to visit us which will be great. We are then heading into Portugal before getting back into the UK sometime in March or April.