Four
HANDS IN A TIN CAN
THE MILLWARDS ARE FULL TIME ON THE ROAD , WITH NO SET SCHEDULE OR RETURN DATE . DURING THEIR TRAVELS , THEY ' VE DEVELOPED FIVE ESSENTIAL TIPS FOR LONG- TERM FAMILY CARAVANNING .
WORDS AND IMAGES : THE MILLWARD FAMILY |
We are a family of four doing the big lap . We are ‘ Four Hands in a Tin Can ’: Peter , Annie , Liam and Mia and thought that , as our initials spelt ‘ palm ’, we could use it to describe us in our caravan . We had a dream to leave our daily lives and begin an adventure of a lifetime and it came to reality when we finally departed on January 27 2016 . Without a doubt it has been , and still is , the best decision our family has ever made . So here are our top five tips , in no particular order , to make a family journey more successful …
1 . DISTANCE EDUCATION
Our family believes one of the most important things on the road is maintaining our children ’ s education . The kids are in year eight and year three , so schooling requires different attention and commitment . Primary school
24 gorv . com . au teachers ring or Skype Mia once a week to go through her work but otherwise it ’ s up to Mia to get it done with our help if she needs it . With high school , the individual teachers call once a week for the lesson . Liam is expected to be self-driven and complete his work with occasional help from us .
2 . TAKING TIME
We are lucky that our kids are a little older . I can only imagine how parents of younger kids are able to have some chill-out time together . In the beginning of our journey we were together all the time ! Needless to say , all concerned started to get on each other ’ s nerves , on occasions , in our tin can .
3 . CHILL-OUT DAYS
As we are full time on the road we think it ’ s very important just to have chill-out days , so the kids can ride bikes , play
around the van and be selfreliant and , on occasion , we can all sleep in . Yes , that ’ s right , sleep in . If you are doing a big lap in six months then , sorry , no sleeping in for you .
4 . INFORMATION GATHERING AND PLANNING
Visiting information centres is an amazing way for the kids to ask questions and get suggestions on where to and where not to go . In many big information centres we have found free info and local history for the whole family to learn about the local area . Also , wi-fi , mobile data , mobile phones and free park internet are all important to us . Without it , the kids couldn ’ t do their schooling and we couldn ’ t keep in contact with rest of the world . As much as we want to leave the world behind , our life requires it , so we embrace it .