Manny Atkins and her husband Joe converted a bus into a motorhome piled their four kids in and set off with no final destination in mind. Words Anna Tobin“We’d reached a stage in all our lives when Joe and I felt it was a good time to take a break and do some travelling as a family, have an adventure and, possibly, see if there was somewhere else on earth where we could live.
Luke, our eldest, was 16 and was just finishing his GSCEs; Harry was 12 and still way off taking his; Beth was 9 and Arthur was 7, old enough to understand what we were doing. I am an actress and Joe is a lighting designer, and is able to work from anywhere. We felt that there was nothing stopping us.
So we sold our house in Swanage and bought a 12-metre coach, which we converted ourselves to our own design into a motorhome. The sleeping quarters were at the back, which we based on the design of Japanese sleeping pods. Then we had a loo, a shower, a kitchen and two bench seats with tables, which slid out when we needed them. The chairs that the kids travelled in swiveled around and faced desks, giving them each their own workstation.
Our kids have always been very flexible and happy to go with the flow, so we never had any resistance from them to the trip. We involved them in all the preparations from the very start, holding big family meetings, and although they were sad to say goodbye to their friends, they were more excited to be getting going. It also helped that we left as the summer holidays were about to start, so it initially just felt like we were going on a big holiday. We had no planned route or end destination, we just took off to see where we would lead ourselves.
We homeschooled the kids the whole time we were traveling, which was a fantastic experience for all of us. Luckily they are all very bright, interested and easy to teach and we had time to make interesting lessons for them. If we were on a motorway it was maths and spelling and that sort of stuff, and if we were in a town we’d stop and go to historic sites and museums, then incorporate that into their lessons. As Luke had just done his GCSEs, he helped us to teach the younger ones and he also embarked on an online A Level course. The experience made us realise how little time you have in ‘everyday’ life to spend working with your kids on their homework and doing things together.
Read more in the April 2010 issue of Living Abroad magazine
