We are excited to announce something special we’ve been working on for all you babywearing moms who want the perfect outer layer for you and babe to enjoy cooler weather comfortably (and stylishly). Boba Vest has arrived. This high quality, thoughtfully crafted baby carrier cover fits over you, your little and your Boba Carrier just right and provides that extra layer of warmth for early morning walks, later afternoon adventures, and outings of all kinds, regardless of dips in temperature. (Check out the Boba Vest press release below).

To celebrate this exciting release, we’re giving you a chance to win a Boba Vest in a Boba Prize Pack complete with new Boba Carrier 3G and Baby Carrier Stuff Sack (print of your choice), and our organic cotton teething pads. Enter below now through February 28 (ends March 1, 12:01 am).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Contact: Bethany O’Donnell                                                                           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tel: 888-567-9727

Email: bethany@bobafamily.com

DESPITE COLD WEATHER, PARENTS AND KIDS CAN CONTINUE TO EXPLORE THE WORLD TOGETHER

Avoid cabin fever with these cold-weather safety and comfort tips

BOULDER, COLO., Feb 25, 2013.— As families around the country settle into a cold and snowy winter, parents of young children are finding ways to get out and explore despite the freezing temperatures. Children’s need for outdoor time doesn’t change with the seasons, and with certain safety and comfort precautions, the outdoors are just as accessible in winter as in any other time of year.

One way to keep young children warm and protected in the elements is to share body warmth through babywearing, such as with wraps or baby carriers. But babywearing parents are often deterred by lack of outerwear that will fit over the baby.

“My son’s first winter, I only took him for a walk one time in the snow,” says Abby Armijo, Senior Project Manager at Boba (www.bobafamily.com), a Boulder, Colo.–based company that creates award-winning baby carriers and related products. “When we had to run errands, I would put him in the carrier, wrap myself up in a warm blanket, and speed walk into the store to avoid frostbite.”

But this winter will be different for Armijo and other babywearing parents, since Boba has launched its new line of vests designed to fit snugly and warmly over baby wraps and carriers. Boba Vest is the result of Boba’s acquisition of Peekaru, a company that has been making popular baby carrier covers since 2006. The covers are not only more fashionable than blankets or oversized coats, but they also close the gap between parent and child to keep out the cold.

In addition to sporting outerwear specifically designed for babywearing, Armijo offers these safety tips for venturing out with baby in the cold weather:

1. Dress appropriately. Little ones are especially sensitive to the elements, so make sure to dress them in layers—and don’t forget the hat.
2. Keep the airway clear. It is very easy to get lost in layers, so it is critical that fabric never creeps up around the baby’s face or anywhere that could compromise an open and clear airway.
3. Protect baby’s neck. Babies are wiggle worms. Avoid any potential strangulation hazards by making sure no fabric could get tangled around their necks.
4. Get comfortable first. Make sure your baby is in the carrier properly before putting your cold weather cover on. Although you can still make minor adjustments to the carrier with the cover on, it’s much easier to do beforehand.

About Boba
Boba (www.bobafamily.com) designs thoughtfully crafted products for active parents who want the time and freedom to create a real and caring bond with their child, while living life to the fullest. We care deeply about what we do, and our customers’ happiness is our highest motivation as a company.

I am pleased to introduce the Hibble family: Geoff and Robin, along with their children, Connor, Ethan and Stella. The Hibbles are the next family to be featured in our series of Traveling Family interviews. Having just completed a year of RV travel throughout the USA and Canada, they have just begun another year of homesteading and travel in Australia, Geoff’s home country. You can follow their on-the-road adventures in their blog, Switching Gears.

Here is the interview that Robin Hibble did with Boba Family in January 2013, just after landing in Australia, and at the start of their second consecutive year of traveling together. Get ready to be inspired while also learning some tricks that have helped this family live out their dreams. Please enjoy!

1. Was there a defining moment (or moments) in your pre-trip lives when you and your family realized that long-term travel would serve your highest goals for your life?

A few months prior to our departure, while parked in a cul-de-sac, my husband, Geoff and I were having a fairly common discussion which included topics like, “We are not getting ahead; Life is stagnant; Work has lacked excitement and vigor for years for years now; 4 more years and our oldest son, Connor leaves for college – the beginning of his own life apart from us; If we are going to break the cycle, change it up, expand the experiences, then it is now or never [at least for us with Connor].

2. Why do you think so many families think a traveling lifestyle is out of reach for them?

We would break this into a few reasons.

F.U.D. – Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt of course play a huge role in this.  I think it is difficult for a lot of people to comprehend and except that one is going to pile his family into a vehicle and travel aimlessly around the country and “all will be ok”.   I think all the “What ifs” flood the mind and it mentally becomes exhausting trying to figure out what one would do to pre-solve all of the “what ifs”.

Cost -  “How can I afford to quit my job and pay all the expenses of travel for a whole year?  The mortgage, the bills, on top of travel expenses…”

Relationships – The thought of leaving one’s family and friends can be emotionally heart wrenching.  I am sure the thought of being cooped up with immediate family members is just hard to contemplate too. In addition, the thought of leaving clubs, sports, traditional life and other roles and responsibilities is difficult for many.

Career – We believe there is a strong thought that if you leave your job and travel for a year you will loose your spot in the “Career” you have been building.  And that you might disappoint the business or people you have been working for.

However, I will also reserve that a traveling lifestyle is just not for everyone.  There are people that outwardly state that they just prefer to stay still, not travel, not be cooped up, and despite being happy for us it is just not something they want to do.  Most found it very inspirational too.

3. Opening yourself up to travel means opening yourself up to the unexpected. Please share one unexpected reward and one unexpected challenge that you and your family have met in your many years together on the road. How have each added richness of your travels and your lives?

One unexpected reward is the immensity of the family bonding that occurs when you travel as a lifestyle.  We had been on plenty of vacations, but there is nothing like living in a confined space and seeing amazing things every few days. The boys, Connor (15) Ethan (11), due to age & interests, had quite different lifestyles when living at home. They rarely spent time together.  Our traveling lifestyle, since they only had each other, grew to a much stronger “brotherhood.”

The unexpected challenge was the lack of personal space and the dynamics that it imposes.  Living shoulder to shoulder with no escape means rebuilding you expectation, tolerance, judgement, and response systems.  You just can’t have it your way, you have it have it “everyone’s” way if you are going to co-exist.  Ultimately though, this has made us all far better people and definitely contributed back to the family bonding.

4. Many families begin preparing for long-term travel by selling off their homes and possessions. You and your family went another route; please share with our readers what your master plan was and how it has paid of in spades.  

A personal bias here, we think selling a bunch of your personal possessions is a great idea.  Lightening the load, as we call it, be it commitments, possessions, financial responsibilities, etc. is all very liberating!  It is often difficult to let go of personal possessions but “less is more” in all sense of the word in our opinion so do it.  We decided that we needed to “downsize” the volume of clutter in our life, so we did a full review and purge of everything on our whole property.  Things either went a) to the motor home b) to craigslist c) to the curb d) Good Will, e) to the waste bin or f) to the shed (our version of a storage unit).  I’d recommend starting this process with the shed.

But from the very start we knew we never wanted to sell our home.  We committed to be on the road for one year and we equally looked forward to moving back into our home at the end of the trip.  We could not afford to pay the mortgage and leave it empty so we had two choices if we were going to keep our house: long term rental or short term rental (vacation rental). Long term has the attraction you don’t need to “manage” the property on a day-to-day basis and a lot lower risk in the sense you can expect a monthly rent deposit.  Short term has the attraction of potentially higher rental income, plus but it comes at a huge cost.   You have to leave the house furnished (accepting it may be damaged), you have a rolling set of customers you have to please, you have to pay the difference between the rents and mortgage on slow months, your home needs to be in a location supportive of short term/vacation rental, and you or someone else needs to “manage” the property on a day to day basis.  For us, it worked best to doVRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner). I then staged, setting up, and managing the property whilst we traveled.  We were never fully covered our monthly home expenses but we were able to come close.

5. What is the one thing that you would share with other parents who are wanting to make this leap with their own families?

Reach out to multiple families who have done this and draw upon their experiences and suggestions.  Ultimately everyone does it a little bit differently, none right or wrong, but the experience they share might enable you to significantly enhance your own experience (both in preparing and on the road), and keep “F.U.D” at bay too!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Private Schooling. Montessori. Waldorf. Public Schooling. No-schooling. Home Schooling. Travel Schooling. These are just a few of the many schooling options that families worldwide are exploring and flourishing within. I am typing this post from the road while my family and I are traveling in Gautemala together. Our son will be turning two years old on this trip, and my husband and I are taking every opportunity to practice our own Spanish while teaching our son during our daily adventures together. He can count in Spanish and English now, tell you how old he is both languages, tell our friends “hello” and “good-bye” in both. This and more, especially with words from situations that were especially meaningful for him.

The research behind the way the human brain (and mind) learns and flourishes is expanding rapidly in every field, from behavioral neuroscience to somatic psychology. And what continues to emerge throughout reflects the paraphrased Chinese proverb, “Tell me and I’ll forget, Show me and I’ll remember, but allow me to do it myself and I’ll understand.” Human babies, children and adults learn best from doing things ourselves and what we like to do are those the things that spark our interests and passions.

The information shared in the short film, Born to Learn, is the inspiration behind the group of scientist, researchers and free-thinkers who call themselves the Responsible Subversives Network (RSN). RSN has created three animation shorts so far and it consists of three inter-linked sites that aim to provide the ideas, the inspiration and a community of people interested in equipping future generations to shape a better world.

My husband and I search for ways to live more harmoniously with our son and to do work which pays and supports us with more than just a salary. We look for life at home that supports and enables a life on the road so that we can move easily between them both. We hope to raise our son to look for opportunities in life, work and community and to be creative in making his life his own, however he may be called. For families and communities like mine own, we are keen to support and encourage groups like RSN and others who are leading the charge in highlighting what is working and what is not within our current systems of education and work.

I recently wrote a post about going expat. I recently gave birth to my first child living here in Chile with my Chilean partner. It’s magical, and it’s hard. My post mostly focused on the positive side of things, the how-to’s, etc. Today, I took a little photo tour of my friends’ children’s Halloween costumes and the nostalgia for the States sent my mind into the land of expat doubt. So, I’ve set out to create a list to share with you of the pros and cons of going expat and starting or taking a family abroad.

The PROS of Going Expat

Bilingual Bones – I believe raising children in two languages will offer them big advantages in the world. Where we are, speaking fluent English is a big plus in most professional situations. Anywhere else in the world, their bilingual abilities will be a plus, too, especially in the way it can keep them open to different points of view. There are a lot of cultural beliefs inherent in language (in English we say “I am hungry” and in Spanish we say “I have hunger”, for example). Have a broader, more diverse collection of these beliefs in their bones may make them more compassionate, open-minded human beings *mommy crosses fingers*.

Stretchy Dollars – Because I live in a country where the US dollar goes a bit further than it does in the US, and I’ve opted to work part-time freelance for US companies, I can do more with less. This means have more free time to spend with my family and can more easily afford a relaxed lifestyle I like (nothing extravagant, mind you). This is a very attractive PRO!

Freedom to Be Odd – Because I’m a U.S. Citizen and wasn’t brought up here, people give me a little more leeway to be unique. My parenting style is a bit foreign here, an my beliefs, such as my belief in freedom-minded child-led education, is a bit more accepted. I’m also a little bit exempt from the class-ism that is pervasive in Chile. Being outside the culture (though markedly a CON in my status as an outsider, too) gives me a bit of an excuse to be the babywearing, gentle parenting, crunchy mom that I am and I can just say, “Well, that’s my culture.” (My previous 12 years in crunchy capital (People’s Republic of) Boulder, Colorado justify this, of course.) Lastly, the feeling of being able to do anything can be with us anywhere, but for some reason can be more easily to access far away from home.

Unusual Friends – If like attracts like and being abroad makes me a stranger in a strange land, it goes to reason that strange folk will flock to me, and I to them. True if by strange you mean other travel-hungry expats and locals who like things out-of-the-mold. I’ve encountered all sorts of kindness and made really beautiful connections with people the likes of which I may not otherwise spend time with in the States. A mutual love for this place or some simple commonality like a love of singing or such is enough to cement friendship with new, unusual people far away from all my other friends. It’s a nice PRO.

The CONS of Going Expat

Missing Familiar Holidays – Familiar as in “family”. If you’re nostalgic like me, the first year of missed family and friend holidays (yes, even Halloween) may not seem like a big deal. Year two has me regretting not being able to share things like the big extended family Thanksgiving I grew up with. And sure, some holidays are the same where I live, like Christmas and Easter, but they are celebrated a bit differently and no matter what, my brothers and sister and nieces and mom and all aren’t here to share them with anyway. Missing out on this and the prospect of missing out on it long-term is a major expat living CON.

Strangerhood – I’m working on my Spanish every day in some way and have hope that over time a lot of Chilean cultural assumptions and idiosyncrasies will be made more clear to me. I’ll fit in a bit more over time, and will continue to do so. However, I’ll always be “the gringa”, will always talk with an accent and will never fully comprehend the rapid-fire Spanish of my in-laws, or the parents of my children’s friends. Let’s face it, I’ll always be a bit a bit of an outsider, a stranger and that’s a big expat CON, children or no.

Expensive Family Reunions – Flying from where I live to visit my family stateside will cost our family thousands of dollars in transport alone. Via my lower cost of living PRO, having that kind of money is a challenge, so limited trips to see the gringo grandparents is a serious expat CON for me and for them.

Paperwork – Like any foreign national living outside their country, there is a lot of red tape to deal with. I have to file for Visa’s, get my kids dual citizenship papers, maneuver the never-clear waters of Latin bureaucrat and I have to pay well for it all in time and money. This sort of never ends, though I hear that after a few years it does get easier.

Unfulfilled Cravings – Though you’d think some foods would be universal and available everywhere, it is surprising how many little things I love to eat back home that I just can’t get here or are so expensive they’re a ridiculous splurge. Reese’s peanut butter cups, natural peanut butter, pecans, and real maple syrup top off my list. Most recently I watched an online thread for local expats blow up over an orange (Halloween) pumpkin sighting. Chile also does not have kale (but “someone” I know smuggled kale seeds into the country last year to fix that, so I’ll soon be taking this off my list!)

Not Finding Pants – Or shoes. That fit. Well, this is different for all of us of course, but even the slender and petite among my “gringa” friends in Chile bemoan the clothing shopping options here. I imagine it is similar around the world; that clothing sizes and offerings vary greatly. Like the food issues, this is of course not a very important item to consider, I suppose, but a constant inability to easily update your wardrobe or replace a ripped pair of pants, etc. can takes its toll after a while as the cumulative effect of unfulfilled desires is a contributing factor in cases of expat depression.

More Family Expat Resources

If you are reading this with a real hankering for expat life, I’d also suggest you check out some of these expat blog resources for starters, to get a better feel for others’ experiences in general and specific to your desired local:

Expat Women Blog Directory

Matador Abroad’s Top 20 Expat Blogs

Blog Expat Portal

Five Considerations When Moving Abroad with Children

So, the short of it is that while answering the question of whether or not to go expat is no simple math equation, knowing what’s important to you in life will likely give you your clear yes or no (if it’s a maybe, it’s probably a no). Good luck and good traveling!

Sitting here today, watching the southern hemisphere spring emerge, I started thinking of the leaves changing, flowers budding, things growing just as my young baby is growing before my eyes. I thought of my trip back to Boulder last summer and how I plucked some leaves to steal back with me to a wintery Chile in hopes of remembering the Colorado summer. I thought of how I used to save all my flowers from high school, upside down bouquets dry and dusty long after the holidays and dances they represented. I thought of the huge Chilean aromo tree that was in full blazing bloom when our Lil’ Flower was born nearly four months ago. I wanted to go back and pick leaves from the day she was born, save them in a book, a keepsake of all that was happening in nature when she entered the world. I can’t go back, but I can start now (and I will!).

In an age of digital photography and the felt sense seemingly becoming less and less connected with our memories (we used to pick up and touch photos, watch them fade a little, flip them over to remember the exact date scribbled in our own script or that of our mother), having keepsakes you and your child can touch for a lifetime to come seems a special gift. With this in mind, I’ll be keeping special pieces of clothing, locks of hair and other little things in a box for my babe – a sort of memory hope chest. And I’ll be saving leaves. As the world grows more and more digital, I want my children to always be able to hold pieces of their lives in their hands, not just see it on a screen.

Here are a few ways you might also make the greenery around you a way to mark precious times with your children.

Marking Family Travel

Whether from the big oak of your child’s favorite park across town, or from the Banyan trees of northern India, plucking the keepsakes around you can be a fun way to mark where you and your family have been in the world. Think special and mundane; the tree outside your guesthouse, the gardens of an architectural attraction, the path to a train platform, heck even the topiaries of Disney!

Capturing Special Moments In Time

The birth of a child is a great time to collect a few things from nature. They will have been breathing the same air that you and your child were when you first met. After that, there are many sweet and obvious developmental milestones. First laugh, first tooth, first steps, first communion, high school graduation – the list really is endless. And of course, flowers and plants that are gifted your child can be included, too.

Keeping the Passing Seasons

You may consider simply collecting a leaf or two that represents or simply marks the seasons as they pass. Right now, I’ll take a few things to mark Lil’ Flower’s first spring.  I’ll do the same in the summer, autumn and fall.

To keep these moments safe, consider investing in a big, heavy, hard-bound artist sketch diary. This will act as an instant leaf and flower press, and give you clean white pages to note your adventures, details related to the leaves and their coinciding special moments, etc. You can stick in photos and whatnot to increase the memorabilia and even go all-out curly scissor scrapbook on the job. You may also simply want to buy or make a flower press and stick a little note in with each one. When your child has grown, you can gift the press knowing that he or she may want to do their own special things with the contents, or just leave it as is for future generations.

Personally, I’m planning a combo approach, a flower press and notes to be scrapbooked much later when my child (children?) is (are?) older (i.e. when I have more time, ha ha).

A few places to pick up supplies on my favorite shopping site, Etsy.com:

Flower and leaf presses

Especially these…

• Vintage wood flower press and supplies
• Large wood flower press (or book press)

Handmade journals and scrapbooks

Especially these…

• Large handmade wood journals and sketchbooks by Three Trees Bindery (high quality and beautiful!)
• Large leather-bound journal 

For my husband and me, it is great to be home for long stretches of time, but it is also terrific to have a trip on the horizon. We began traveling together in 2005 on our honeymoon. We circled the globe, hitting 18 countries and four continents in less than six months. As a boy, my husband traveled quite a bit with his family due to his father’s work as a research scientist; while I was rooted to an equally wonderful childhood, growing up on a 500-acre working farm in Michigan. The nature of farms and it’s high demands meant that my family took few vacations when I was growing up and lengthy international travel was out of the question. I got my first passport for our honeymoon and I was transformed by my first travels. I became deeply, irreversibly connected to the nomadic side of myself.

My sweetheart and I made a pledge that we would do our very best to leave the country at least once a year for the rest of our lives. And so far, we have. We have planned our travels to accommodate the changes in our lives—traveling to Colombia during my second trimester of pregnancy before heading home to get nesty and prepare for the birth of our son. The next year, we traveled to the Mexican central highlands to celebrate my birthday and our son’s first. This year, we head to Guatemala to celebrate our birthdays again.

It has been almost a year since we last packed our bags, and while the homesteader in me is glad for the chance to garden and to live the easy life at home close to family and friends, the gypsy in me aches for unfamiliar people and far away lands. Here are few ways that my family and I keep our family’s travel spark alive and burning between trips, or at least until the next tickets are booked.

1. The Visual Traveler
We get the colors and sights of our favorite far-away places through travel documentaries, movies and YouTube videos that have been shared by other travelers. Our favorite countries to travel to are India, Mexico, Turkey and Tibet, so we look for everything and anything featuring these countries. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) have produced some terrific travel documentaries and series, like the Story of India hosted by Michael Woods and Himalaya hosted by Michael Palin.

For localized fixes, or special spots off the beaten path, search for videos that fellow travelers may have shared on YouTube. The odds are good that what you are looking for will have been shared here by others who have been to the same area. As an example, there is a wonderful foot bridge in Rishikesh, North India, that I absolutely love and when I need a peek at the happy hullabaloo of passing cows, tourists and saris, I go to YouTube and search out Laxman Jhula bridge. Search out your own favorites when you need a mini-trip.

2. Books
There are so many incredible books ranging from travel memoirs and historical fiction, to spiritual and religious routes and pilgrimages. Check out your local library and book sellers to soak up these printed adventures. For women who dream of traveling there is a wonderful memoir entitle, Tales of a Female Nomad, by Rita Golden Gelman. There is also the world-wide best-seller, Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. Another excellent book is, Exotic Travel Destinations for Families, by Jennifer and Bill Nichols that showcases 23 exciting countries in six different regions: Europe, Africa, Asia, Central America, South America and French Polynesia.

Also look for travel-minded reading groups at your local library. Your library may already host a travelers’ book club that highlights books that you and fellow wanderlusters would love to read and discuss together. If one is not already organized, ask if you can post a flyer about starting one to gauge community interest and build it from there. It takes just one person to start it up, so be open to that one person being you.

3. Local Travel Shops
Visiting your local travel shop to prepare for your upcoming adventures is a great way to get what you need while putting money back into your own community. This is also where you will find solid recommendations from people whose business is travel. Most shops will carry guidebooks and maps, as well as travel supplies and comforts that make those long, hard travel days a little easier.

I like to browse through my local shops to see what is new and useful, and also to talk to other travelers about their upcoming adventures. A cool thing that our local shop does, is host community slide shows and trip presentations events. You don’t need to be a professional storyteller or photographer; they just ask that you put together a sample of your favorites photos and stories to share. These events are always packed with people who are wanting to go to a particular destination, and others who like me, may need a little touch of the places they love. As with the book groups, if your local shop doesn’t already host these community presentation events, ask if you can give one a try to build interest and encourage others to offer their own. It is a win-win for travel lovers and the hosting store owners who will likely get new customers from the event.

4. Online Travel Communities
There are many excellent family travel blogs that chronicle the lives of families living out their dreams of travel. Familiesontheroad.com is a blog roll of some incredible and resourceful families who are traveling together by land, air and sea. There are also online travel communities to inspire you and where you can ask and answer questions. Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree is a free travel forum that gets heavy participation and top-notch replies from travelers in the know.

Boba Family is another great family travel resource, so be sure to check out our travel-centered blogs. Included are interviews with families who do extended travel or “live on the road,” loads of tips from seasoned travelers and many how-tos—all free and available to you at BobaFamily.com.

5. Cooking
For me and my family, one of the best parts of traveling abroad is enjoying the local food. We look for cooking classes in the cities and villages where we are staying. Most classes will include a guided trip to traditional, neighborhood markets where farmers and other artisans bring their meat, cheese, fruits and spices to sell and trade. These tours help you discover how a particular dish gets that unique flavor and which kitchen tools help produce the most traditional results. When we travel, we always try to bring home indigenous honeys and specialty spices. Check your home country’s regulations on any possible restriction for what you can bring back with you.

Once home and missing our favorite flavors, we head to our own kitchen to recreate (As best as we can!) the dishes that take us back with each bite. My husband is also a master packer and has been able to bring home several pieces of specialty pottery from our travels around the world. My most treasured pieces are a black Chambra soup pot from Colombia and a comal from Mexico that offers the most authentic flavors when toasting spices and chiles.

Hopefully, these tips will carry you between your travels. And until your next journey, I wish you happy homesteading and lovely reminders of your travels past and dreams of travels to come. Remember, your love of travel is a wonderful thing to share, so take part in your community at home and encourage everyone to dream of travel. The world is big and beautiful and just waiting for you to discover yourself in it.

Since long before I became a mother, I imagined (a dare say dreamed) of traveling to lots of far away places with my family. Friends who travel with their little ones and the examples of long-term family travel we’ve featured here in our blog have inspired me to no end. Certainly, I’ve started a bit on the right foot by starting my family abroad, but really that’s just made the departure location different, right? Both long-term or short-term travel appeals to me and I’m starting to crave arrival gates far far away.

I’ve got some favorite destination spots in mind; India, Ireland and Bali head up the list, but what are the best ways to get there, are they family friendly, and what sorts of things can we enjoy with our baby girl once we arrive? Babywearing, there seem few things we can’t do with our child travel-wise, but thinking about these questions led me to start digging up some family-related travel resources. I’ve compiled some of them with notes here to help other parents like me get a little closer to the international travel we crave! Enjoy and I’d love to hear your own tips and experience if you’d like to share in the comments!

The Usual Contenders

Lonely Planet
Who of us with stamped passports haven’t loved and messed up well at least one Lonely Planet guide? Those books are pretty good if purchased recent to our trips. They have a Travel with Children Guide that I’m considering buying, as in one review that I read, it includes destination ideas all over the world and lots of how-to tips for packing, keeping everyone healthy, and “special” family circumstances like single-parent traveling, traveling with teens, children with special needs, etc. Reportedly, it’s pretty broad as far as destinations go, so you’d still want to do more specific research and probably get the Lonely Planet Guide for that local, but sounds like an especially good primer for parents taking the international travel plunge for the first time. All that aside, the Lonely Planet website is pretty helpful, too. The blog offers a lot of direct experience and has a nice forum where you can join groups like World Family Travel to swap stories, get ideas and the like. Because the site is destination-based, it doesn’t have the usual family travel section other travel sites have, so you’ll want to dig right into their Thorn Tree travel forum and head to The Lobby where you’ll find the forum Kids To Go, get ideas, then head back to the site to explore the destinations and armchair travel a bit while you dream of your little wearing a sari or swimming in the Adriatic, or something else muy deliciosa!

Frommers
Like every major travel site, they’ve got a section for family travel ideas and tips. There’s a decent blog on Frommers, too that includes some family-oriented material (though it is definitely weighted on the commercial end with nods to places like Disney and Club Med, lol) and you can always use their forum to get advice from other travelers (though admittedly it doesn’t seem highly-trafficked). All-in-all Frommer’s isn’t really my kind of travel site, but it might be yours! Easy and clear, albeit mainstream all the way.

TripAdvisor
Keeps the recommendations light and general, with links to lists of activities in major destination cities geared towards young children. You won’t find many personalized tips here, but will get a basic sense of attractions for young families. Again, a typical mainstream travel site that gets you in and out and may open doors into your own more targeted research.

Some Lesser Knowns

Babble International Family Travel Guide
Tucked into this popular parenting site is an extensive guide to international travel as in what to bring, where to stay, documents and medications, etc. specifically for families. I like…

Kids Can Travel
Just like the site title indicates, this one is all about the kids! It is definitely one of the best family travel resources I found online. They have destination guides, a section to help with the basics of traveling with children, uploaded family travel slideshows, an educational section for kids, and more.

Family Vacation Critic
This site, just as it sounds, offers tons of direct insight into popular and unusual destinations from a family point-of-view. It’s chocked full of destination info and lots of searching categories.

Family Travel Alternatives

Digsville.com
This housing swap club helps you coordinate a housing swap so you can delete the accommodation cost from your travel budget. Digsville has a popular forum with listings for housing available as well as a useful tips and testimonials forum.

VolunteerFamily.org
Why not go somewhere to make a difference in the world while you’re seeing it together? While this seems best for families with older children, there are some great ideas and opportunities to check out on this alternative family getaway site.

Farm Stays
I’ve heard this is popular in Europe, especially Italy, but I just learned recently that there is a growing trend of farms in North America opening their doors to vacationers who want a dose of life in the country – and who of us wouldn’t love to let our little milk a cow? This blog post from FamilyEducation.com is an overview of the idea and  has a few farms listed to get you started.

National Park Camping
Well, any camping is a great family idea really, right (and not all that alternative)? This post from Travel Channels reviews top U.S. National Parks, not really from a family perspective, but a good way to familiarize yourself with more than Yellowstone, and you can dig in from there.

Camping and RV Clubs
We’ve probably all seen these make-shift seasonal communities featured in movies (I recall Into the Wild gave a glimpse into a surreal RV Club world complete with campsite talent show). Why not check out the idea of hitting the road with other families in your pop-up or Airstream? I use to dream of owning a truck, a little airstream and a dog and traveling all over the U.S. I can easily see adding the man and baby to the vision. The link above is a RV Club Directory a mile long. Worth a look-see, I think!

I want to give a special nod to and recommend Finding Dulcinea for the great post on Alternative Family Travel I found will digging up links. Check it out!

About two years ago, I took the first step in what was to become going full-blown expat and starting a family abroad. I decided to quit my full time job and hit the road, heading first to a place I fell in love with a few years before; Chile. Not long after I arrived here, I met my now partner, Pablo. Suffice it to say, I did not continue on past Chile.

I’ll be talking about birthing abroad in another post soon, but for now will focus on how I took that big leap and some things I’ve learned along the way.

When I first started envisioning my open-ended trip, I imagined after a year or so of bumming around teaching English, that I’d end up in a little home by the sea and maybe start a family – maybe in Spain or Portugal, or even Brazil. Earlier this year, Pablo and I moved from the heavily populated capital of Santiago to a small coastal community we both love. A little over two months ago, I gave birth to our daughter here in our home. I suppose if this post has any good advice in it for also striking out abroad, it would be to let yourself imagine your life as it might be “over there” – it sure worked for me!

The adventure of settling down in another country has been a wild one; at times pure bliss and wonder, at others pure chaos and challenge. Here are a few things I set in motion to get here and a few things I’m learning as I go:

Taking the Leap Abroad

Cushion soft or hard, but cushion.
When I set out on my adventure, I did it with a plan to earn a living teaching English and understood that it would probably mean a meager lifestyle wherever I ended up. I think the universe provides and I wasn’t afraid of my financial life, but I still squirreled away a few thousand dollars so I’d have a little cushion and plenty to exit the adventure no matter where I was and get back to the states safely if I needed to. I basically left the states with enough savings to cover a few international flights, a flight back to the states, three months of very modest living expenses, and a bit of moving around money to use while I was finding work. Work went in an even better direction than I expected so my cushion proved more than enough.

Get your income mobile.
As many of the Boba traveling families mention in their features, it’s really helpful to shift your work to a portable mode ala online-based freelance. Though I did not intend to work online from afar (I worked as a business English teacher for a few months), I was able to parlay my marketing and communications career into a very rewarding freelance situation. Earning U.S. monies while living in Chile is a big bonus. I work part time and have more than enough to contribute to my growing family’s little life by the sea.

Choose a comfy starting point with flexibility
Some of the expat stories I’ve read have been marked by callings to places, others to people, and yet others to just “anywhere but here”. I was a bit on the latter end in that I just wanted to break free from the grind of U.S. 9 – 5 living and sure, I could’ve done that there, but my urge to shake things up combined with my long-held international travel bug meant hitting the air. I did not know where the journey would take me, but after much consideration, I chose my first landing spot. For me, Chile was a comfortable place to start because I had been there before and really liked the places and people I encountered. I had kept in touch with some friends I made on my first trip to Chile, so it was nice to know I’d have some friendly contacts on my first stop. Also, there was a reputable English teacher training program in Santiago, so a good work-related opportunity sealed the deal.

Going Expat with Grace

Go slowly and with patience
It became clear within a few weeks that I would be staying in Chile for a while (I met Pablo about a week after I arrived). I made a conscious effort to just let things flow, let work come as it would, and take my time getting used to Santiago, the language and the culture. In fact, I’m still getting the hang of things and patience is my best friend (though short at times). I recommend wandering the streets aimlessly, getting off a stop early or late on the metro, bus or other, and fumbling with the language in the streets more than hours and hours of language classes. Know that frustration as well as elation are ebbs and flows in the tide of relocation as a stranger in a strange land.

Connect with other foreign nationals
This one can be a little tricky because I’ve noticed it’s easy to clump up with other English-speakers and not really get into the local system. However, having a few friends (or even one) that you can connect with, commiserate with from time to time, and celebrate familiar holidays and sentiments with can help ward off expat depression. I have a friend that hosts an awesome Thanksgiving dinner each year, am on an expat women’s email list with about 900 other women here who swap stories, recommendations and the occasional lamentation, and have a couple of really stellar “gringa” friends that help me feel less isolated and, by nature of also being here, clearly share my interest in travel and adventure.

Learn the language for real
Since my one year of high school Spanish was well, high school Spanish and forever ago, I knew very, buy very little Spanish when I arrived in Chile, and Chileans are known for their very but very fast speaking. It’s been a hard path towards my still-too-far-away-from-fluency, especially since my partner speaks fluent English. However, I think even if I had known Spanish before coming, the learning curve would have been steep – local expressions, flavors of speech and meaning can get a little blurry. But language is key to becoming part of my community, so I stick with the learning and try not to zone out too much at large extended family dinners where the Castellano Spanish is rapid-fire and in triplicate or more. It’s worked well for me to just go for it, even though I’m a little shy, and conversation partners have helped a lot!

Fall in love
Be it with a person, a place, the language, the style of dress, you-name-it, falling in love is an essential piece of expat joy. I love my partner dearly (and of course my new little brilliant adorable Chilean-American daughter), and also the Chilean landscape (sea, mountains, trees for miles – it’s paradise, really). I also love the markets and the colorful touches to fashion here. I don’t always like being in Chile, and there are some things about the culture that drive me a little crazy, so the things I love help keep my heart light when I miss friends and family, miss cultural comfort, and just plain miss home.

Remember your difference and your commonality
Everyone loves to be loved, to be cared for; they love smiles and sparkling warmth; everyone appreciates hard work and honesty. All in all I think we are all more alike than we are different, that there is a peace and love that we’re made of that is common to each of us.  There are some things that we’ll never have in common, though. For example, cultural humor. Sarcasm isn’t very big or well-received in Chile as far as I can tell. Sometimes I catch myself in full-blown Midwestern dry smirky sarcasm and think, “Wow, I must be starting to feel really comfortable here, this is fun!” then I see the faces of my partner’s family and quickly blurt out, “Just kidding!” because I was, but they didn’t know it. There are a lot of little things like that, slip ups that I make because I forget I’m not home even though I feel a little at home. It’s worth identifying and remembering that I’m different so I don’t offend people (especially my in-laws). I suggest remembering you are “new” long after the feeling of newness wears off to help stay alert to helpful cultural cues. I bumble away, but in measured if mis-stepped doses. Slowly I’m finding ways to be my good old North American self in the midst of some very different points of view.

Here are a few resources I’ve found inspiring or think could be helpful if you too are considering shifting your life to one of travel or expat emersion:

• Chris Guillebrea’s The Art of Non-Conformity is full of helpful, inspiring accounts and how-to’s for breaking out of the mold, whether via international flights or from your cubicle and beyond.
• There’s a fun and challenging article from Escape From America Magazine that address the seven biggest excuses for not relocating abroad that is a thoughtful and entertaining read.
• Expatica.com is a little corporate feeling, but a site full of lots of location-specific info and some decent personal accounts of expat living, and they have a kids and family section worth checking out.
• The travel section of the Boba Blog has a number of great features and interviews with families living very fulfilling lives traveling internationally, some of them settling down a bit and some keeping moving all the while.

Meet The Worldschool Adventure Family for our next traveling adventure series post! This family of four travels for six months out of the year while unschooling and taking life slow. The blog offers insight on how to achieve a goal of traveling with lots of tips for planning and preparation. Enjoy!

• Tell us a bit about your background, why you want to travel, and what led to the decision.

My husband and I have always shared a love of travel.  Our first trip together was back in 1998 where we traveled for three months, driving from our home in Canada down to Mexico where we camped on many a beach in our van.  Our next trip we took things a bit further and drove for six months down into America, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, then all the way back up and across Canada.  A few years later we got married and instead of having an extravagant wedding we had a small ceremony and then used the money we had saved to backpack across South East Asia for ten months.

It was in South East Asia where we dreamed up the idea to travel with our future children.  Since then this idea has morphed and evolved so much it now encompasses our goal of creating a new lifestyle for our family where we travel for six months of every year and has also helped to shape our own philosophies on education for our children.

• Your blog chronicles your journey of preparing to travel. What are your favorite blogs and websites that have helped you get ready for a traveling life?

There are so many amazing blogs out there I get inspiration from!  A few of my favorites are familyadventureproject.org, thedropoutdiaries.com, snapsandblabs.com, and goinganyway.com

• I love the name of your blog, Worldschooling. Which came first unschooling or traveling? How do the two effect each other and work together?

Great question!  Traveling came first for us.  We knew that traveling with our children would be in our future so when it came time for my oldest son to go to Kindergarten we had to make the decision of whether or not we put him in school and then later took him out or if we should just keep him out entirely.  It was a VERY hard decision for us!  In the end we decided to try out homeschooling and we are so glad we did!

When I started to research the ins and outs of homeschooling I came across the philosophy of unschooling, or child-led learning, and it really seemed to be the right fit for our family and our lifestyle.  In my opinion, unschooling and travel are a perfect match for each other.  We learn about the world through our experiences.  Different cultures are understood by immersing in them, language is acquired by the need to be understood when no one around us speaks English, history flows through our learning from visiting monuments and museums…..the whole world is literally our classroom!

• What advice do you have for other parents of young children who want to travel? What do you *need* to keep and what do you need to get rid of?

My advice is do it!  If travel is in your blood like it is in mine then you know how amazing it would be if you could do it with your children.  It would be a life changing experience for your whole family.  As for what you need my answer is not much!  With technology at our finger tips the whole world opens up!  We will be traveling with only our backpacks.  The only toys our kids will bring with them is a small pouch of Lego, a favorite stuffed animal, and some drawing supplies.  Kids really don’t need a lot of toys, all they need is their imagination and nature!

• It seems like the biggest question most people have is how to fund traveling without having a lot of money saved up. Do you have any tips or advice on how to make it work on a budget?

We will be on a tight budget and I plan on doing a monthly tally of our expenses on my blog so our readers can see if a similar trip is feasible.

One of the easiest ways to keep costs down is to travel slowly.  If you want to go around the world in one year, it’s going to cost you!  Choosing a few countries within the same region and traveling slowly will make your dollar stretch so much farther.  We plan on settling in the places that we like for one to two months at a time and renting our accommodation by the month.  Not only will this save us money on accommodation but it will also save us money on food and incidentals because we will start to know the rhythm of the place and know not only where to buy things but how much they should cost.

Hiking and backpacking as a family is great way to get into varied terrain and wild places that are protected from life’s modern day trappings. Look for destinations that have natural features that appeal to you. I choose trails that weave along lakes and streams. My husband looks for routes with elevation gain. Wherever you decide on, pick a route that fits your abilities so that you enjoy yourselves. Remember to wear good fitting shoes and to bring water and snacks for both the adults and kids. If you have a toddler like we do, this is the age to see if using your Boba’s removable foot straps will make your child’s ride even more comfortable. Each Boba carrier includes two coordinating foot straps that are fully adjustable and that snap on and off with ease.

I would like to introduce you to some wonderful Boba Families who have shared their outdoor adventures with us. Get ready to be inspired by these incredible families and beautiful locations. And now it is your turn to join in the fun, so lace up your shoes, grab your Boba and head for the hills!

“This photo was taken in May 2010 on our first family holiday. We borrowed a friends VW camper van and headed to the lake district for a week. The weather could not have been better despite it raining none stop the week before. This photo means so much to me as it was my husbands first day wearing a proper sling as my husband looks so proud of himself and his boy. He had insisted on taking a mass produced front pack but we hadn’t even made it out of the car park to begin our 8hour hike up to Blencathra (also known as Saddleback) in the Lake District before he had decided it was too uncomfortable (Henry was 20weeks and 16lb) and although skeptical at first when he saw the birdies he agreed to wear it. He ended up carrying Henry on his front and a huge ruck sack on his back, only getting Henry down so I could feed him. There is nothing better than feeding half way up a mountain when the sun is shining and there isn’t a sole to be seen. The Lake District is where I am at my happiest and it was wonderful that we could share our first holiday and first ‘proper’ daddy babywearing experiencethere. I look forward to taking Isaac in November. Throughout the walk, the number of people who stopped us or who commented on the sling was unbelievable. The cutest comment of the trip? A little boy who shouted ‘look mummy, there is a tiny baby in there, doesn’t he look snug.’” • Rachel Coy

“My husband and I do a hike once a week that is 1.25 miles each way with a not-so-gradual incline. The attached picture is my husband wearing our 19-month-old son up to Hanging Lake in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.” • Nicole Newcomb

“I have a Boba 3G in Tweet that I absolutely LOVE!!  We recently went camping in the Santa Cruz mountains in CA and I wore my 1 year old daughter a lot.  We hiked, went to the beach and to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I would have been lost without my Boba!” • Cori

“Hiking is what my husband and I do on the weekends. Our first date was a lung-busting hike to a high mountain lake, and since then we’ve backpacked and hiked all over Eastern Oregon, as well as anywhere we can find a trail when traveling. When our daughter was born 5 years ago, our hiking life didn’t stop — we just tucked her in a pack. I exclusively breastfed, so snuggling our baby girl in a pack was great bonding time for my husband. She went everywhere with us in hand-me-down external frame backpacks. A couple hours was usually her limit, unless she took a snooze, and snacks are a must! When I was pregnant with my son two years ago, I happened upon a cool-looking pack named Boba. It had good reviews, so I gave it a try. I am SO glad I did. The Boba and babywearing soothed my cranky baby when nothing else worked. My husband, at first, was skeptical of this pack, which seemed so simple compared to those others. He’s a Boba convert. Just the other day, after a tough hike, he said he could wear it for hours and not have sore shoulders (Max might not be that patient, however) and “wearing” the baby so close makes balance a breeze. The key is to find the pack that fits best — and that your child will tolerate! Now our 5-year-old hikes along with us and her brother rides along on his daddy’s back. Snacks and water are always packed, and the occasional stick to wield has helped us avoid a baby meltdown. Our hikes are slower and shorter now, but I hope that in a few years we’ll be able to backpack and camp as a family. I want them to love nature as much as we do!” • Lisa Jacoby

“I remember going to New Paltz, NY as a kid with my family and then started going more often as an adult.  I always made sure to go in October because its absolutely gorgeous up there in the fall. This picture was taken in October of 2011 when my son, Jackson was 14 months old, and the night before we left I found out that I was pregnant. We went to Mohonk Mountain in the Shawangunks and this particular picture was taken at the top of Bonticou Crag trail on the Mohonk Preserve. We always stay at Clove Cottages where there’s limited TV, no computers and no phones in the cottages which is a nice break outside the hustle and bustle of NYC life.  They also have llamas and chickens on the grounds which Jackson loved. I wasn’t then, and I’m still not in the best of shape, so while hiking I was huffing and puffing a little and Jackson found it absolutely hysterical, along with pulling on my pigtails.  We are going back again this October, when my husband will carry Jackson (now 2) and I will wear our daughter Layla who will be 4 months then in ourBoba 3G. We plan to make it a family tradition to go every year!” • Kandice

“My daughter, Makenzie, and I hiking outside Fairbanks, Alaska this summer.” • Nikki Vandiver

“My two-year old son and I with my sister, her two-year old son, her husband and our dad toured the Tsankawi Ruins, part of Bandolier National Monument in New Mexico on a hot day in July. My sister and I never leave home without our baby carriers. Many of the paths at this site, worn into soft limestone by thousands of years of human feet, are less than a foot wide, making the Ruins inaccessible by stroller.  The mesa top can only be accessed by ladder (or rock-climbing, as the ancient people did). I helped my son navigate the first ladder up to the mesa top, but coming down was more precarious, so into the carrier he went and he rode down safely on my back. On the next level, the path wound pretty close to a sheer drop, so much of the time he rode in the carrier for my piece of mind, and later he fell asleep. Both boys loved exploring the cave-houses, and it is something they could not have enjoyed for years to come if it weren’t for baby wearing.We decided to try baby wearing when my son was born, and to wait to buy a stroller when we really needed one. He is 26 months old and 30 pounds now and we’ve worn out the first carrier we bought. We replaced it with a Bobaand still haven’t felt the need for a stroller. It is wonderful to be able to carry a toddler for as long as he needs, to snuggle on the go, and to have the freedom to navigate the Metro, the Aquarium, Anasazi ruins, or wherever the adventure takes us, traveling light.” • Rachel O’Donnell