Road tripping provides opportunities for life lessons

School holidays are always a tough time to secure a vehicle of your choosing, and are also some of the busiest times to be on the road. However making the choice to take children out of school is a contentious subject with most parents.

So what exactly can children learn on the road that they might not learn at school? How can travel help children with their future learning?

 Problem solving abilities

Problem solving is one of the most important life skills and although these skills are taught in schools, road trips are a fantastic way for kids to develop these skills in relation to real life situations. Encouraging your children to take part in decision making and problem solving during travel will help them to grasp the concept of identifying, evaluating and discussing problems, as well as creating an environment of trust and respect that will encourage your children to discuss future problems with you.

A great example of this is if you give your child a small amount of money to purchase a souvenir. Discuss what the options might be, for example, should they buy the first thing they see? Spend all their money on one big souvenir? Or should they buy a few cheaper souvenirs from several shops?
Discuss the pros and cons of each choice with them and what consequences could result from their decision. When guided and encouraged to problem solve, these skills will become second nature and with the fun of a road trip, they won’t even notice they are learning.

       Considering the world around them and appreciating what they have

Visiting destinations that are different to their own helps encourage children to consider the world around them. Children often don’t realise how fortunate they are, often assuming that if they have it, so does everybody else.
Although discussions at school are great at introducing these ideas, if they never see or experience anything outside of the environment they live in, how can they be expected to fully comprehend the world around them?

However parents must be careful to discuss different lifestyles not as a problem but as an opportunity to learn.  After leaving a destination it is a great idea to discuss the differences between the culture or lifestyle you have visited and what they perceive the pros and cons to be, as well as prompting curiosity by asking open-ended questions like, ‘why do you think they might need to build houses underground?’ – As is the case with houses in Coober Pedy.

      Flexibility and Adaptability

Adaptability and flexibility are necessary life skills, for children and parents. Whether it’s not getting the same teacher as their best friend in a new school year, not getting into the university course they wanted or not being successful in a job interview, adaptability will help you and your children turn life’s lemons into lemonade.
Road tips are particularly good for teaching adaptability because of the flexibility offered by campervan holidays, allowing children to step away from the structure of school.
Unlike a resort stay or Contiki tour that is planned to the last second, sometimes the unexpected happens on a road trip. For example the weather might turn, changing your route or destination or you may experience a flat tire, putting off your timeline.
How you react to these situations will influence how your children feel. Encouraging your children to see the positives in a situation or how to overcome an issue calmly, will stick with them for life and help them to open up more opportunities, build self-confidence and increase their general happiness.

      Autonomy

If you have ever read a job ad, you will know that the ability to be autonomous is a highly sought after and important skill to master. One day your children will grow up and be required to answer the question, ‘can you work autonomously?’

Travel embraces freedom and independence and is an experience that most employers are very interested in. Whilst school does teach and encourage this, it is difficult in a class of 30 students to be truly autonomous.

Children who can master autonomy are often more inquisitive and self-guided learners, which will help them to grow personally and professionally.

Travelling takes children out of their usual surroundings, allowing them to make unbiased decisions. The exploration of travelling encourages children to take risks that they may not have taken in their comfort zone, that lead to real learning opportunities.

Offering your children choices whilst travelling, creates a monitored environment that will present new experience encouraging self-reliance and moral and cognitive development. There are very simple tools to help you encourage learning and curiosity on a road trip. One of the top suggestions from teachers we have spoken to, is for your children to keep a travel journal. Not only are travel journals a great way for children of all ages to practice literacy skills away from the classroom, but they also encourage children to reflect on what they have experienced and develop critical thinking skills. Journals are also a fantastic souvenir for children to look back on as they grow.

Help your children to create an itinerary to include in their journal before you set off. Not only will they gain an understanding of distance and time, they will also begin to grasp organisational skills. Depending on your child’s age, you may want to sit with them and collect images from the internet or books, or allow them to perform self-guided research on the destinations.

Lastly, don’t forget to give your child a map! Whether it be a paper map or a digital map from an app, allowing children to enter destinations, discover distances, travel time and allow them to follow their journey will open their minds to how big the world around us is.

Road trips are a fantastic learning experience for the whole family, and no matter where the road leads you will be an unforgettable memory. Start thinking about your next family adventure now! Get a quote today with www.discovery-campervans.com.au

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Australia's most remote territories are far from the mainland

Outback towns may think they're pretty remote, but they're not a patch on the most far-flung specks of Australian territory. The country's tentacles have spread out to all manner of obscure places  - some of which are easier to reach than others. But why are they part of Oz, and what will you discover if you, ahem, advance Australia far?

Christmas Island

Distance from the mainland: 1560 km

Discovered on Christmas Day, 1643, this 135 square kilometre speck in the Indian Ocean is around 1560km north-west of Exmouth in WA. It's firmly in the tropics and much closer to Indonesia than Australia.

It became an Australian territory in 1958, after Australia bought it from Singapore, which was at that time still a British colony. The Brits decided to administer the island from Singapore, and it was largely seen as a giant phosphate mine.

The phosphate operations are now long closed, and Christmas Island is now best known for its controversial immigrant detention centre.

But for visitors who have got visas, there's plenty to do – most of it nature based. The annual red crab migration (which usually takes place in November or December) is the calendar highlight. For the rest of the year, expect plenty of bird-watching opportunities, rainforest hikes and fab snorkelling or diving on the reef that surrounds the island.

Unlike many of Australia's other territories, Christmas Island is relatively easy to get to – Virgin Australia flies direct from Perth. See Christmas.net.au.

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Distance from the mainland: 2129 km

Also served by Virgin Australia flights from Perth – and even further away than Christmas Island - the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are a collection of tiny islands on two atolls. First spotted in 1609, they became the home of two squabbling British merchants and a harem of Malay women they fought over. Eventually, the islands passed to Australia after a spell of British colonial control in 1955.

Only two of the islands – West Island and Home Island – are inhabited, and the somewhat unusual cultural heritage offers a counterpoint to the nature-based activities. Canoeing over to uninhabited islets and prime warm-water snorkelling aren't bad ways to kill time either… See cocoskeelingislands.com.au.

The Ashmore and Cartier Islands

Distance from the mainland: 320 km

Stranded between Australia's north-west coast and the Indonesian island of Rote, these uninhabited islands are another inheritance from colonial Britain. The only visitors tend to be the occasional scientist, Indonesian fisherman or Australian Navy ship. There are no anchorage points, and permits are required to go there, even if you were thinking of heading over in your own yacht.

Norfolk Island

Distance from the mainland: 1456 km

Uninhabited when Captain Cook arrived in 1774, Norfolk Island was used as penal settlement for the very worst convicts in Australia's early colonial era. Then, after the penal settlement was closed down, waves of Pitcairn Islanders – descended from the Bounty mutineers and their Polynesian wives – moved in.

The island now has a population of around 2,300, and is broadly self-governing without any representation in Australia's parliament. Heritage tourism is the strong suit, although the beaches and lagoons aren't exactly unwelcome either. The convict sites around Kingston and Arthur's Vale are World Heritage-listed, while there is a surprisingly large collection of museums. These delve into the Bounty story, the way convicts were treated, the Polynesian settlers and photography from the olden days.

It's around 1456 km east of Byron Bay, with Air New Zealand operating direct flights from Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane. Seenorfolkisland.com.au.

The Coral Sea Islands

Distance from the mainland: 722 km

On the other side of the Great Barrier Reef from the Australian mainland, only one of the Coral Sea Islands – Willis Island – is inhabited. And that's by the three or four hardy souls manning the meteorological station there.

For somewhere so obscure, however, Willis Island is mightily popular with cruise ships. P&O, Royal Caribbean and Princess Cruises all go there regularly. This might be for the scenic sail-around, where a knowledgeable naturalist lectures passengers about the bird life. Cynics may, however, suggest it's because the detour technically takes the ships into international waters, allowing the cruise lines to sell tons of duty free.

Heard and McDonald Islands

Distance from the mainland: 3985 km

About as remote as you can get, these volcanic islands sit thousands of kilometres from anywhere, in the middle of a rough triangle between Australia, Madagascar and Antarctica. Initially claimed by the British then transferred to Australian control in 1947, there have only been 240 recorded visits to Heard Island in history. For McDonald Island, that drops to two.

Unless part of a scientific expedition – and if you've the money, interests and credentials to join, one (heardisland.org) is departing next summer – there's virtually no chance of getting there.

But if you do, it's somewhere extraordinary. Heard Island is dominated by a Mawson Peak, an enormous volcano, and the complete lack of human-introduced predators makes the islands a snapshot of nature almost impossible to find elsewhere.

Australian Antarctic Territory

Distance from the mainland: 3160 km

Australia lays claim to just under 5.9 million square kilometres of Antarctica – another gift from the UK - although that sovereignty is only recognised in a few other countries. The Australian Antarctic Division maintains three year-round research stations, although the vessels supplying them are for scientists and workers only. The Division's website has good information on how to visit Antarctica too. See Antarctica.gov.au.

There are plenty of Antarctica cruise options, but very few of these visit the Australian Antarctic Territory (the vast majority go from South America to the Antarctic Peninsula). A small minority depart from Bluff in New Zealand or Hobart in Tasmania, but even these tend to go to the New Zealand-administered Ross Dependency.

The cheat's method is to take a scenic flight over Antarctica from one of the Australian capital cities – Antarctica Flights (antarcticaflights.com.au) sells the marathon 12 hour trips.

Macquarie Island

Distance from the mainland: 1470 km

Once popular with sealers, this sub-Antarctic island is technically part of Tasmania despite lying almost 1500km south-east of it. It has a surprisingly mild climate given its position, and is most notable for its large penguin populations. In particular, it's the only place in the world where the royal penguin lives.

The Australian Antarctic Division maintains a permanent base there, but otherwise there are no human inhabitants.

A sub-Antarctic Islands cruise, usually taking in some of New Zealand's more obscure outposts as well, is the best way to visit. Heritage Expeditions (heritage-expeditions.com) is amongst the companies specialising in them.

Written by David Whitley for Traveller

http://www.traveller.com.au/australias-most-remote-territories-and-how-to-visit-them-12nz6m

Australia's UNESCO World Heritage-listed cultural and natural attractions

What does the Great Barrier Reef have in common with the Great Wall of China, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe?

All four of these places – and over a thousand others mostly without the word "great" in their titles – are on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

According to the United Nations body, this makes their protection the common goal of humanity. As its website states, "World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located."

One of Australia's most significant heritage sites: Port Arthur is a former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula. 

It's a worthy goal. In the decades since the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted, almost every nation on the planet has signed on and submitted its own list of treasures.

So how easy is it for a place to make the list, and how many sites does Australia have in it?

There are two types of World Heritage site: cultural and natural. To be considered, a site must meet at least one of ten selection criteria. These range from "a masterpiece of human creative genius" to "natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity."

Submitted sites are evaluated by expert bodies. Once their recommendations are in, the World Heritage Committee decides who makes the final cut.

For Australia, that process has created 19 World Heritage sites. They're dominated by 16 natural sites, though four of these are joint natural-cultural entries. Regionally, they're a bit lop-sided: six are at least partly in New South Wales, for example, while Victoria has only one.

From sites in city centres to those in remote locations, they're an appealing collection of attractions.

See the FULL LIST 

Article by Tim Richards for Traveller

Board Game Give Away! The Great Australian Road Trip

The ultimate board game to keep the family occupied on your road trip has to be The Great Australian Road Trip!

A Trivia Game about Australian people, places, wildlife and events across Australia.

Players answer trivia questions, choosing between questions marked as Easy, Medium or Hard, moving 2, 4 or 6 places respectively if they get the answers correct.

Victory is achieved by travelling to three randomly selected destinations across Australia and correctly answering a multiple choice trivia question there, plus by collecting three 'Detour' tokens along the way by achieving 'Detour' quests in their travels.

To even out the game there are 'Half & Half' cards which remove one of the wrong multiple choice answers at the destinations, and 'Speed' cards which allow you to move even if you get an answer wrong. These can be given in greater numbers to younger (or non-Australian) players.

Valued at $60.00 I have one to give away to the first travelling family that emails me to say they are in Margaret River and can pick it up! See the contact page for my email address.

Yakima Tips on Packing the Car

www.yakima.com.au