By Alyce Collins
THIS FAMILY-OF-FOUR packed up their lives to go on the road but faced backlash after taking their children out of school, despite their teachers admitting theyâll learn more from seeing the world for themselves.
Freelance content writer and sales operations manager, Kylie Gibbon (45) and Mike Gibbon (43) from Auckland, New Zealand, spent much of their earlier years together travelling through Europe, South America and Africa, but their corporate jobs were their priority.
When the couple welcomed their children, Sophie (9) and Jack (7), they knew they wanted to one day continue travelling as a family. Unfortunately, Kylie and Mikeâs intense jobs required much of their time and by 2015 they felt burned out by their careers.

This led the couple to discuss a change of lifestyle and they decided that there was no reason to put off travelling again. So, in 2016 they quit their jobs and rented out their house before spending the next eight months in Asia and Europe. They visited Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Bali, before heading to the UK, Belgium, France, Croatia and Germany.
Kylie and Mike have travelled to an impressive 57 countries, while their children have already ticked off 35 countries themselves. Kylie and Mike home-school their children while travelling for four hours a day and five days a week, using an online curriculum, but they admit that lessons such as history and art can be taken care of by getting themselves out and witnessing historical sites for themselves.
While travelling, budgeting it an important factor and the family has managed to stick to a budget of roughly ÂŁ50 a day for all four of them.
Kylie and Mike share their travels on Instagram, @ouroverseasadventures to encourage others to take the leap and travel, showing that there is no right or wrong age to travel and learning in a conventional school setting isnât the only method of educating.

âBefore having kids, Mike and I had travelled extensively through Europe, the Middle East, South America and Africa,â said Kylie.
âIt was only natural to us that we would continue to travel once we had kids. We always thought it would be when they were older and in their teens.
âBut we were both working full-time in quite intensive jobs for a long time and were burned out by the time the kids were three and five.
âWe discussed it and thought it was time for a change, so we quit our jobs, rented out our house and went to Asia and Europe for eight months.
âWe spent about six months planning the trip before we left. Researching and deciding where to go, booking flights and accommodation, then packing up our lives and putting things into storage and selling our car.
âOur first port of call was Malaysia, then Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bali. We went to the UK, Belgium France, Croatia and Germany after that.

âWe always check a destination is deemed safe to travel to on our governmentâs safe travel website. A big consideration is how budget-friendly a place is, which is why we like Asia so much. Next, we look at the weather to make sure itâs not hurricane season or too hot or cold when we are planning to visit.
âWe love places with history as New Zealand is such a comparatively young country and we donât have monuments that date back hundreds of years, so itâs a thrill to visit them. Also, with the kids, there needs to be things which interest and educate them along the way.
âWhat many people donât realise is that you can spend less money living on the road than you do at home. New Zealand is becoming an incredibly expensive place to live, and weâre spending a fraction of what we would spend at home on accommodation, food and transport.
âWe live reasonably frugally and self-cater a lot. Although in Asia itâs often cheaper to eat out, and selectively choose what activities we do.
âIn Malaysia, weâre averaging spending 50 pounds a day. We feed the family with a delicious healthy dinner at the local Hawker centre for under 10 pounds and itâs less than a pound for a beautiful mango.

âAfter eight months on the road, we came back to New Zealand for a couple of years, but the travel bug never went away. So, we decided to set out again and we left New Zealand in January 2019.â
Although Sophie and Jack arenât learning in the conventional setting of school confines, Kylie firmly believes that they are learning just as much through travelling.
Kylie adds that giving her children the chance to explore so much of the world at such a young age is helping them develop into well-rounded, global citizens with more understanding of the world they live in.
âBefore we left, we worked a lot and sometimes would only see the kids for an hour a day if we were lucky. Now, we get to spend so much quality time with them,â said Kylie.
âWe have the most incredible experiences and weâre building fantastic family memories and hopefully building a close lifelong bond. The kids get to see their parents much less stressed and constantly rushing like we were at home.
âBeing together all the time sometimes has its challenges, but if we start getting on one anotherâs nerves we take some time out.
âSpending time among different cultures is an absolute prejudice killer, because of where theyâve visited, people are just people, and they get to see the world without being clouded by preconceptions or anecdotal viewpoints of different ethnicities and religions.

âWe also like to think weâre teaching them to follow their dreams, and that there is more to life than making money and being on the corporate treadmill. We can see them developing into global citizens and theyâre like sponges soaking up all the different places we visit.
âOn the whole, most people are very positive, but you can tell they think weâre crazy to travel. Many people say itâs something theyâd love to do one day, or they wish they’d done it when their kids were younger.
âWeâre grateful for how positive and supportive the kidsâ school has been too, commenting they will learn so much from these experiences.
âThe negative reactions we get are generally around what the kids are perceived to be missing out from being in conventional school, and how will they be able to socialise out of school. To combat this, we meet up with other travelling families and locals.
âWe home-school the kids using an online curriculum that has all their lessons and age-appropriate reading, writing, spelling and maths. We supplement this with online apps that they were using at school anyway.

âThey also write a journal with what they have seen and done. Science, geography, history and art are taken care of by what we see on our travels.
âMaking the decision to travel with your kids and taking the initial leap is the hardest part. Thereâs no right or wrong age to do it as every age and stage has its own positives and challenges.
âWe havenât regretted it for a second and itâs brought us so much closer together as a family. Also, bad things happen in the world, but donât let fear stop you from travelling.â
To see more, visit https://www.instagram.com/ouroverseasadventures/ or their website: www.ouroverseasadventures.com