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Adventures, challenges and our freewheeling family life…

A record of some of our experiences and decisions as a family of four – two adults and one set of twins. Thoughts about going car free in a small town. Maybe unschooling. Challenging ourselves to live differently. General advice and musings relating to bicycle kit, route planning and probably a bunch of other stuff too…

Who are we?
CarfreeFamilyHolidays
16/10/2024

Twin Tour 24

We didn't manage a mega tour overseas this summer, though I feel that something along those lines is brewing... We did host a few cycle tourists from various countries through Warm Showers though, which always feels a bit like visiting a different country, without actually leaving our home. And we…
Stuart Balkham 0
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FamilyNew Year Letter
13/12/2023

Christmas Letter 2023

Happy Christmas to all our friends and family, near and far. Wishing you peace and joy for the new year. A brief update of what we've all been up to over the last twelve months for those who know us and might be interested... The year started with a big…
Stuart Balkham
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Home Ed
18/11/2023

Home Ed 2.0

An update, for our own family history as much as anything. We are now entering home ed two point zero... A couple of weeks ago we deregistered Hatty from school and she officially began home educating alongside Wilf. In many ways this transition has been on the cards for some…
Stuart Balkham
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Unschooling
02/02/2023

Home Ed – One Month In

I wrote a post a couple of moths ago about our thoughts around school and home education. Reader, I'm happy to say that we did it. In December we requested that Wilf was taken off the school register and notified our local authority that from January we would be electively…
Stuart Balkham
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Unschooling
25/12/2022

I feel a blog coming on…

I've not written on here yet, and to be very honest, today I realised I'd not even read everything Stuart has so carefully taken the time to write (sorry Stu). The truth is, I find writing a challenge (for multiple reasons) and also reading too, hence the lack of writing…
Anita
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New Year Letter
14/12/2022

Christmas Letter 2022

To all our friends and family, wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year 2023! A little update, which may be of interest to those who know us, recounting some of what we've been up to for the last twelve months and what's coming up in the…
Stuart Balkham
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Unschooling
30/11/2022

Thinking About School

I feel a slight left turn coming. Both on this blog and in our family life... The last two or three months, we've been increasingly interested in the idea of home educating our kids. And right now, we've pretty much decided that we're going to take Wilf out of school…
Stuart Balkham
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Holidays
30/08/2022

Wilderness Wood Tour

After our mini warm up cycle tour at Easter, this summer we gently pushed the kids a little more with a full week of cycling and camping. This time, we extended the excellent Cuckoo Trail and broke the whole trip up with a holiday within a holiday at Wilderness Wood,…
Stuart Balkham
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Holidays
28/06/2022

You’re In Charge, Warm Up Tour

During the easter holidays in 2022, we took the twins on their first loaded cycle tour. Here's what we did and what we learnt...We last took our kids on a cycling holiday in 2019, towing a Weehoo and a double bike trailer buggy just under 300km over nine days around…
Stuart Balkham
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Carfree
22/03/2022

I (sort of) Accidentally Sold our Car

At the end of January, based on not much, my partner and I started discussing the idea of going car free. We’ve got six year old twins, live in a small, hilly town, with rubbish walking and cycling infrastructure. We have elderly relatives which we can kind of only visit…
Stuart Balkham
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