Kirsty Starmer shares tales of her family adventures around the UK in a big yellow school bus
I’ve just asked my daughter for the tenth time to make the bedroom space travel-safe. "Alright, alright! I know! I'm doing it!" comes the exasperated reply. A short while later, when I ask her how she feels about travelling in the bus and unschooling, she’s effervescent, "I LOVE EVERYTHING!" Punctuated by wild eyes and animated arm swings.
The day before, she’d sat sullenly on board a boat to a remote Loch, trying to build up the courage to speak to the only other child aboard. And then, 30 minutes later, she was marvelling at the 205 jellyfish she'd counted along the way.
I can just about remember being eight years old. I lived surrounded by fields and woodland. I would bury time capsules, climb trees, and make flower petal "perfume". I could get lost in a book for hours, and there was an almost constant battle over the tidiness of my bedroom. My daughter could say very similar things.
The most significant difference is that I certainly didn't live and learn in an 11-metre-long American school bus travelling the length and breadth of the UK and beyond.
