Week 3 in London and we are falling more in love with this city and everything it has to offer, and learning more about each other as we spend less time on our phones and ipads, and more time laughing and enjoying our time as a family.  The kids are soaking up the history and culture better than we could have ever expected.  I’m so proud of their desire to learn and their energy to keep up with us on our 10+ hour site seeing days!  These kids were born to travel and we are so glad that we made this decision and this week solidified this…

This week started with a day on the traditional Hop On Hop Off bus.

While we had already visited a few of the attractions on the route, there is so much more to learn with the live commentary as you travel through the city. I HIGHLY recommend the ORIGINAL tour if you ever go.  They even offer a 48 hour bus pass that comes with a free boat ride to Greenwhich (more on why that is a MUST later.)  We opted for the single-day ticket as we had plans for the following day already, but we spent the entire day riding along and listening to Paul, the HILARIOUS, tour guide share fun facts, horror stories and more as we made our way through the streets of London.

Our only main stop that day was Herrods which truly is a marvel in itself.  Our only purchase was a $30 toy for the kids though.

With the exchange rate it isn’t really lucrative to shop here, but it is for many and we had fun watching them drop THOUSANDS on designer purses, jewelry etc.  Definitely an experience.

Finished the day by shocking our bodies with something besides pub food for dinner-China Town!

 

Showing others how to create the same passive income that allows us to do this!

Later in the week our amazing friend Liz, and her daughter Isabella, came for a visit from Italy (we will be staying near them during our month in Tuscany in a few weeks.)  I was asked to present about the financial opportunity that allowed us this freedom-living and I happily obliged.  It was great to meet up with my beautiful team and share the “stage” with them while showing others what is possible in my profession.  The best part was having my kids there to hear my story and truly understand what they have been blessed with.  After the presentation, Owen started quizzing me on what was better to have, $1,000,000 today or a penny that doubles every day for a month. I’m glad he paid attention to his mama. The kid now understands true financial leverage, and having money work for him vs him trade time for money. That might have been the most important thing they learn all week.  ;). If you want to learn more about how I help others create passive income from home/or away check out my freedom page here

 

 

HMS Belfast

We had great intentions of visiting the Globe Theatre the following day, but even I don’t want to sit through 2.5 hours of a Mid Summer Nights Dream,  so we headed over to tour the HMS Belfast which was one of the first Royal Navy ships to fire on the beaches of Normandy during the allied invasion of France.  We expected to spend an hour or so here, but the audio tour and museum they created out of this old war ship was so interesting that we spent half the day learning how the sailors lived and fought on this historic ship.  If you are ever in London and have time, I highly recommend checking this out.  We will be heading to Normandy in a few weeks so we felt it was important to learn what those sailors went through

 

Torture, The Rosetta Stone, and The Prime Meridian…

On Saturday we started the day with the London Dungeons tour which is a fun, and scary, tour giving the gory history of England.  The live-actors take you through actual events in London’s gruesome history from beheadings and torture for being a traitor to the King to Jack the Ripper, and the plague.  Again, if you are in London and have time I HIGHLY recommend this tour.  The kids enjoyed it and probably learned more through the live acting than they would in a “boring” tour elsewhere or museum. Since I’m pretty much a big kid, I learn better this way too.

 

From the London Dungeons we cruised over to Greenwich. This is not only the home of the Cutty Sark, but also where time begins.  I was determined to get a picture on the prime meridian so we headed up to the Observatory which was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II and played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation.  Again, I just wanted my picture on the darn line so we dropped over $60 for the 4 of us to do just that.  Sure, there is a cool museum with tons of telescopes, clocks etc, but unless you’re into that kind of thing, get your pic on the Eastern and Western Hemisphere at the same time and call it a day. 

 

The view from above is also beautiful.  You get a great view of the park, which was once a hunting ground for Kings, the Queens house, and the Old Royal Naval College.  Again, the line is the big draw here. 😉

 

The Cutty Sark is also available to tour in Greenwich for a price.  It was the fastest tea clipper of its day and the last one surviving. It was built in 1869. This is NOT a replica.   This is what makes it worth the $$ to visit.  It is amazing to see the actual wood still in great condition 150 years later.  Again, those audio guides make it worth the trip.  They give so much information about the history of the vessel that those of us that lose focus reading all the details around the museum can still stay engaged.  Kids too!

 

 

To cap off our history-fueled week we hit up the British Museum to see the

Rosetta Stone and all the other ancient artifacts from all over the world.

Dylan has a project due about ancient Egypt so she was able to knock out a lot of research, and she had just studied about the Assyrians so found it really “cool” to see actual ancient reliefs from their day.

THIS is what World-schooling is all about!

Putting together what they learn in books with the “real thing” makes it “stick” for everyone, but especially those with ADHD like myself and my daughter. To see the proverbial light-bulb go off is what makes this trip worth everything.

OH, and one last thing about the British Museum…IT’S FREE!  We had heard this rumour about “Free museums” but had yet to find one.  It’s true. They exist, and the British Museum is one of them, and well worth the visit for the Rosetta stone alone.

Once again, the Mission London scavenger hunt came in really handy as it kept the kids engaged and wanting to earn their points for finding the top “must-sees” in the museum.  Truth be told, I would have left the place after the Rosetta Stone, but they were focused on finding the sculpture of the cat wearing jewelry and other “important” artifacts.  Warning, if you buy this book you will spend more time in museums than you plan to.  Another reason to buy it when traveling with kids!

 

My favorite day so far…it involves dog poop.

After a week full of learning, we decided to take advantage of the sunny day and head to Richmond Park.

After visiting London so many times I was AMAZED that I had never been here before.  The park is enormous and has countless trails and landmarks to visit. We had walked MILES already through the museum so we opted to head to the ONE cycle rental place in the entire park. After taking trains and busses to get there we notice that today is the day of the London Duathalon and the park cycle rental is closed.  Of course, I’M the annoyed one.  The kids, aka “The Super-Travelers” didn’t seem to mind that we would now have to walk ANOTHER two miles to the other side of the park.

This was one of those moments where you realize that life has a funny way of teaching you things.  We spent that walk talking to each other and enjoying the beautiful weather, and about 10 minutes in, Dylan, our happy-go-lucky child who only sees the good in this world, screams, “dandelions,” and almost steps in a pile of “dog” poop reaching for one. We all laughed, and poked fun at how Dylan always sees the good beyond the dog-shit.   It became our new reference to always looking for the good in life.  Then a few minutes later, almost perfectly timed by the Universe, Dylan spots 2 wild deer far off in the trees.

Of course, she spots the “happy” when no one else does.  The deer walked towards us and got within a few feet as we stood there in complete shock at what we were seeing.  Of course, my carnivore husband commented “tasty” as they crossed the path in front of us, but it was then that I realized that we NEVER would have had the funny “dandelion” moment, and would have completely missed those deer had the cycle rental (which is open EVERY OTHER DAY OF THE YEAR) been open today.

We went on to enjoy a gorgeous stroll along the Thames in Richmond.  How I never knew this place existed I will never know. It is full of cafes and pubs all along the water and on a beautiful day, like yesterday, it was full of people enjoying a stroll or pint (or both) outdoors.

After a pub dinner (probably our 10th so far this week) we took the train back to Wandworth, and as if this day couldn’t get any better, as we walked by our local pub we saw NFL playing on the tv’s inside so—you guessed it—-we stopped in for a nightcap.  We might never leave this place.  🙂

 

Stay tuned for my next blog next week (which will be written from the train to Paris,) where I share the lessons we have learned during our first month of WorldSchooling.

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Cheerio for now,

Sandra D.