Cruising with Child (ren)

[SuzeII]

We are planning on starting some cruising this fall/winter in the Caribbean. I have an eight year old girl and I am looking for good information from people who are cruising with Children. I''ve read what I can find but have found it very limited. Any information would be great. I''m especially interested in peoples experience with schooling.

[Nereus32]

We have found the same lack of info. However, we are told by many there are lots of families out there.

We are leaving in a week for a six month cruise with our 2 year old. We''ve prepared for her safety, but keeping her occupied may be a challenge. Luckily, she loves marine life. Her age precludes us from having to worry about the schooling issue. However, my wife was home schooled with Calvert. She give it high grades.

[saltydawg]

We are expecting our first baby in 3 or so weeks, and he will call our boat home. Right now we are and will live aboard at a marina for a while, but when we were out cruising we saw and met LOTS of cruising families with kids of ALL ages. They ARE out there! If you do searching on the web, it won''t seem like they are, but they are. A good place to start is in Georgetown in the Exumas. It''s a major kid friendly family hang out. From there you can hook up with other family boats going your way.
best of luck!

[e31]

We are starting our first season weekend cruising with a two and three year old. I will be interested to follow what information is found regarding long term cruising.

Our three year old took his first unexpected swim this week...I was glad to see the life jacket performs as advertised. He now has an understanding of what "the edge of the dock" is.

Doug

[jbarros]

in the "her sailing" category, this is actualy discussed at length, with reviews of multiple home schooling programs by cruising parents.

-- James

[TADIAS]

Here''s a book that may give you some insight. Some of what is said in the book seemed to me to be common sense...but that being said one persons common sense isn''t always common. Book is called Babies Aboard written by Lindsay Green copy 1990 isbn 0-87742-273-7
Best of luck to you. My wife and I are planning to begin our 15year or so trip in November w/ a 2 year old and a 2 month old so we were happy to find this book.

[bobbijooneal]

We will be departing from Charleston, SC to the Bahamas beginning September 2004. We have a 9 year old son and would love to hook up with other cruising families. We will be aboard our Gulfstar 36 Trawler IMAGINE. http://oneals.blogspot.com
Hope to see you our there!

[Eliasg3]

I''ve read several books by families cruising with children, and they usualy use a "Home School" program. As someone here mentioned, check out the boards for recomendations. From what I''ve read, they give you the courses and tests. You send in the tests and papers, they give you the results. Every single account I''ve read says cruising children are more advanced then their land based counter-parts, so don''t about that part, and the programs are out there.