Family Gap Year Post #25: The Big Island—Our Family Dynamic (Aug-Oct, Part 2)

Today I’m going to reflect on what our Family Dynamic was like during our 2.5 months of living on the Big Island. Spending more time together (and hopefully growing closer) as a family is one of the primary reasons we wanted to go on a Family Gap Year.

Family Dynamic

Highs

We went from low low to high high over the course of these past 2.5 months!

First and foremost: We are not meant to be a homeschooling family. We knew this about ourselves before the trip, but we didn’t really have a choice, based on the fact that we were going to be changing locations so frequently throughout the trip.

Our children are only two years and four months apart. Also, they are both boys. The level of rivalry and competitiveness and jealousy is high.

Everything changed for us when we were able to enroll Henry in a micro-school. The boys got to spend more time apart from each other, and they appreciated each other so much more when they were back together.

And things really flourished when Tate went to a STEM camp for the week. He was so resistant to go, but once he went, he loved it. It was so good for him to interact with an entirely new group of children away from Henry.

We have had so many good times as a family these past 2.5 months. The boys and Matt volunteered on a weekly basis together. We have gone to the beach together multiple times a week. We still have our family movie nights and our restaurant nights out. We share a single shave ice together at Kula to save money. We sing together and dance together quite a bit. And we crack each other up with our jokes.

We have also had great one-on-one time with the boys. I take Henry to fencing every Tuesday night, and we loved our hotel night together in rural Hawai’i. Matt and I had fun with Tate while Henry was back in Austin.

Lows

Our nervous systems have gotten activated a lot these past 2.5 months, which has meant lots of meltdowns. They are not pretty, but we are getting better about getting through them. We are also getting better at looking for early signs and doing a better job of preventing them.

Stay tuned for next week’s post when I talk about Lodging & Food. In the meantime, you can see daily update on Instagram or weekly updates in my newsletter!