Peta Todd says kids learn just as much on holiday as in the classroom

AS summer rolls around again, so do sky-high travel prices – and pressure on families fighting the holiday rota to get time off.

I understand summer will always be a premium time to travel.

Peta Todd tells why holidays are also a way for children to learnCredit: Stewart Williams – The Sun

But fines for parents taking their children away in term-time mean some mums and dads can’t afford to give their kids a break at all.

For some, a fine might seem worth it – saving more by travelling in term-time than the cost of the penalty.

Obviously there are concerns that if pupils are absent here, there and everywhere, it will affect the learning process of the whole group. And that isn’t fair.

But how in control are we of our children’s learning journeys?

When I was a child of primary-school age, I always missed a week of school to go on holiday in England with my mother and my grandmother.

My mum worked long hours and that week away as a family was so important for us.

What’s more, I learnt stuff I wouldn’t learn at school.

Peta and husband Mark Cavendish, who is often away for six weeks at a a time racing

I collected eggs and milked cows on farms, or went fossil-hunting.

Now, as parents, our schedule is not the usual nine-to-five.

Occasionally we have to move things around to make sure we have time together as a family.

The children sometimes don’t see their dad for six weeks at a time while he is off racing.

If they have to skip a few days of school so we can have time together, so be it.

‘Time to just enjoy being children’

When we travel as a family, the children learn so much about other cultures, languages and ways of life.

Those real-life experiences teach them things they cannot learn in a classroom.

In this country, we send our children to school aged four or five, while in many European countries, they start a year or two later.

It’s important our youngsters have time to just enjoy being children.

In an era when we connect with people online as much as we do in person, sometimes our families can be forgotten about while we are busy on our phones.