Remote island life with small kids

When we told our families and friends we were moving to the Maldives, there were 2 questions that came up: what about you? what about the kids? - well to be honest i'd rather be on a small island in the "middle of nowhere" than to end up in a big polluted and busy-busy city with 2 small kids who don't really need to go to school! There are also a couple of things I have learned since we started being expats over 4 years ago:

- Always take the positives of where we are and don't waste time on the negative stuff - if there is nothing to do about it, leave it - if I can change it, I do my best to do so. Yes I am on a small tiny tiny island, but hey I can actually learn how to kite surf, sail a catamaran and to scuba dive with the most amazing scenery.

See what I mean?? ;)

- The second thing I learned was to always put things into perspective.... what I mean is when I was pregnant with our biggest one, living in the UK, we visited Dubai to see if we could move there - and to be honest I did not like it very much - no soul, no culture, only malls, big roads, lots of cars etc. Then we moved to Jordan - not a lot of shopping (at that time, it is much better now), lots of roads with no lights but holes in (maybe that has improved as well!!). We then went to Dubai and of course after having been in Amman for a few months I could have easily moved to Dubai! All a question of perspective.

- With the kids, I have learned that if I don't make a problem out of it, well it's likely not really to be a big problem for them either - so we prepared for our move with them, talking about the Maldives, looking at pictures, telling them what was going to change... and they adapted quite fast to their new surroundings. Of course A talks about her friends, her school, and H about his nanny and his toys which are still not here. H is younger than A was when we moved to Bali and he is actually very aware of this move (2yrs, 7months).

I think there is a lot of positives for the kids to be out here: healthy lifestyle - full of sunshine, running around outside, water, sand, turtles and sharks, boats, kayaks and paddling boards - people from the whole world - both staff and guests. Good food. I home-school our biggest one, thing I really enjoy - doing science projects on the beach, learning to read and doing maths at home, playing football or doing yoga, oh and swimming as well of course. No stress about going-to-bed-times or waking-up-times, it's a holiday everyday! living at our own pace, trying to get as much out of every day. Finally the island is their size, nothing is too far away - okay we don't have roads and cars - but we have buggies and even a tractor.

I plan our day according to the kids - we always have a morning walk and swimming: sometimes we hunt for crabs on the beach - sometimes for turtles in the kayak. we go snorkelling, my girl with her kit and the small one on my back. we go for a boat ride and ice cream! always a sunset walk and a play on the beach and in between all that we try to squeeze in some house work for the mummy, some home-schooling for A and a nap for my little boy. dinner time, play time, and finally bed time. long days but filled with laughter and lots of discoveries.

I love it as much today as 4 weeks ago when we first arrived. I am sure it is not for everybody though - and many guests come, enjoy their time but are happy to leave again; others come back and back to get the serenity you only can find on an island this size, far away from the craziness of our world.