Families take extended breaks from city living and turn their kids into 'road scholars'

There was a time when Ryan Murphy worked 100 hours a week on large-scale construction sites, leaving home at 4:00am, and getting back so late he barely saw his wife and young kids. In traveller parlance, they did part of the "Big Lap" — a circuit of Australia's coastline favoured by many families who take their kids out of school and hit the road for several months, if not years. "I wake up in the morning and I've got all day with the kids," Mr Murphy said. "The boys are learning skills that we might never, ever got around to teach them at home," said Mr Murphy. "If you don't really have that sort of background, then it's very, very difficult to maintain a high calibre learning program over an extended period of time," he said.