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Traveling for the first time as a family unleashes so many emotions. It is exciting, exhilarating and quite frankly… terrifying! It seems that the little ones can’t survive for more than an hour in the car without asking “are we there yet?” or whacking each other over the head with stuffed animals

Backed by Aviva, the Wealthify shares and stocksJunior ISA offers a really good return (though, like any investment, it does incur a risk) and can only be accessed by your child once they turn 18 (which is lucky for us as otherwise mine would blow his on Pokemon cards in no time! ). They also offer ethical investment ISAs which I think is great, because that way you know your money, presents from family on birthdays, and the money your children save themselves, is being invested only in businesses that act ethically and socially responsibly. Like the adult ISAs the junior ones are also shielded from tax, meaning that you can save up to £4260 per year without paying tax, and another great about them is that once your child turns 18, they can use this accumulated fund and roll their ISA into an adult one. We can’t afford the maximum yearly investment, I doubt many people can, but even if you only save £50/month between you, and top it up with gifts from generous grandparents on birthdays, it could still mean that when they eventually turn 18 they will have a decent sum of money waiting for them to spend on university, travelling, part of a deposit on a mortgage, or Pokemon cards if they haven’t shaken the addiction by then.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, but we’re REALLY into maps in our house. We try hard to instil our love for learning about the world both through travel, when when we return by studying maps, reading about a destination and its culture with our little one, and just generally talking about different countries and how other cultures live

I do love crisp autumn days with their bright blue skies, but let’s face it they also bring rain, wind and (my) general grumpiness. This year we managed to escape the cold and hop over to Tenerife for October half-term, where temperatures averaged 25c, the sea water was warm and the world’s best water park was waiting for us