The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, November 5, 2015 | 14 Tan family embarks on year-long `ed-adventure' by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff Perspective, purpose, passion and perseverance -- those are just a few things Barb Tan hopes her children will experience and embody by the time their year-long trip around the world is complete. The Oakville family is in the midst of a journey that has already taken them to the Great Wall in China, the elephant conservation in Laos and hot springs in Thailand. Over the next month, parents Barb and Clay and their two sons Caleb and Connor will be in Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef before spending a month in Nepal and most of December in India. In the new year, they'll visit Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador before returning home on July 24, 2016. In the family's blog they aptly named Tan Ed-venture, Barb explains how she hopes her children will experience other cultures during the educational adventure that will allow them to recognize how fortunate they are to live where they do and see things from a different perspective. She wants to expose them to a "variety of cultures, activities, and experiences with the hopes that they will see that they can make a difference in the world." Barb also hopes they'll become passionate about a cause and gain perseverance by struggling through hikes, volunteer projects and travel experiences. The Tan family left for a year-long trip around the world in August and are currently in Australia. Here, Barb Tan and her children Caleb (centre) and Connor hold an edition of the Oakville Beaver newspaper near the Opera House in Sydney, which they said could be submitted for the Oakville Beaver's Beaver Trails. | submitted photo On Now at The Brick! On Now at The Brick! For more details go instore or online @thebrick.com. Barb and her husband Clay are both teachers at St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School on Linbrook Road. They've taken a year sabbatical with their sons Connor, who is nine and in Grade 4, and Caleb, who is 11 and in Grade 7. In preparing for their year-long trip, the family downsized their home into a 600 sq. ft. room in their basement so they could rent out the rest of their home. It took a garage sale, three mom-and-tot sales, 18 trips to Goodwill, four trips to the dump, 12 trips to family and friends who agreed to store some of their items, 74 bags of garbage and recycling put out at the curb and 30 items sold on Kijiji, Barb describes in a blog post just before they left for China in August. The family has been posting pictures and re ections of the experiences they have had so far along the trip. They'll continue to do so over the next year to document their educational adventure as a family. More than anything, Barb writes, the trip is an opportunity for the family to spend time, learn and try new things together. She also hopes it will allow them to slow down and re ect on their lives, their priorities and the world around them. To follow the Tan family's travels, visit www. tanedventure.com. Leaky Basement? Call Us! · Crack Injection Repair Specialist · Wise Dry Interior Drain Systems · Lifetime Fully Transferrable Warranty · Sump Pump Renewal Installations Prepareforwinterweather Take care of your trees Call Us... 905-510-9739 Professional, Cost Effective Solutions for Wet wayne@wisecracks.com Basements w w w. H a l t o n Wi s e C ra c k s. co m CallStorybooktoassessyourTreesToday 905-491-6860