A BLOGGER mum has gone viral on Facebook with a post exploring the idea of children learning valuable life lessons despite not being at school.

Gemma Hartley, who runs a family-friendly travel website in Baxenden, posted on her Facebook page Gemma and George about how children were learning things such as how to cook meals and bird-spotting.

The English teacher’s post has reached over two million people around the world.

Gemma, who spent her maternity leave travelling the world with fiance Nathan Thorowgood, is trying to balance working from home and looking after a 17-month-old toddler.

She said: “I think people really related to the optimism of the post and that’s why it went viral.

“With millions of children missing out on school-based education, it’s natural to worry that your child will fall behind with their learning.

“But perhaps with this quality time spent at home with parents, siblings or grandparents, children have the opportunity to learn other skills and qualities.

“We’re all trying to balance full-time parenting with work or running a house, or caring for friends and family, and we need to try to find the positives to focus on to keep us going.”

The first-time mum set up her website Gemma and George after several people asked her for advice about travelling with a baby.

When George was 12 weeks old, the new family visited Vietnam for a wedding, and got the travelling bug.

They then spent nine months travelling in Singapore, Dubai, America, and then a month-long road trip around Europe. In total they visited over 18 countries, and even converted a Ford Transit into campervan and drove to Switzerland.

Since returning to work as a teacher in September, she has blogged about her parenting journey and found companionship and support through social media from other mothers across the UK.

She said: “Initially I was petrified about travelling with George, but I found it easier than I had anticipated.

“Nathan and I decided we would never have this time again and talked about the places we would love to visit and then tried to get there.

“But since returning to work, and now with Covid-19 shutting down the travel industry, I have been sharing my experience of being a working mum and I’ve found it really therapeutic.”

Visit www.gemmaandgeorge.com or join the motherhood journey on facebook @gemmaandgeorge.