I walked 500kms of the Norte last year with my 10 year old daughter and 12 year old son. It changed us forever in incredible, beautiful ways.
We started our Camino walking shorter daily distances to enjoy time in the seaside towns, and to find a comfortable rhythm, which was great, but my daughter became really attached to friends we made along the way and it was hard to be left behind. In the last week we walked adult distances and we all loved this.
My son seemed to find the walking effortless, and my daughter also, though she struggled more with boredom and we needed a lot of conversation and word games to keep her going.
We agreed beforehand that loving each other was top priority, and on some of the scorching hot days (we walked in July), we caught a taxi when it became too hot for them to walk. We needed to book some accommodation because places to stay aren't as plentiful as on the Frances.
The training walks we did beforehand were so helpful, to understand what kind of pace we might make, how we like to take breaks and to test drive our gear.
Both kids would say that their biggest challenge was the loneliness they felt, missing their friends in Australia and not having many people to talk to. Next time I plan to walk the Frances, the increase in pilgrims will mean more opportunity for my kids to make friends. A lot of people we met were curious about them, but not so inclined to want to talk to them. That said, both my kids are more confident talking to adults now, my son was quite shy but now I can see him choosing to step out of that.
I hope you have an incredible journey, I'm hoping to walk from SJPdP in September myself, so who knows, we might meet you, my kids would love that!
Leanne