When your child starts elementary school, your relationship with time changes. The long, lazy off-seasons for travel evaporate, replaced by brief, precious windows—one week here, two weeks there—wedged between school projects and sports schedules. So when summer rolled around, my husband Ross and I decided to use that freedom wisely: We’d take one big trip, something ambitious enough to feel like an adventure but structured enough that our seven-year-old son, Wilder, could thrive. We had another reason, too. Wilder had already visited five continents before turning five, and he’d made it clear that number six was calling. Australia was the obvious target. But once we started looking at flights and routing options, a plan began to take shape that was bigger, bolder, and—thanks to some strategic use of airline points—actually doable. We would start in Europe, hop to Asia, then continue south to Australia and New Zealand, encompassing four countries and three continents in just three extraordinary weeks.…