“Daddy, Daddy, look….. TOYS!!!!!”
Elation. Ecstasy. Euphoria. Never has a 2 year old been as excited walking into a cousin’s toy room.
Which is perfectly understandable. I mean, just look at these photos of us playing with all of those toys.
Actual photo
Cousin’s Playroom (in Jr’s eyes)
Over the next few weeks as Jr spent time with all 9 of his cousins, his world view evolved significantly.
“Daddy, I want to go home.” (to play with toys)
“Daddy, I want friends.” (to play with toys)
“Daddy, I want to go to school.” (to play with toys)
As the proverbial kid in the literal candy store, he wanted the dream summer vacation that never ends. (But of course, this being the Internet and all, somebody with poor reading comprehension will get on their soap box about how there was an absence of toys or play time with other kids prior to this point in time. That would be false.)
We were already planning on returning to Taipei to Recharge and Create. Perhaps a regular playgroup / pre-school would offer play time and socialization while also providing Mommy and Daddy with some personal time. Listening to your kids is a wonderful thing.
School
The park next to our apartment is a hot spot for neighborhood pre-schools. Laughter echoes into my new home office on sunny days as kids take over the playground.
I chatted up a few of the American and European teachers (“we teach English” is a big selling point) and Winnie read online reviews. We met with a school and viewed a classroom, but weren’t completely sure what to ask. This was uncharted territory for us. Unstructured play time? Yes. Freedom to explore? Yes. Kids and toys to play with? Also yes. We started with 3 hour days, picking him up after lunch.
Day 1: Jr woke us early, excited to go to school. “Mommy, school!” He didn’t like the lunch so the teacher fed him cake and potato chips.
Day 2: Jr says he doesn’t want to go to school. We learn that they don’t bring his particular class (kids < 3) to the park to play because it is “too difficult.” (The class has 2 teachers for 6 kids total, and the park is next door.)
Day 3: Jr screams and cries, saying he doesn’t like the teacher. I can’t identify any one thing that is off, but something feels wrong. Teacher tells us that Jr is “behind for his age” because he doesn’t respond well to authoritarian behavior. “Don’t worry, I’ll make him listen…”
We don’t go to school on Day 4, or ever again. Clinginess is at an all time high, and Jr panics if Mom isn’t in the room. He refuses to go on a bike ride or to the swimming pool with me (things he loves), just repeating “mommy, mommy, mommy.” Separation anxiety is expected for 2 year olds, but this is not normal. Bit by bit we uncover disturbing things, such as the teacher telling Jr “Your Mom won’t come pick you up if you don’t eat ALL of your lunch.” We later share concerns that only became clear in hindsight, such as kids in the class seeming excessively timid.
Montessori
For the next 3 or 4 weeks we returned to our normal routine, playing with toys at home and going to the park. Jr’s desire for socialization continues to increase; he is constantly approaching other kids at the playground, offering to share his toy cars and asking if they want to play together. He is very much an extrovert.
Winnie arranged regular play dates with her friends, who all have children around a similar age. This is a big hit.
We met with the staff at the nearby Montessori school and discussed the previous school experience. The Montessori Method sounds perfect.
It is a view of the child as one who is naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. It is an approach that values the human spirit and the development of the whole child—physical, social, emotional, cognitive.
Jr’s new teacher proposed a transition plan, where we began with just 1 or 2 hours per day with Mom in the class room. Slowly we increased time in class / reduce the time Mom is present, now to zero. He has yet to stay beyond 4 hours, but we will start nap time at school this week.
Jr is once again excited to go to school in the morning, has no apparent separation anxiety, and loves his teachers and fellow students.
They play at the park, swim, go on field trips, help with food prep and clean up, and play/create/learn, as shown in the following photos. (I’ve only shown his solo activities for the sake of others’ privacy… and also, I don’t pay those other kids for their modeling work.)
Buttons
Painting
Field Trip to Taiwan’s “White House”
Making cookies
So excited
$$$
How much does Montessori school cost in Taipei? We just paid for an entire semester of full days, which go from 8 am to 4 pm. This includes lunch and 2 snacks per day, plus a field trip every 3 weeks.
Total cost: 123,178 TWD (~ $4,175 USD)
Half days cost 15% less
That is roughly $1,000 per month… or about the cost of many State Universities in the US. And there is a waiting list…
Our Future
What does this mean for our future? Will Jr be following the mainstream K-12 public school path? Is the world travel dream dead? Is Taiwan our forever home?
Dunno.
We have been cross examining the question of home school or not home school since before Jr was born, and fortunately it isn’t a binary thing. We definitely view education as coming primarily from home and being self directed, so the Montessori style is a nice balance. We also continue to read books together, sing the Alphabet song, color & paint, etc…
Travel and education actually go really well together, as demonstrated by this lesson in colors in Split, Croatia.
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BXYC9oKhIPR/ hidecaption=true width=320]
We are sorting through travel ideas for school breaks. We’ll have 2 weeks during Chinese New Year (just booked flights to Vietnam) and a 3 month summer vacay. Summer is super hawt and humid in Taiwan, so we would like to be elsewhere. This will probably include visiting friends and family in the US, as well as a bit of adventure somewhere else (still have to pass the PPT.)
This does come with a cost, as for the first time in our 5+ years of travel to date we would have the additional expense of a home base. Fortunately, we planned for that from the beginning.
Neither of us believes that Taipei is our long term home, but it is a nice place to live. Future destinations: unknown.
Final Thoughts
After a couple whirlwind years (Jr has already been to 28 countries, a few multiple times) Jr has expressed a desire to spend more time with other kids. OK, let’s do that.
Spending 24 hours a day with your parents is a wonderful thing (when you’re a toddler…), but then again so is spending 20 hours together. And maybe even a little better, since Mom and Dad get to do a little adulting.
The transition to normalcy involved a rough couple of weeks, no doubt. We definitely learned a great deal about our expectations and intentions through the process, and I am absolutely grateful we didn’t need to balance jobs while finding a healthy solution.
Everybody is feeling pretty good about where we ended up. Jr happily goes off to school each morning, and excitedly tells us about his day. And adulting is going great.
Although… maybe things are going a little too smoothly around here. Last evening, Jr told me:
“Daddy, tomorrow we go ride an airplane, OK?”
Kids…. gotta love ’em.
Great! Love the story and lovely pix! Reminds me of when our daughter was little. She also sarted Montessori at 2.5 yo, through 2nd grade. The educational puzzle is complex and the ever evolving scenarios will keep you on your toes :-). As you’ve already seen, it’s all about the teacher. We were always searching for optimum situations also-so many choices. We also did a year w her in San Miguel de Allende Mexico (I think u met my friend there…Diana?). One recommendation, check into and buy Singapore Math books/workbooks-best worldwide math. So great to start them learning this from the get-go. So nice you’re able to relish this time-magical! Blessings!
Diana and Mara? They are super sweet. Hopefully we can get back to SMA one of these years
Complex is the right word, I think. So many variables. I’ll check out the math books, thanks for the recommendation!
Yes D & M. SMA also had a similar school to Montessori out in the campo that friends really liked. Their kids learned Spanish quickly and lots of lovely outdoor and creative activities.
I believe SMA also has an International school now…. could be an interesting option for us in the future.
Mara and my daughter attended it- Academia Internacional. I believe it’s had its struggles since (possibly not in existence anymore?) and possibly moved from calle Stirling Dickinson. They were seeking an IB (International Baccelorate) certification, at that time. There’s also Victoria Robbins school (across street from Via Organically) which lots of expats attend. High School is done through a Texas distance program, I believe. What I’ve learned…no school is perfect.
It sounds like you found the right school for Jr after some trials and tribulations (what on earth is wrong with that first teacher!). I have three kids myself and they enjoyed play school. It’s good for them to meet other kids and learn how to “negotiate” and “share” – important life skills :) It also does no harm for the parents to get some adult time ;)
Good luck for your new life in Taipei and all the best for 2018!
In part this is a cultural thing, teachers instruct kids obey. Jr obviously wasn’t a fan.
I have to say the adult time has been fabulous, so we are all pretty happy with how things are going.
Best for 2018 to you too!
It was interesting to read this entry juxtaposed with the one before it about the physical presence test, since education (specifically, education outside the norm) is also governed by where your place of residence is determined to be. I remember reading somewhere about a family that had traveled around the world (sailing, I believe) who had talked to a home-schooling advocate lawyer who told them that if they were engaged in a PT-style lifestyle, they would be governed by the home-school requirements of wherever they happened to be at the moment. Different countries have different approaches to home schooling, but I would have to assume that most of them could be placated by some official document from the “home” school district. But this requires there to be a home school district to begin with…
I suppose we could create our own school with official looking documentation.
It’s really great to read this posts.
Transitions are never easy, and we all should know this.
However you are an example dealing with that.
Keep it up and good luck for 2018!
Yeah, all change is difficult. Throw a toddler into the mix and all bets are off
Good luck in 2018 to you too!
If only it were easy to raise kids… haha. We just spent three amazing weeks together with our kids in South America, but our youngest (who’s super social) was more than ready to come back to school. He definitely needs routine and structure to go along with his travel. We “home schooled” them while there (their teachers sent enough homework to load a suitcase) and that went pretty well, but I think if we did that all the time my youngest would go nutty. One thing I’ve learned is that we take it one year at a time and then make changes as we need to. That seems to be working so far…
They should come with an instruction manual, or something.
What do you think about traveling with your 3 kids versus just 1? Is it easier / better for them to have each other while away from home? Did your youngest benefit from having the older siblings or he just wanted to get back to his friends?
Thanks!
Speaking of manuals, I like to hang out with your Mom after school while we let the kids play. She always has so many gems regarding parenting. I have a daughter and a son so it is super nice to hear her anecdotes on raising kids and now grandkids!
It’s just two, because when the second one was 18 months old he screamed all night on a Atlanta-Santiago flight and we figured out there was no way we could do it with three! It is MUCH easier to travel with two than one. They entertain each other, read to each other, play with each other. My youngest totally relied on his older brother to entertain him, and if he didn’t have him, he would have been much more bored. So I am a big fan of traveling with multiple kids. :)
At this point, it seems like you’ve established a bonafide residency in Taiwan.
Maybe you no longer need to rely on the hard PPT. “Bonafide residency” seems more flexible than the PPT. Thoughts?
We could probably do that for 2018, although I think the PPT is easier. There was a good discussion on this in the comments on the PPT post, here.
Really excited that you guys have had the opportunity to do as much as you’ve done! Hopefully you’ll find the right balance at this stage of life. We’ve got 4 year old twins, and miss our pre-kid days where we could plan more exotic overseas trips on a whim. Now it feels we’re locked into another 18 years — but only as a trade off for our travel wants. We certainly don’t feel locked in with respect to the added meaning, purpose, and joy having kids brings us. It is still tiring most days though. :-)
If nothing else, Jeremy, avoid Minneapolis winters. This one has been a doozy. I’d prefer Taiwan hawt right about now!
A big part of our major round the world juants the last 2 years is because we figured we would want/need to slow down by age 3 or 4. We are at 2 3/4 now so that seems about right. Things ebb and flow, so best to just go with it.
Yeah, MSP in winter is not my thing. Snow and cold is one of the bigger reasons I had to leave. We were there for Xmas in 2012 and got some nice pics though.
I couldn’t handle that many hours a day with my kids personally, i’d need more adult thinking time. Sounds like you found the right school for Jr. which is extremely important at this age. The challenge is to find the right balance in time there vs at home. My wife stays at home with our younger son. Today he goes to preschool 2 days a week for 3hrs. It’s always a question of whether to increase to three.
Haha, some days it feels like too much. Today was the first day of 9:30 – 3:30, and that was pretty nice. We picked him up just after the post-nap snack and he was happy and ready to play.
It’s great to read how you guys are empowered and able to design your family’s life the way you like as you go – or on the go. This is the ultimate freedom and fruit of financial independence! Happy for you guys and enjoy Taipei, it’s a truly great City!!! Matt
Thanks Matt! Let me know when you are next in town
Happy new year
Oh no! I remember Jr was so sweet and exploratory when we met in New York; I can’t imagine someone seeing that and wanting to crush it so he listens better to authoritarian teaching. :( I’m really glad you found another school that’s a better fit!
Right? He is such a go getter and natural explorer, and the Montessori school seems to be encouraging that
Aw poor little man with the first school! We are huge Montessori fans and actually my youngest went to 4 different ones in two countries / four states (including when we were taking 2 years Off from work to stay with him at home and have our second child – mini reverse retirement) as we moved around during the first few years of their lives. What I liked about Montessori is the method was the same (it is not that regulated so you have to be sure your school actually does follow the method or one that you like at least) so it was easier to transition. We have since moved to regular public school and adapted well, gives them some stability and allows us to travel during work break. If I was retired traveling during summer and other school breaks would be enough for me plus a couple other trips.
With that we are planning on worldschooing them in 4 years or so as we take one year to travel with them. I know people that do this full time and are able to enroll kids by the semester (or less) at local international schools and then do a mix of home(world) schooling and regular school.
I myself traveled the world while self teaching myself high school and was still able to go to an American university so it is possible to craft the travel and education life you want, having an ice balance of both travel and stability in one place at different phases!
Thanks for sharing your experience, that is super refreshing. My 2 oldest nieces went to Montessori though grade 6 or 8, and they loved it and seem to be ahead of the normal school kids of the same age as far as math and reading go. It seems to work.
I’d love to learn more about your self teaching high school! How did you do that?
Ahh good old authoritarian teaching. I remember that style all too well growing up in China. The plus side is that you get a very high pain threshold from all the ruler beatings.
Glad the Montessori school is working out! I’m curious to see what you guys decided to do with travel + schooling in the future. Do I hear a vote for worldschooling? :P
Authoritarian teaching is also very common in the mainland China. I grew up there, and went through the schools there. The system made kids to obey the orders, right or wrong. A good student was a quiet one, following the orders without asking why. In the classrooms, not much group discussion was going on, and mainly the teacher was talking. The teacher was the king. This made it hard for each kid to develop his/her own identity. After coming to America, I realized how different the school system is here. Each system has its pros and cons, but I like the American style much better.
I like the American style better as well. I think it produces better critical thinking skills
Winnie likes to say that the only reason she survived the school system was because she was a bad student :)
I love reading your story! It makes me chuckle a little because I regularly use your blog to try to tempt my kids to let me homeschool them and travel the world. I am retired at 39 and my kids are 11 and 7. They both love School for the extra curricular activities and the music programs. Our school has better music programs like show choir and band then neighboring schools so they won’t let us move either. They don’t want to attend an alternate school or be home schooled because they love sports, clubs, concerts, etc. so we travel on every break instead and live on a boat over the summers. It’s still fun and they enjoy the stability at this point. Enjoy this part of your life! The kids get the front seat for awhile and I find that to be a wonderful experience, too.
We knew this day was coming (eventually) which is part of the reason we were so go go go that last 2 years.
That sounds like an awesome school system!
I was in traditional school but also a professional athlete and by that time I was traveling 8 months of the year so m school told me to find an alternative lol. I checked out the open school system in Mexico – basically for highschool you have to pass 33 classes, you can buy the books and study on your own or find tutors (I asked people and coaches that traveled with me to help and found libraries on the road and or spend a few weeks at home with intensive tutors for the ones I was confused about (crazy math for example) and did on my own the other ones (history, philosophy etc). It was just a matter of being home for asking the tests and when the time came I took the SAT and TOEFL and got myself an (Athletic) scholarship to college in the USA. It was interesting to go back to school in another language and country lol. Still graduated with honors and then moved on to do my MA in a different country years later, so it is all possible with a little creativity and interest :).
As you can see this is why you are the blogger I can relate most to as I want to be nomadic later BUT for now we do a mix of stability vs move around. When I was little I moved so much (every 4 years) and then I traveled so much, it had its pros and cons. I would not trade the experiene but I do like to give my kids chunks of time to have a group of stable friends now that they are a bit older mixing it up with crazy adventures (like our upcoming RTW travel) and then hopefully we can retire nomadic as they enter college. As I said before, we already took 2 years off when they were little / born – so we mix and match.
Montessori is a great school system. I highly recommend it (no children of my own, but I’ve heard so many great thing about from my best friend who are stay home parents, and from my co-worker). The learning is is natural, the kids learn things and they didn’t even know they were doing it. :)
One thing to note though, my co-workers daughters, once they started grade school grade 3 and 5 at public school, their reading comprehension was ahead of their peers, but their math skills seems behind. (both parents are have doctoral degrees and worked with them on homework and stuff). And they weren’t used to the “schedule” at public school. It took them a year to catch up on mathematics level that are teaching at public school.
$10K is still cheaper than Montessori school here in the States – $12K in my State. I wouldn’t sweat about it :). If your priority is to have him learning in English, and let him learn Chinese through immersion? LOL :)
It’s hilarious when people say your child is “behind” when he’s only 2 years old. What can a 2 years old do do to impress these people? haha. Your son is way ahead of his pier when he can speak in full sentences. He can express his feelings about the teachers and school. You’re great parents for recognizing the abuse from the school.
Are you guys considering living on the sailboat and homeschooling your kid at some point?
I would be all over living on a sailboat. Winnie… less so.
The Montessori school here is all in Chinese, and there is a native English speaker who reads stories once per week, I believe. Yeah, I’m on the same page with that behind comment. He wants to play not stand in line.
oh ps. minus the expense, how cool is this? I think we will see more and more of these things soon and we can creatively DYI something similar if kids have interest and skill https://thinkglobalschool.org/
you never know kids are so different. Mine are the pollar opposite at 6 and 8 and who knows if they will even want to go to college (I will push for it but, hey, life just happens and it will be their life so we shall see…).
Enjoy the now, you will have plenty of choices and may even find yourself surprised to not want to move for a while and then all of a sudden go crazy nomadic again. Flow I say (says the control freak that plans things 20 years in advance haha) :).
Wow on the cost!
We are happy to be in one place, so this all melds well together. After 2 years of go go go, we are happy to be no go curry cracker for awhile.
So glad you found Montessori! My kids went from 2 1/2 through 5th or 6th grade. I would have kept them in longer if it was offered (it is available in some places thru high school). When they transitioned to public school they were both WAY ahead in all areas…math, english, reading, history, teamwork, critical thinking. And here’s the really cool thing about Montessori…your kiddo can go to any Montessori in the world and pick right up where they left off at the last one. So you’ve set yourself up to be able to travel with junior albeit perhaps in a slower way i.e. several months per location.
What? 4 thousand dollar per semester? GOOOSH I’m so glad I don’t live in Taipei or USA !!!
What would it cost in your neck of the woods?
Fellow Montessori schooler here. I absolutely LOVED it. I’m so glad my Mom sent me there. If I ever had kids that wanted to go to school I’d send them to Montessori in a heartbeat. My partner (and all his siblings) were actually homeschooled. We like to compare notes :). Good luck in your family’s new adventure!
Apparently I went two different preschools because I was terrified with the first one. So it’s not uncommon at all. We are lucky that Baby T1.0 loved his preschool. We started him last year with 2 half days (9-1). This year he’s in 2 full days (9-3) and 1 half day. We did look at a Montessori school before but the school is far from where we live and wouldn’t work for us considering that we only have one car.
I believe many preschools are putting too much emphasis on “learning” and “getting ready for school.” These are little kids still, let them play and learn things through playing!
I love the pictures from school! Jr. is definitely earning his modeling dollars.
I think he is due a raise.
Mrs. V and I are definitely leaning towards wanting a Montessori-type school for Baby V. The values we’re hoping she picks are are all the same ones Montessori emphasizes: Discovery, choice, freedom. It’s definitely pricy, though. gathering all the info for The Earth Awaits has made it painfully clear just how expensive “Western style” education is in even the cheapest of destinations, but like you, we’ll figure it out. I’m really looking forward to seeing how things work out for your son– we take a lot of inspiration from you guys and this is a big unknown for us.
I’ll do my best to make all of the mistakes so I can tell you what not to do :)
It seems like you’re figuring it out pretty well though Mr. Gcc. We had to go through a couple different places before we found one we liked for our boys.
The biggest problem with these places is the waiting lists… once you sign up and get a ‘spot’ you just can’t pick up and leave for a couple months and expect to come back. Nope! Unless you keep paying every month you lose your ‘spot’ and are back to the end of the line.
We left for a month this year, but it felt super ridiculous paying for a service I didn’t receive. Very high levels of B$ going on at these places.
We are facing a similar challenge. We plan to leave Taiwan for summer, but potentially return a month after school starts. Do we have to pay for that first month anyway?… TBD
Both my hubs and I homeschooled (3 of our 4 kids) while working outside the home. The youngest does sometimes ask for school (he’s 14 yrs old now). We’ve been able to compensate for his desire to meet friends by kid driven activities and long term spring break, summer camps, after school programs (who says you have to be in traditional schools to participate in the most fun part of the day which happens at after-school programs). We also used Kumon for a small class feel and the kids thrived. Not going traditionally to school has saved my our family tons on college cost by allowing us to do dual enrollment for high school with college so our younger kids actually gain their degrees at around 17 yrs old. Then they move on to explore whatever they want with a gap year. It’s been an amazing experience that I wish I could’ve done with my oldest, although he says he preferred the traditional road to school.
Very similar experience to that of my brother when he and his family lived in India. The entire system was much more authoritarian than we in the USA are used to. Their dream of all 7 kids being immediately steeped in local culture ended with enrollment at the American School. The lesson was that sometimes diving right into the deep end of the pool is not as helpful as wading in a bit at a time.
I went through Montessori when I was a child. It’s a great system that allows kids to learn to think and move at their own pace. I taught my kids when they were young with Montessori materials as we didn’t have a great local school. Have you read the Well Trained Mind? I highly recommend it and classical education. Now that we have so many online resources homeschooling seems to be a great choice. Home schooling does not mean the parent have to teach it just means you are at home learning!
I’ve just added it to my reading list, thanks!
So true… There’s a difference in how you treat anyone, kids included, and how they react and respect you back! Love Montessori type schools! You’re basically paying full daycare rates for not full time hours if its’ only 9:30-3:30, but it seems awesome. Really feel for the changes in the little guy – he knows what’s what!
Would just like to congratulate you and your wife for being attuned to your son. That your son didn’t have to go through a lot of misery because you folks had your antennae up is a testament to being great parents.
Thanks Mike. Some days we wonder
I keep asking my older kids if they want to be homeschooled so we can travel more during the off-season when it’s nicer in so many places (we hate the heat!). So far no takers :) I think the homeschooling works better when you have committed kids and committed adults and I’m not sure we have either of those in our household.
Fortunately regular public school is working well. And it’s free. And convenient. It kind of puts a damper on travel plans but we’re racking up the passport stamps in spite of staying in one place 9+ months per year. We’ve also discovered the art of “educational absence request forms” where you tell the school your vacation is somehow educational. I even got a cruise to the Caribbean approved as an educational absence (LOL @ that one :) ).
Here looks like ~$A10,000 per year = ~$45 per day (48 weeks x 5 days) less government assistance per day of $45 where family taxable income $154,697. Net $0 to $5,280 per year? Probably application and other special fees. Kids have fruit orchard, veggie patch, garden beds and laying hens in play area.
Post garbled by less and greater characters? ‘Here looks like ~$A10,000 per year = ~$45 per day (48 weeks x 5 days?) less government assistance per day of $45 where family taxable income is less than $44,457, sliding to $23 where family taxable income is greater than $154,697. Net $0 to $5,280 per year? Probably application and other special fees. Kids have fruit orchard, veggie patch, garden beds and laying hens in play area.’
Australian Government Family Child Care Subsidy Estimator:
https://www.education.gov.au/sites/education/files/chcare/est/index.html
The mini farm play area sounds wonderful.
The US has 2 credits for assistance, somewhat. The Child Tax Credit is just a $1,000 annual credit per kid for families, subject to income limits (110k or so.) This was bumped to $2k with TCJA and income limits ~tripled.
There is also a Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit which refunds 20% +/- of amount spent on childcare if all parents have earned income. It’s only on $3k/year per child if I remember correctly so not huge but more than zero
The Australian public through their Government has gone to great trouble and expense to help parents with child raising expenses – requiring an ‘expert system’ to calculate it all ( https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/enablers/online-estimators ). The biggies are Family Tax Benefit parts A + B, which, despite being called a tax benefit, are direct payments to parents; a maximum of $6,938.65 for each child + $4,412.65 for each family per year.
GCC edit: I had to restore the website db and this comment was lost. Added it back.
Sounds a bit like the EITC.
The Montessori school sounds like a better fit. I can see the authoritarian style. That’s how they operate in Asia. It’s easier for the teachers.
We had a difficult transition when our kid started preschool too. He cried for a week and got kicked out of his first preschool. It’s not an easy transition. Luckily, we found a different preschool about 3 months later and he enjoyed that one. Anyway, he is in 1st grade now and life is much easier for me. Public school is good in our area, but we pay for it through high taxes.
Curious! Noticed from the picture of GCC Jr. painting that he might be a southpaw. Does he have problems writing Chinese characters? I ask because that was the justification for switching me from left handed to right handed when I was small.
He switch hits with most things but he definitely prefers his left hand.
He is mostly at the scribbling and drawing phase, so no characters yet. From what I see with “the kids these days” it seems similar to cursive writing in the US… once people get smartphones and laptops they don’t use it anymore. With no checks, Apple Pay, and PIN based credit card transactions, I can’t even remember the last time I picked up a pen.
I am not a fan of authoritarian teaching but it does work with some kids. My middle one needed that kind of teaching while my two others would have reacted the same as your son. Sounds like you made the right choice for your son.
Just picturing my own siblings, I think only one of us would have been OK with a dictator teacher (I still remember being required to stand in the corner a lot since I didn’t listen…)
What a timely post! We have a 3.5 y/o girl and we are about to transition out of mini retirement into “regular people” lifestyle. This week she started a one hr 2x week class. She was excited to go but watching her, she is not participating in the activities. The teacher said to give her time to get used to it. Previously, she’s been going 1 hr/week to a mostly play time class. It took her about 3 sessions to overcome the separation. She still goes to the play time class. This new one is more formal. When she turns 4 we’re thinking at least 3 half days per week.
The bottom line is it is best to listen to the kids and let them direct the activities within reason of course. Especially at juniors age.
We have three kids (6, 4 and 3). We use a low cost of living Midwest USA town as our base. Lots of families and cousins and what not. So, a good stable home for small kids.
But, last year we spent 2 months of the winter in Mexico. This year, with the oldest in kindergarten, we ran into the big bureaucratic school system with all its rules. The big one being if you miss more than 19 days of school you get referred to the juvenile court system! I can see what they were attempting with people who just don’t send their kids to school, but jeez – no exceptions.
Anyway, we picked a part of the calendar with 5 weeks off and only 12 school days missed. We’ll spend it in Merida, MX with a tutor/nanny and take them to museums, etcetera. My six year old son is very excited about the museum dedicated to the asteroid that hit the Yucatan and killed all the dinosaurs. All his kindergarten friends are excited to get pictures of it sent to them while we are gone!
Also, we strongly believe being bi-lingual in English and Spanish is an useful asset – both parents are also bi-lingual. We always involve them in the planning and logistics of the trip as well. According to the kindergarten teacher this has our son as a recognized leader to discuss anything new the class is going to do as he is the only one (or one of the few) who has been on a plane (many times), done international travel, the beach, all the parks, museums, etcetera. You pick up lots of practical info when choosing where to go, deciding when to go, making a priority list of things you want to see, considering your sibling’s desires about where to visit, looking at maps of new cities, walking a new place for the first time, etcetera.
Anyway, I feel confident the traveling is creating many useful life experiences that encourage an open mind about the expansive possibilities of life, the wide variety of human culture, creative thinking and problem solving. Also, they are all bi-lingual.
We deal with the school system but take maximum liberties. I think it is a good mix. We’ll adjust as needed as they grow. Possibly we could take a full year in a new place to add a third language.
Good luck to you, it will be a great experience for your child.
That’s good that you took Jr out of the first school, it didn’t sound like a good fit at all!
It’s good that Jr can learn Mandarin in Taiwan.
I can’t believe Jr has been to 28 countries, that is so impressive! So far for our baby it’s going to be 2 lol.
28 is more than a lot of people in their lifetimes!
I wouldn’t be able to do home schooling, it sounds like a lot of work.
Though my colleague did take his elementary school kids out of school for six months to travel asia and it worked out really well for them, but they are older school age children.
Your ‘right for right now’ is exactly the way to approach it. It’s going to be impossible to map out Jr’s education in advance, without knowing where you’ll be, and what sort of personality he will be at 6… 10… 14…
Because of expat job moves, my oldest has been to 11 different schools across 3 countries; 4 years of that was in a language he didn’t speak at the beginning. He’s now 18 in the US (we’re not American) and it’s all worked out fine – he has had a happy childhood, is an extrovert social type with good friends, and is currently choosing which of several excellent college/ scholarship offers to accept.
You’re both extremely caring and observant parents. Jr will do just great however this plays out.
Thank you, Lou. I appreciate that.
We’re already thinking about school even though baby girl just turned two. I like the idea of homeschooling but am not set on any one thing for all her schooling years. I want to see what works at each stage for this particular kid we have. I wouldn’t be surprised if she asks to go to school like your son. She’s incredibly social, sometimes more than my husband and I can keep up with :)
Same :)
We’ll do what seems right, which will change over time. Flexibility and listening to your kid are key.
Love this! I am curious to see where you guys end up in terms of schooling for Jr. My husband and I only recently learned about the possibilities of a FIRE lifestyle after having twins, when I feel like most FIRE folks retire pre-kids. We also presumed we would just do public school for our kids because we did not know any better and both of us grew up like that. However, an expat relocation allows us to send our kids to a private international Montessori school and now I feel like we cannot send our kids public! But that sort of postpones our plans to FIRE anytime soon as private schools are equivalent to private college tuitions…. Ideally, we would send our twins to a private school up through middle school, if not all through high school, but I feel like kids gaining that self-confidence, drive and motivation early on will help prepare them to better handle public school at a later age vs 100% public school vs public first-private later. I am sure some people will debate, but every kid is different and will have different needs. After seeing how awesome the boys current private school is versus the great public school education I grew up with, there is a huge difference and now I am wondering if we can fund private school and still retire early… Not so confident on the latter bit anymore.
I have a friend who used a program called “Unschooling” – a form of home school combined with Montessori plus it’s own methods. It worked well for them as they also traveled and moved around a lot. From your writing, your parenting/schooling concerns seem to match with this family’s and their kids thrived under the “Unschooling” method.
Thanks for the idea. We have met a few people going this route.