Opinions Please, On Moving Schools And Countries

[wontok]

My (Thai) wife and I and our daughter, now six, live in Australia where she has been through pre-school and a year of primary. She is happy here and doing well at school. We have made a point of visiting Thailand (Roi-et) regularly to spend time with the family and she is happy there also and speaks Thai well. We would like her to be fully bilingual and are considering moving to Thailand next year and putting her in a local primary school to develop her language and literacy, as well as stronger relationships with her extended family (we have no relatives in Australia). When we feel she has a good enough grounding in her Thai language and culture we would return to Australia for the remainder of her education, as we cannot afford private education in Thailand and are not impressed with the government system there. Our concern in that we would be making her move languages and cultures twice in just a few years and I wonder if anyone else on Thaivisa has had this experience? How do children of this age cope with the various stresses of these changes? (Better than the parents I hope!)

I have searched the forums and found a few topics that touch on this, but can only find discussion about the pros and cons of moving children who have grown up in Thailand overseas for education. Our situation is different as our daughter has grown up outside Thailand and we are considering bringing her to Thailand just for a few years primary schooling.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts

Wontok

[PeaceBlondie]

Others who have had this situation with their children, both in a Western country and in Thailand, will have more advice than I have. However, I share your concern about uprooting a school-age child twice in a couple of years. I did it more than twice, to my two eldest children. Once they got out of the house (although there was no family conflict), they never moved out of the city. Twenty-some years later, I am sure they will both die there, 50 years or more from now. My son still remembers all his addresses (about nine of them) and most of his home phone numbers. The last time I moved them out of the school district, my daughter cried for days (she was then 15, and an honor student, active in school).

However, children are usually resilient, and not all of them resent it (and maybe not so much at your daughter's age). And, you have a multi-cultural factor to consider. Maybe you should worry also about how two years or so of public school in Thailand might set your daughter's education backwards for the return to Oz.

Now I will stand aside and let the farang-Thai couples advise you. Good luck.

[thaiclan]

I agree with PeaceBlondie. Kids are resilient especially at the younger ages. My daughter is 6 and has moved UK-Thai-Singapore and is brimming with new friends and experience and language skills (English -Thai - Mandarin and the latest is French!).

However I would seriously consider your plan of enroling in a Thai public school ESPECIALLY after the Australian curriculum. The Australian curriculum is child-centred and inquiry-based, whereas what you will find in the Thai schools is rote learning, large class sizes, teacher centric and rules driven. This will be a far bigger worry for you than whether your children will integrate. Personally I dont think it is worth it and if private schooling isnt in your budget then seriously consider homeschooling groups.

Good Luck :-)

[wontok]

Thanks both for your replies. Much appreciated. We have some more thinking to do about schooling in Thailand!

W.