Home Schooling In Los

[jaideeguy]

My children 9 & 11 are presently attending a private school....decent quality run by a royal family member, but they are not going ahead with their plans for expansion as promissed in the beginning. Now we are faced with the choice of sending our kids to a local public school [last choice] or a city private school that will be an hour and a half on the bus [one way] and not too happy with that option either.

So, I asked the wife about 'home schooling', where we could possibly co-op with some other parents to hire a tutor and volunteer our own services and follow a cirriculum so they would be on par with kids of their same age. Can it be done here and are there any high school equivilency tests that woud qualify them for college entrance?? She says not.........

any input or experience appreciated.

[philo]

It is absolutely possible. There was an article in 'Bankok Post' a few years ago about a Thai boy being home schooled.

Also do a yahoogle on 'Thailand home schooling' and you can read for a week.

[PattayaParent]

There's been some other threads on TV about home schooling also so try a search.

[Niranut]

Yes, very doable. And as of a few years ago, now officially legal for Thai children to do as well. It wasn't clear from your post of your kids have Thai citizenship or not. If yes, then you just need to be sure to follow the guidelines for homeschooling. A good resource that I've found is the Thai Homeschool Association (www.thaihomeschool.org). Lots of the basics for registering and what you need to do can be found on their website (you have to scroll down a bit, as the registration requirement link is on the left toward the bottom). They also do lots of activities and such with other Thai homeschooling families.

If your kids are not Thai, then you'll need to check with your home country to confirm any requirements they may have. Normally, it's minimal if you are living overseas.

And if the kids have dual citizenship, you'll need to follow requirements for both countries, if you want them to have to option to on to higher education in either country.

In addition to working out the requirements, you'll also need to decide what type of curriculum you would like to use (classical, literature-based, unit studies, eclectic, Charlotte Mason, etc.) I'm most familiar with English-based materials, so don't know what Thai homeschoolers use, but I do know there are materials available in Thai.

And I know there are co-ops in BKK and Chiang Mai, and possibly elsewhere.

One other resource that will be helpful to get you started would be to contact the Bangkok Area Homeschool Network. The following information is from the BAMBI website (http://www.bambiweb.org/supports.php):

Bangkok Area Homeschool Network

A support network for home schooling families. Designed to provide parents with a network to discuss teaching methods, curriculums and available resources, and to give home schooled children regular contact with others, including field trips, play times and group classes / educational activities. For more information please contact Allison Coley on 08 9782 3478 or [email protected]

As for high school equivalency, for international (UK/US/Candadian/etc) homeschoolers, yes there are tests and such that can be done and homeschoolers are just as qualified as others when it comes to getting into university. However, I do not know the specifics if your kids would like to go on to a Thai program at a Thai university-- I'm sure if you contact the Thai homeschool association, they can answer that for you.

One last link that you may be interested in can be found on the Ministry of Education website and is an article on homeschooling which appeared in the Bangkok Post earlier this year-- that article is here: http://www.moe.go.th/new_site/node/18/480/...sec_detail/7807. There was also a more recent article in the BKK Post (as mentioned in PP), but I haven't seen that yet.

My oldest isn't quite 3 years old, so we haven't gotten into the actual homeschooling yet, just me researching the different options and such. Hope that helps!

[jaideeguy]

Many thanks Niranut for all the info. I will research the links you provided and maybe contact Allison Coley for some more info.

What I envision is a group of Thai/falang couples/parents getting together and sharing costs of hiring a qualified teacher as well as putting in our own efforts and expertise to provide a quality, well rounded education other than the 'factory' type of education provided by public schools [as well as some of the private schools].

I would like to not only prepare my children for college entrance, but I would like to instill in them the desire to learn [curiosity], but I know that the Thai schooling system seems to pump out uniformed robots that know how to take college entrance exams then continue on to become robots with degrees.

I am also aware of my limitations and [my own] lack of patience to be a good teacher, so therefore I would like to have an open minded Thai teacher to be the main educator.

When I get enough knowledge of the legalities and practicalities of getting this going, then i will post on my local [Chiang Mai] forum for other interested parents of like mind.

again, Thanks for the info.

[earlofwindermere]

In Chiang Mai.... Chiang Mia Home School Educators Cooperative for Kids

Contact

Melissa Sompormas [email protected] or

Vicky Layman [email protected]

[funmanager]

I am Thai-Chinese with 2 kids. The elder daughter aged 6 is a homeschooler. Can you tell me any Co-op in Nonthaburi or Bangkok?

[Niranut]

You can start by contacting Allison Coley (see contact details in my previous post). She will be able to direct you to the right people for the BKK co-ops.

Just out of curiousity, what type of teaching method are you using? Are you putting things together on your own or using a specific homeschooling curriculum?

Best of luck!

[bruceboy]

How expensive can home schooling be?

[Niranut]

How expensive can home schooling be?

I am by no means an expert, but cost will depend on a lot of factors-- what type of teaching method you're going to use, if you're going to put things together yourself or go with an already put together curriculum, if you're going to go with a comprehensive program (meaning you don't need to buy/borrow any additional books/materials), etc.

Generally, it can be done here for about $500/year at the low end, with prices going up from there for the primary school years; preschool is around $100-300/year. Another advantage is that you can use the same books/materials for other children so you wouldn't need to spend $500/year for every child, but would just need to purchase the consumable items (like workbooks and such) for any successive children. And despite the reasonable costs, your kids are getting a great eduation which will rival any international school here at a fraction of the cost. There are also many other reasons people choose to homeschool as well, of course.

For us, we're planning to start my soon-to-be 3 year old with a pre-school homeschool program later this year. We're using Sonlight (www.sonlight.com) which is one of the pricier pre-school programs at $270, but it is all-inclusive so we don't need to purchase any additional books/materials, and it includes detailed instructor's guides with day-by-day plans for what to do (for those of us who need that kind of help . Pricing goes up from there: second year of pre-school is $330, kindergarten is $800, 1st grade is $860, and so on. But again, this is just one of many, many options out there, and known to be one of the pricier ways to go.

If you're at all interested, I agree with a PP who mentioned googling "homeschool" and such. There is a wealth of information out there. And each curriculum site will have its own forum where you can learn what other people are saying. This link may also be helpful: http://www.sonlight.com/before-you-start-homeschooling.html It's a very brief overview of the pros & cons of homeschoolers for anyone just looking into things. I'd also be interested to hear from other homeschoolers here, as I'm just getting started myself!