My daughter and I currently live in a big city outside the US, so I'll give some background first before getting to my question.
The general environment for students here is very competitive. It's common for people to have their 3 year old groomed and trained for kindergarten interviews because of the competition. This scenario happens again prior to primary school (grade 1) and secondary school (grade 7).
Besides this, there are schools with different mediums of instruction-- English, Mandarin, and another Chinese dialect; and local and international schools. Local schools are more traditional with a lot of homework and rote memorization. Int'l schools tend to allow more creativity, with the ultimate aim of entering university abroad.
Besides this, there are hardly any outdoor areas or nature in the city, and most kids are enrolled in all sorts of activities or after school tutoring. There's no such thing as just going outside to play since everyone live in tall buildings.
If we stayed in the city, I would have aimed for my dd to attend the only Montessori school here.
I recently visited a small island about 25 minutes by boat away. Very laid back, lots of nature, and small-knit community. No cars, so the air is clean. There's only 3 schools on the island-- 1 waldorf kindy, 1 local kindy, and 1 local public primary school. The primary mode of instruction in the Waldorf kindy is English, and the latter two the local chinese dialect. There's a good number of expats living on this island so the schools do have non-local kids attending.
I really like the general feel of this island away from the city and am seriously considering moving there next year. In this case I would send my kids to the schools on-island instead of commuting by ferry then bus every day.
This school issue is the main thing that is keeping me from moving. Also that my dd probably won't be able to learn Mandarin as well there as she would in a strong Mandarin school that are only found in the city. How much does attending an elite school and having lots of after school activities really matter?
The general environment for students here is very competitive. It's common for people to have their 3 year old groomed and trained for kindergarten interviews because of the competition. This scenario happens again prior to primary school (grade 1) and secondary school (grade 7).
Besides this, there are schools with different mediums of instruction-- English, Mandarin, and another Chinese dialect; and local and international schools. Local schools are more traditional with a lot of homework and rote memorization. Int'l schools tend to allow more creativity, with the ultimate aim of entering university abroad.
Besides this, there are hardly any outdoor areas or nature in the city, and most kids are enrolled in all sorts of activities or after school tutoring. There's no such thing as just going outside to play since everyone live in tall buildings.
If we stayed in the city, I would have aimed for my dd to attend the only Montessori school here.
I recently visited a small island about 25 minutes by boat away. Very laid back, lots of nature, and small-knit community. No cars, so the air is clean. There's only 3 schools on the island-- 1 waldorf kindy, 1 local kindy, and 1 local public primary school. The primary mode of instruction in the Waldorf kindy is English, and the latter two the local chinese dialect. There's a good number of expats living on this island so the schools do have non-local kids attending.
I really like the general feel of this island away from the city and am seriously considering moving there next year. In this case I would send my kids to the schools on-island instead of commuting by ferry then bus every day.
This school issue is the main thing that is keeping me from moving. Also that my dd probably won't be able to learn Mandarin as well there as she would in a strong Mandarin school that are only found in the city. How much does attending an elite school and having lots of after school activities really matter?