And now begins the time of year when expats talk of moving.
All parents apply for school places in cities where they might or might not relocate.
All schools ask parents whether they might or might not withdraw their child.
No one wants to reveal their position until the last possible moment.
It’s the musical chairs of the expat world and no one wants to end the game without a proper school chair for their child to sit in next autumn.
I am playing this game right now. I have applications submitted to schools on two separate continents. I have not told my expat child’s current school about our future plans because I myself don’t know what they are. Everyone is hedging.
In the meantime, a helpful graphic: a flowchart on how to decide which school your expat child should attend next autumn (click through for a larger, more legible version).
So, the “other continent” speaks Spanish, eh?
If only the place we might move spoke Spanish, instead if a “boutique” language, I might be more upbeat!
Minnesota?
Hahaha! No.
I’m adding this to my list of reasons not to have kids. What a total stress nightmare.
The other solution is to simply stay put and not move around all the time. Applying for schools and US taxes are the two biggest perpetual expat nightmares!
What a headache!
Indeed. And good reason to move back to a place where one’s child can simply go to the neighborhood school.
Pingback: Welche Schule in welchem Land? | Globale Familien·
This post definitely made me laugh. It reminds me of many a school decisions my parents made when I was kid. Kinda wish they had this flow chart though…. (sweet blog, btw!)
You’re too kind! And you too have quite an interesting project: helping TCKs (and first generation college bound kids) make the transition to university. Your list of TCK resources is particularly useful: http://preppedandloaded.com/resources/tck-cck-resources/
Thanks! Kinda fell into college admissions counseling after my own experiences at international schools. Both groups (the TCK and the first gen) both face cross cultural issues when they head to college for the first time. 🙂
Ah, goodness me. We are now officially starting with all this. Long way from Life Of Riley land, though – we’re down at the local school with handy language (Chinese) end of the spectrum and I promise I’ll blog about it at some stage. Then again, it’s Singapore, so maybe not that much cred.
What happens to the people who get down to “no” on the might move but end up flowing back to “stay at same school” part of the chart if they move? Should there be a “panic” part of the chart? Obviously I’m a newbie with this and I need to know. Seems like the usual backup option is “homeschool” (which might be the same thing as “panic” in many people’s books).
Yes, indeed, I did consider a homeschool path, but it seems to nightmarish to contemplate! School issues add a whole new level of potential distress to the expat gig, especially in cities with high school fees and long wait lists (probably most big international cities, right?). I wish us both luck!
Thanks! I’m reliably informed that the government will find a place for P *somewhere* and luckily the minimum standard here is quite high… hence the lack of street cred. I wasn’t sure I could do homeschooling, but the international school fees buy an awful lot of private tutoring, so…
Pingback: Juche ideology for the expat soul | Expat Lingo·
Pingback: An expat’s non-transitional spring of bliss | Expat Lingo·