Child Education for Liveaboard

ngatiuk

ngatiuk

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9 Mar 2006
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Ok,
After finally convincing my partner that a liveaboard in the Med is a far better option than living in the UK, the problem of education for a 9 yr old arises. We keep hearing rumours but haven't actually heard from anyone who has educated their children while living aboard. Questions such as curriculum, internet learning, how many hours aday, best learning package etc . Also as parents do we need to take any qualification towards teaching. Are their any countries were we would be unable to do this. i.e compulsary education. We don't intend to register as residents but lead a nomadic type life on the waves until the 9 yr old is in need of late secondary education.
Any input would be appreciated.

Pete
 
There was a post on here a wh!le back (early August?) by Magna Carter. I personally know 2 couples who took their kids out of "formal" education" for several years, to circumnavigate etc...Apparently the biggest probs getting back into mainstream education (primary, secondary, higher) was the culture gap ( TV, fashion, street cuture, drugs....) and having to get to grips with none 1 to 1 teaching.
Have raised 4 kids, and couldn't have envisaged it, but with 1 might be an option.
 
If as your flaggie avatar indicates you have NZ connections then perhaps try the The Correspondence School of NZ at www.correspondence.school.nz.

We used them for 2 years and found them to be very good. As far as I know though they teach only the NZ syllabus and qualifications. You don't need any teaching qualifications yourself.

They are used to teaching pupils in other countries and on itinerant world ranging cruising yachts.

John
 
Not sure if we can be of help. We left UK in '94 with our 3 children, then aged 9,8 and 5 (just). We spent 5 years as liveaboards and educated the kids ourselves. We did our own thing and made it up as we went along. We actually lived aboard for a year before we left, having withdrawn Jess and Tom from school. We didn't tell anyone official what we were doing, just kept a low profile. (Didn't want to cause any complications!) We wanted to see if we could actually teach them ourselves. Their junior school teacher was very helpful with advice - she recommended the Scottish Maths Project - we bought the entire set of text books and workbooks, to cover them upto top year junior school. After that we bought books as we went along. I would suggest you ask your son's teacher for some advice. I am sure that he/she would be very helpful.

We tended to do about 2 - 3 hours a day, but never did school while under passage - we all used to become very lethargic. It seemed to work well.

I don't think you need worry about other countries wanting to put your kid in school. We never encountered anybody official wanting us to put the kids in the local education system.

I know it is only a decade ago, but technology is so different now and I would think that Internet access would make correspondence education easy. We didn't want to tie ouselves down to having to go to places just to pick up the next batch of schoolwork.

In case you're wondering the older two had no trouble adjusting to GCSE standard work. We got back to the UK just in time for Jess to start her GCSE coursework, and Tom was a year behind her academically. They both got really good GCSEs and straight As at A Level. Jess has just graduated this year (with a First, not wishing to brag!!) and Tom is just starting his second year of a Chemistry degree. The youngest also passed all her GCSEs and is currently enrolled on a National Certificate in Horse Management.

PM me if you would like to ask any questions.
 
Many Thanks for all the replies. We have more to research now. It's reassuring to see that other people have done, what we want to do and there has been help & support for the children.
Pete
 
Hi, have just returned from a years sailing including trans-Atlantic with two kids who were seven and ten when we left. Intented to boatschool them ourselves. It turned out to be the biggest stress of the whole trip. They hated us as teachers, and wanted to return to go to school...... Not as bad as this for everyone, as we sailed with lots of other kidboats, just a hint that it may not automatically be plain schooling....
 
We are on our third season crusing the Med with a 6 year old child. Not coming from a teaching background, I wanted a home education package that gave us a daily timetable. This has worked well. I am in touch with a number of other cruising families who are home educating. Will send you a private message with more details and, if you are interested, will give you some contacts in the Med.
 
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