HartleyHare

The comment above is totally uncalled for and serves no purpose for the OP. I really don't see why once again you feel need to take a personal dig at me. This time my (our) parenting skills are being questioned. I still haven't forgotten the tirade of abuse I got for wanting a walkable town for which the moderators pulled you up on.

The OP has asked for an opinion and I have given mine based upon facts and of our own personal circumstances. The OP can do what she likes with that information and come to her own informed decision.

Pulaski

Sorry, you are correct. So far as possible I have removed my discussion of the use of AC in California from my posts on this thread.

Sally Redux

At one time Pulaski was on me like a ton of bricks if I said anything negative about coming here

Pulaski

You think I've let up? Dämn, I must be going soft. Though in fairness my issue is that you never say anything positive about the US; you're even worse than my mother.

kodokan

In fairness to the naysayers, I think if people have just done a mainstream, normal school route for their child - starts at local primary/ elementary, moves up with year on year with age cohort, goes on to the default option local secondary/ jr high/ high school, etc, it can be hard to understand how much education is universal and transferable, and how skills, knowledge and experience are quite separate from exams, and how little it matters overall whether Johnny learns something aged 12 or 14 or 16.

My son is 14, and so far his education has consisted of:

- started in the UK aged 4. Did Reception in School A, Years 1 and 2 in School B, the first two terms of Year 3 in School C. These were all very straightforward moves, because what they learn at that age is highly interchangeable across schools. Sure, he may have missed the term they did Egyptians, but he did a nice module on Romans instead, it doesn't really matter in the long run; anything 6 yr olds learn about Ancient Egypt will be picked up by osmosis before adulthood.

- moved to Switzerland aged 8, and entered a French-speaking school. His English education transferred brilliantly here, because of their later start. He could read fluently, write small essays and stories when the others were learning how to do capital letters, and was about 6-12 months ahead in maths. Of course, he didn't know a speck of French, so that gave him something to work on

- now aged 11, we found out we're moving to the US. I pull him out of his Swiss school to use the time to educate him in a US curriculum, to transition him between educational systems. For 8 months whilst all the visas are put in place, and we move over, and wait for our furniture, and finally move into a permanent rental and place him in a school, he is homeschooled. On paper, this is a BIG change - he hasn't written anything in English for over three years (or French, oddly, as the system there is grammar drill worksheets rather than blank paper creativity). He knows nothing about US history, or fractions, or many of the science topics his US peers have covered, just due to those weird timing quirks of 'just finished levers, going onto the anatomy of a worm and electricity next term'. Still, it all went fine - we did some workbooks, watched some documentaries, talked a lot. It's quite easy to tutor one biddable child at exactly his pace when you're not taking time out for crowd control, repetition, social messages, spirit week, etc, and 3 years' learning was fairly effortlessly covered in the 8 months.

He's just finished 8th grade, very successfully. He's actually a bit ahead of his peers going into 9th grade - not only is he in the accelerated tracks for math/ science like quite a lot of other kids, doing 10th rather than 9th grade classes for these subjects, he's also been placed in French 2 so has gained a 'free' year in language credits. So no harm done so far.

As to the future... honestly, I wouldn't see a big problem academically taking him back to the UK at 15, if we had to. He's still been learning to read critically, write essays using correct punctuation and grammar and logical thought, will have covered off the sort of science basics taught universally to this age such plant reproduction, magnets, messing around with Van der Graaf generators; has done typical world history things like Greeks and Romans, WW2 and the C20th; knows about tectonic plates and continental drift. He'll be ahead in Algebra and Geometry, but might need to take a few lessons in Trig; he would have to read whichever novels were the set ones in English (but would have the literary analysis skills in place), he would have to study whichever periods of history the GCSE covered (but would apply his previously-learned compare/ contrast/ construct essay skills to them).

So it's not like GCSEs are a 3 year course that if you miss the first year or two, you have to start at the beginning and work all the way through, and it HAS to take 3 years. Mostly, it'll be a question of gap filling some specific pieces of knowledge but applying all your existing study skills, making up a few key pieces of coursework if applicable, and taking the exam. I think it would be harder coming UK to US, and trying to get the US high school to accept that the courses you'd completed in the UK were equivalent and should be worthy of credit. Here, you really DO have to do the 4 years of History/ Social Studies classes to pass. There, as long as you prove you know the material by passing the exam, no one cares whether you've been studying History for 3 years or 6 months.

So, a long way of saying to the OP, nah, don't worry about it even if it does come to pass! At least academically, that is - there might be stormy waters about moving a 15 year old away from his/ her friends and expecting them to form new social networks from scratch at that age.

HartleyHare

One point that I would agree with Pulaski, is that I would be very reluctant to move a 15 year old back to the UK. As that's the year that GCSEs are sat, I really don't know how the school would handle this.

We have always said we would move back when she's either 14 or 16. Obviously there will be some disruption, but nothing as intensive at our initial move to the US. We will be returning to our own home in a completely familiar environment.
There's no cultural or language differences and socially there's already an established friendship group. My daughter is in regular contact with her friends, who are spread across three schools within the borough, any of which we would be happy for her to attend. So all that she will need to focus on is her school work.

The OP may find this website useful for thoughts on relocating with a teenager:http://totallyexpat.com/internationa...ional-schools/

This quote, taken from the above website would sum up our attitude:

"What kind of person do the parents want their youngster to become? Do they feel strongly that they want their child to be open to new cultures, to taking on new challenges and to confronting risks? Can they effectively support him or her during this difficult period? If the employee and the spouse’s answers to all of these questions are yes, then age or timing may be less important than welcoming a move as an opportunity at any age."

I just don't comprehend this need to make uncalled for comments about a situation that may or may not come about (for any amount of reasons) and how we as parents, would view this.

Sally Redux

He does seem to have a downer on you. That's a good thing.

HartleyHare

Kodokan - You have managed to describe far more eloquently how we view our daughter's education.

We moved to the US within a few weeks of obtaining our visas, arriving just as the schools closed for the summer. When we moved to our chosen area, I obtained the grade 6 and grade 7 curriculum from the local school. All we needed to work on was the grade 6 math as there were some topics that had not been covered in the same detail as the UK. Luckily, the school website had online worksheets for both Math and English which pupils were encouraged to complete during the holidays. So like yourself, we began to familiarise ourself with the US curriculum.

My daughter loves her Middle school and as she is a little ahead of her classmates academically, her confidence has soared. Yes, she's repeated the whole of year 7 science over here, but so what? It's been the same facts, but presented differently which she's thoroughly enjoyed.

She's top of the class in Latin and we're hopeful that she'll be able to continue this at GCSE level upon our return. Math, for the first time ever is making more sense and is no longer a subject to be feared.

All of this pretty much depends upon your outlook as a parent. Being laid back about education is not to be confused with not caring out educational outcomes.

HartleyHare

Maybe he's jealous of the "Two Ronnies" desk

Sally Redux

What I would say to OP:

Age 12 is grade 7, the middle of middle school, the child will have to break into a social scene which is different. Make sure they join clubs etc.

If you stay say 5 years and don't really like it, as you seem to be alluding to in the first post, by that time the oldest will be coming up for graduating high school and will no longer really be British, with each passing year it will be more difficult to return. Sounds obvious but we tend to think of our kids as staying the same and then doing what we want. It's like ripples from a stone thrown into a pool though.

'Do you feel lucky?' It may well be a dream come true, lots of fun and enrich your life experience. You might also have to split your family in the future if you do want to come back but by then your children are American and see their life as being here.

Just some thoughts.

kodokan

I don't know California so this may be true for the OP, but for others reading, this can vary by school district. Mine does K-6 in elementary, then 7-8 for middle, and 9-12 for high. The next door school district does K-5, then 6-8. We arrived when my son was halfway through 6th grade, so we gave him the choice then deliberately chose a district where he would do the first 6 months in elementary, in the easier social setting of all one class and only one teacher, then move up with the rest of his class into middle school. This worked out great.

The British accent helps, if that's a rarity where you are. He's the only British kid in a school of around 800, so everyone knows of him and recognises him, even if they don't know his name.

Sally Redux

Yes good point, it can vary.

HartleyHare

I think as a couple, you have agree what will happen if one likes it and the other doesn't. We agreed that if any one of us absolutely hated it and we couldn't resolve the issue, we would return.

Our contract is initially for two years, so both us and the company have a get out option. In reality though, we can remain for as long as there's a job (assuming our petition gets extended).

We did discuss all possibilities as a family before we came. We've always said that we did not want to permanently settle in the US and this still stands.

We've now been here for almost a year and are having a great time. We have agreed that if we can negotiate an acceptable repatriation package with the company, we would remain for another two years maximum. If that's a no go then we will return to the UK.

Although our daughter is in agreement at the moment, it may well be a different story when she's sixteen and there's a love interest in the picture. So, yes it's a risk.

kodokan

See, that's even more meticulous than me - I ordered generic 5th and 6th grade workbooks from Amazon! We also used a great homeschooling online system called time4learning, which did the whole US curriculum for $20 a month, with fun animated video lessons, assignments, tests, etc, then cherry picked the bits he needed to gap fill.

Thanks to Switzerland not starting academics until age 7, my daughter went into 2nd grade halfway through, unable to read beyond a simple c-a-t phonic level, or write words that anyone else could actually read, or do math operations that involved numbers higher than 20. Her teacher was MASSIVELY worried about this, and spent the first couple of months muttering about her being 12-18 months behind, the strong likelihood of her having to repeat a grade, etc. Which is fair enough, because in her experience, kids in the US system who made it to 2nd grade completely unable to read were going to be largely unteachable, with significant learning difficulties or developmental delays.

I, on the other hand, had seen how the kids in my son's Swiss class went from forming capital letters in 2nd grade to reading chapter books in 4th; by the time they were 10 or 11, their reading level was the same as kids in the UK who'd started two years earlier. Plus I had just personally seen how quickly my son had burned through supposed years of instruction in a matter of months.

I therefore wasn't at all surprised when at the end of 2nd grade, her teacher said she was now only perhaps 3-6 months behind, and how by the end of 3rd grade, she was at grade level across the board. She's just finished 4th grade with almost all As, and a B in Math as that's not her 'thing'.

It's a bit like shoe laces - I remember trying to teach my 4 yr old son, unsuccessfully, for weeks, until we both called it a day and bought velcro shoes. Some years later, I remembered we hadn't covered this yet, and taught my then 9 yr old son to tie perfect knots and loops in under two minutes. Older kids learn quicker - the sort of complicated phonics like 'ough' or 'tion' that take several lessons to explain to a KGer can be covered off in about 15 mins with an 8 yr old. Adults learn quicker still - I'm pretty sure that given the right motivation, I could pass a GCSE in any subject from scratch in a matter of months, from a standing start, even in something like a language I hadn't studied previously.

So there's a lot of academic flex that's possible. If I was moving kids of a similar age, I'd worry a lot more friends and social self-esteem, and make sure they were given every bit of support to join clubs, attend things, and generally find their place as quickly as possible. Academics is just knowledge, easy to add later - far harder to fix problems of self-image, loneliness and isolation.

Sally Redux

I think having an end point makes a huge difference to how you view the whole thing. If it's not forever, you can relax and enjoy it more.

My daughter has suddenly found a love interest, darn it