PLANTS

I have to say that our now 13 year old had the best 9 years in Perth, outdoors a lot, going to friends, clubs like swimming lessons indoors and on beach each summer hols, basketball having friends for sleepovers and didn't spent all that time on the pc either. Now we are back here he doesn't go out hardly at all, does have a couple of friends from school and sees occasionallly but he doesn't have the freedom he had while in Joondalup and Butler, its just a completely different environment. So I am very grateful he had that freedom, fun and built that confidence. I would say the best place for youngers is Aus, the sheer freedom does is for me.

Lord Pom Percy

Does your son tell you he wants to move back to Perth or does he understand your decison to move back to the UK?

honeymommy

I have 4 kids. In the USA we had to arrange playdays, sleepovers, trips to the mall, and be general taxi parents for any activity. They did get to socialise and go out, but it allways had to be arranged and planned.

Back in the UK... The kids have friends they can play with that live round the corner, and they can just pop round and knock, not plan it a week in advance. The eldest 15 has just joined the local golf club for £70 a year which includes free unlimited games and free lessons weekly. Middle son has started rowing at Eton, only cost us £12 for 8 weeks of lessons. The wins 10 have art and football classes every week after school for free. Theres a park round the corner. They go out more now than they did in the US, and when they are out the type of play they do is much more exercise oriented, rather than playstation and movies as in the US...

I wouldn't say either was the best country to grow up in though. Each has it's qualities. We all still miss the US, but like the UK... Totally different culture.

PLANTS

He certainly understands our reasons for coming back to the UK, and he was keen to do the move.
We made the move at this point in time so that we could get him into the school system before he had to start anything important for the exams in year 12, and give him a chance to catch up, as we knew he would be 6 months behind.

We haven't really discussed whether he'd like to go back, though we are very aware that he misses his mates. He chats to them regularly on messenger.

Suppose its time to have a chat!!

MikeStanton

O - 5 years old: Oz, NZ, Bedouin tent...or anywhere else you like.

5+ : don't confuse fun with education! Oz, in our experience, is a no-no. UK remains one of the best places in the world to be educated, from 5 all the way up through university.

heritagefarmer

Eastern Canada, and that means the maritimes, not Ontario!

eurotramp

Hi there...whats is it like were you live?

Ok,
just found your website..nice pics, nice animals..looks like you having fun....great house...a dream when you live near London

heritagefarmer

Well, the dream can be yours!
I was born and raised in Birmingham city centre, and moved to Ireland in 1992, then Spain for 3 yrs, before coming here in 2004, after a one year wait for visas.
We are so glad we moved when we did! Think it's taking 3-4 yrs now.
PEI does not fit the profile of Canada at all, the landscape is like the best of Britain and Ireland, the highest spot is only 150m above sea level. We are basically a sand bank off the coast of NB/NS.
The weather can be changeable, being an island but we get warm summers(avge 22+ up to 30 C) But no drought, it usually rains every 5/6 days, which is great for the garden.
The winters, while harsh, seem short. we rarely get snow before Xmas and it's usually gone by late March. And the days are bright and sunny, not dark and wet like UK (but -20c on a bad day!)
Because the island is only 200km long, you are never far from the coast (not really ocean- St Lawrence river) but it feels like ocean.
The beaches are all red, and so is the soil everywhere. We have NO rocks in our 40 acres. just the odd sandstone piece.
Cost of living is about half UK, and we paid about 60,000 pounds for our little piece of heaven (40 acres)

We have finally settled after years of looking over the fence at the green grass. We have found our very own piece!

jumping doris

We moved from a small community in the NW of England to a suburb of Pittsburgh,US.
Both areas have their good points.
I am very impressed with the schools my daughters go to here. Two of them are getting a much better education and the third, who went to a grammar school in the UK, is getting an equal one. The facilities at the schools they go to here are amazing BUT we do pay high taxes. There is a real feeling of "can do" here.

In the UK they could get to most places on the bus or train although that could be dangerous at night. There was a big social mix where we lived and we knew several teenagers who had been attacked,badly, for their mobile phones etc.
There was a lot more vandalism and mindless bad behaviour where we lived but at the same time there was more of a sense of community ,I think because we could walk everywhere, we had small local shops etc. But our little town was being spoilt by young drunks at the weekends as we had so many bars.
Here my youngest can play out on the street and we have children in the same road for the first time.
In the UK we found we had to pre arrange everything for her as everyone was so busy .
There are a lot more teenagers in our neighbourhood too and they all seem to get on.

Unfortunately we have to drive them everywhere until they get their own cars but because they are on H4 visas they cannot get little jobs and so they can't pay for their own petrol!!!!
They were used to hopping on the train into Liverpool for shopping and they miss that.
I feel it is safer for them here and they do go out more in the evenings than they did in the UK.
They have had a lot more opportunities here to ski, skate, hike etc . Lots more facilities here and most are reasonably priced.
The US seems much more child friendly than the UK.

But and it is a big one.....they are English children and I sometimes feel ,that for all the good things here, this is not their country.

eurotramp

Sounds good, but we would not know what to do there for a living...

MrsB

Congrautlations! It looks lovely - must make a note to do a holiday there one day....

Those cats/kittens are so CUTE!!!!!! Can I have one?

Mercedes

Are you in the UK yet ET? And if so what part have you settled on?

eurotramp

Yeah..have a look here

Hutch

The UK education system is hugely over-rated. My father gave up a very good job as a lawyer with Shell in the 1960s to teach English at a comprehensive. He retired in the 1990s, as the head of English at a supposedly good comprehensive in Hertfordshire a totally beaten man. My best friend's been a teacher for nearly 20 years and he's extremely bitter, is leaving education and is planning to set up a home tutoring company.

The way my father put it to me is that British children were no longer taught anything, they were merely schooled to get through examinations - examinations which themselves had been repeatedly dumbed-down year after year after year. All of which leads you on to situations like this in which children emerge from these exam factories with bits of paper that prepare them for nothing and are widely distrusted by any potential employer. Meanwhile, your average British kid spends most of his or her spare time glued to either the television or a console game, according to this. All the time, sport and general fitness of any sort is completely marginalised (most pupils are lucky to get an hour a week of 'PE'), despite evidence like this . Meanwhile the government spout utterly incomprehensible rubbish like "Personalised learning is about learner-managed and co-constructed learning - the shift from dependency to independence and interdependency - and invitational learning and assessment." And then there's this and this. Seems parents are voting with their feet .

The same thing's inexorably happening with colleges and universities, thanks to the UK government's insistence on getting as many adolescents as possible into higher education. Successive governements have so badly screwed up the standards of secondary education that universities are now having to give up the first year of their courses to teaching the students all the basic subjects they should have been able to deal with at the age of 16.

emmals

I don't think there is a right or a wrong place for children ....as long as they have loving parents and are happy....It's us that puts the guilt trip on....trying to make everything perfect for our little darlings when they just get on with it