Hi there

My family are thinking about moving to Houston in the future. We have 2 boys at school in the UK just now and am interested in how your boys are getting on at school now? Are they any happier? Like you we lived in the middle east for a while. How do you like Houston now? From what I have read we would probably move to your area or the woodlands.

Hope you are still around and would like to hear your coments on Houston now that you have been there for a while.

Sorry, um, I haven't read all the posts, but a school that pushes your kids hard and encourages them to get good grades - what on earth is wrong with that?

Tell your kids to grow a pair and get to work!

Caleyjag - because there is more to school/life than getting good grades, and as for 'growing a pair' I assume yours are on your head.

lemin1 - moving to Katy, hmm. I still dislike it here. All I would miss if I left is the Meetup group I belong to, and having your rubbish collected twice a week. Honestly, that's it. Schoolwise things have improved for us as we managed to get one of our children into a local Charter school which is wonderful. It is really small and treats the kids as individuals, and they even let them have recess. My other child wants nothing else but to leave here, though. My DH is OK here, but doesn't love it.

It does totally depend on what you want from life, what you enjoy, etc. Some Brits here I know love the whole 'big house, swimming pool, cheerleading/football' lifestyle and good for them but if you've got different tastes then you might not enjoy Houston.

Hi Lemin1,

My 10 year old son has almost finished his first year in the US system (4th Grade). He had just finished Primary 5 in the UK when we left.

In our experience (and it could be the school we were leaving) he has had a better curriculum over here esp. science & math and he now loves reading - I put that down to being encouraged to read 'real' books instead of 25 page 'Jack & Jill' stories.

Yes the longer hours, earlier mornings and lack of playtime took some getting used to but his grades are great and he is in the schools Gifted & Talented Programme.

He has also found the kids to be friendlier, politer and kinder than they were in the UK. Obviously this may not be the case in all schools but we have had a very positive experience so far.

Hi there

Wombat27 - I am sorry to hear you still dont like it. It is hard to get an idea of what things are like as I have read so many bad things about Houston. i hope it gets better

ChocolateBabz- Its good to hear your coments as well that you have had a good experiance with the schools.

How easy have you found it to make friends? Are there lots of social groups? I liked being in the middle east (both Bahrain and Oman) but I find the only thing I miss about there is the friends I made.

Would you say its worth looking at the British School or schools like Awty , village etc? I say this because my youngest is about to finish reception and is reading well for his age (will be 5 next week). What would he be doing in an American school at this age?

What is the area around lakes on parkway like? My husband would be working downtown and would prefer to take the bus. Is this a good idea (safe)?

Sorry for all the questions.

Here your 5 year old will be starting Kindergarten in the fall (end of July here we have a weird schedule) our district they have to turn 5 before November 31st.
My Dd is 4 and will be 5 on Jan 2nd so will will start K in 2010
K are just learning to read, some have already learned at home or in preschool.

My kids have now been to school in the UK, Australia and here so I feel that I have a fairly good overall view of different systems.

caleyjag - there is nothing wrong with 'a school that pushes your kids hard and encourages them to get good grades' but there is more to life than only good grades and when that is the only focus it doesn't make for a well rounded, happy child. Of the three schools my kids have attended I much prefer the Australian school. They had recess aswell as lunchtime play, they did some form of PE every day even if it was only the 20 minute fitness session with their teacher and they didn't get a lot of homework. They were expected to read every night, learn their spellings and multiplication facts (I'm talking elementary here) and the 5th grader would get 2 other worksheets a week.

When we moved here my 5th grader got 4 pieces of homework on her first day!!! She has 1 1/2 hours of Math daily at school (just before lunch so she is so hungry she can't concentrate for that long and they are not allowed to have a snack in class whereas in Oz they had a morning snack in class as well as recess snack - kids need fuel often!!) plus she gets Math homewrok every night plus all the other homeworks. The Australian school also managed to fit a language program in whereas there is no language program here as they don't have time in their curriculum!!!

You may say there is nothing wrong with pushing the kids so hard but I would say it's not necessary. Academically she is on a par with the students here despite having been in the less stressful Australian school - same results, more rounded child. Here she has very little time to enjoy being a kid, to play outside, to enjoy other things in life (she loves drama and music and much of this needs to be done as an extra curricular activity). She is only just restarting her piano lessons as she has now adjusted to having so much homework so we feel she can fit it in now (her choice to do it - not a pushy parent)

I am adjusting to life here in Utah and the kids are adjusting to school life also. However, I still think the school system is VERY flawed and could do with a good overhaul and to ease off on the 'work, work, work' ethos which will produce a load of burnt out adults in my opinion.

'Tell your kids to grow a pair and get to work!' - comments like this are unnecessary also - I hope you don't have kids - poor things if you do.

Hi lemin1 and wombat27,

Sorry to hear that you guys are having issues settling in. It took me a couple of years to settle in properly and we didn't bring kids with us.

As you said, having lived in the ME, you're an expat family, but the US can be a funny place and the policy in a lot of cases is very much that people work towards nothing more than the highest education level to gain the best job possible at the highest wage possible... You can have a life after you retire.

I find myself working hours and taking on workloads which I would have never imagined in the UK. There is an expectation in the workplace to run yourself into the ground for the employer and I can only imagine that the same is true (to a certain extent) in the education world as well.


The best advise I can give is to set yourself a cut off point where, if things aren't doing better, at that point, you look to move. I set myself a two year deadline before I made the move over here and it provided me a light at the end of the tunnel as a get out clause should things go to crap. However, it also made me more tolerant of problems which came up and more willing to work through thosee problems as I knew that, worst case scenario, I would only be stuck here for two years.

Best of luck.
-Simon

Hi Lemin1,

It does take time to make friends. We arranged several social evenings with my husband's colleagues (Hogmany, Burns Night, Super Bowl Sunday) and would count a couple of them as friends now rather than just work colleagues. We also met a lovely couple who had just moved here from Austin at the same time as us and have become really good friends with them. As we moved into a new development in October it is only now that we are beginning to see our neighbours out and about and we have met a few of them and hopefully some BBQ's will follow through the summer months!!

We did look into the British School of Houston but didn't see much benefit for what your pay . It would be different if my son was at 'exam' age and we knew were going back at a set time to the UK. But we wanted our son to have local friends and 'experience' US school life - after all he won't get the chance again. That said he is really outgoing wee soul and isn't afraid to put himself out there. It might be different if he was really quiet and shy.

I am sorry I don't know the area you are looking at - we live in Pearland in SE Houston and have settled in really well.

Hi there Lemin1,

I'm a Brit and have lived in Katy (west of Houston Downtown) since 2005. Two school aged kids - were 10 and 7 when we arrived, now nearly 14 and 11. My personal opinion, given the age of your child would be that Public School would work fine for him - he'll make lots of friends that live in the neighbourhood (seeing how the catchments work) and he's not at a critical point in his education that you're going to cause him issues with exams and stuff. The British School and Awty are fairly expensive and, although some people like them, it tends to be those that are having the fees paid for them by companies. Those that pay them independantly, don't have as many great things to say about the value they get
I'm not sure where Lakes on Parkway is, which says alot for my local knowledge! How did you hear about that area? As far as it being "safe" for your husband to get the bus - you must be talking about the park and ride - and as far as I'm aware, it's fine. Lots of people use it.
Don't apologise about the questions - keep 'em coming and we'll answer them as best we can. Don't believe all the "bad" stuff you here. There wouldn't be so many expats here if it was all that bad

Hi Wombat 27 - I hadn't seen this post when you originally started it and I really just wanted to check in as a fellow Katy expat to say I'm really sorry you're not enjoying yourself. I confess my first six months here I hated everything, not about Katy itself, just generally hated the transition period (which is now what I realise it was). Schooling for my son, who started in 5th grade, was a nightmare - different curriculum, different rules and as you say the early starts were a wtf moment for me and hubby!
No words of wisdom as such, other than you're reaching the six month point after arrival and you might therefore find you do start to feel a tadge better about things. Just wanted to say hi and let you know you're not alone!

The great thing about kids is that they're adaptable. Adults are not so adaptable. This may seem harsh, and totally counterintuitive to your motherly instincts, but the best thing you can do for your children is ignore their complaints. Yes, they are perfectly reasonable complaints, but when you openly agree and sympathise with them and tell them how right they are and how awful the school is -- again which is only natural, they pick up on that. With their mum validating them they'll go to school less open changing and adapting and making friends, which will only dig them deeper into misery. Telling them to "grow a pair" like one poster suggested is harsh, but honestly it's the best thing you could do for your kids. It'll help ease the transition, and within a few months they won't even remember they had a problem.

You could also home school, but you should sit down and ask yourself if you really have the time, inclination, and ability to teach your kids better than those trained to do so. There are home school support groups, but keep in mind that many of these -- and I assume this would especially be the case in Texas -- have a religious bent. Now this doesn't bother me, and it may not you, and won't necessarily have an impact on most of the curriculum, field trips, etc, but a lot of Brits have a hard time handling open religiosity. Also, if your kids make a lot of friends through the support group you can expect them to want to go to church, youth groups, etc., since that's what most of their friends will be doing. If you're okay with that, great, but it makes many expats very uncomfortable.

You could try to find a better district/town, if that's an option, since American schools can vary greatly from state to state, county to county, and town to town. You could also join the PTA. They can be cliquish, and you wouldn't be able to make any serious changes, but you would have some voice in your children's education. And you might be able to make some small changes if you're a leader type and find enough like minded people (and there are many, many, many American parents and teachers that agree with you).

I typed more than I intended, but this is a topic that interests me. I should also note that I don't have any children (at least for a couple more years), but I do have an American schoolteacher MIL who has dispensed untold (and sometimes unsolicited) wisdom to me about American schooling.

I disagree with this approach I'm afraid. Yes you need to make sure your children give things their best go, but please also bear in mind that they did not choose to make the move. They may well be feeling very disempowered, and if unhappy need a lot of support and help in settling . We moved twice in a short space of time, and it was fine for my daughter, who is very outgoing, but very tough on my son who is not (also a little older which makes a difference too). As he doesn't show his feelings it has come out at school, where he is really struggling. He has found it hard to make friends (following some bullying in NYC, which we didn't know about at the time) and it is a big adjustment. It is very easy to say how easy it is for children, but I am not sure that that is true at all. Certainly my husband and I have found it much easier to settle both in New York, and now we are in Canada, than the children have (although my daughter is certainly very happy). They have been far more homesick than us, and frequently ask about visiting home, seeing their friends etc, whilst for us the telephone and internet are keeping out friendships alive - indeed I probably speak to my family more than I did in the UK.

Of course you have to support a happy positive frame of mind, and work on ways to overcome problems, but if you dismiss your children's unhappiness when they have no other outlets (friends, family, familiar teacher etc) then you risk having really miserable kids.

I doubt kids hating school is USA specific. I hated school when I was a kid, and one hour lunch breaks didn't make it any better. Just more time to get into trouble.
It certainly didn't effect my life outside of school and I never talked about it to my parents, it just seemed normal to hate school when I went to school. Commonly known as bog standard Comprehensives.

Children are supposed to hate school.... Who would have ever thought that was possible? Surely every child that has ever walked up to those dreaded doors were skipping along merrily with nary a thought of science tests (or in my daughter's case - the dreaded spelling test) in their cheerful minds.

You must be jesting.....