Schools and education

[arlean]

Question: Does anyone know anyone here that is home schooling? Or do you know Argentina's attitude about that (probably they never heard of it so have no attitude at all!)

I have friends who moved to Montevideo from the US with one child in kindergarten and the other in second grade. I was amazed how quickly they became comfortable with the language. I know a new school can be tough on kids though.

 

[Nicole_Ramirez]

I met someone who did home school from U.S. school. I have no idea how it works though.

 

[chris]

I'm not in BA, but I have 1 kids in private and the other in public. Both are fine. If you choose public you really need to get a feel for it because the public we HAd to go into last year because we got here right before school started sucked. They were mean to him and my husband said they didn't like the fact that he was American..and I'm talking about his teacher. She was not nice. He went on to private but the younger one went to a different public and they were thrilled to death to be getting him and he has no problems what so ever. He spoke no spanish atall and is doing better ever day. Kids brains are sponges.

Where are you if not in BA? How do you feel about your child's having only one half day of education? It seems very little to me.

 

[Nicole_Ramirez]

Where are you if not in BA? How do you feel about your child's having only one half day of education? It seems very little to me.

I'm in Bariloche. I don't like the half day, but I do not want my kids at school the entire day either. We chose a private school that is 8-12:30, M,W,F and 8-2:15 T&TH. I'm ok with it. The other one is in public because he is in Jardin, he will eventually get moved to the private.

 

[chris]

Would you say that the general population in Bariloche is better educated than in BA?

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Where are you if not in BA? How do you feel about your child's having only one half day of education? It seems very little to me.

When you ask about 'only one half day of education' I don't think you are looking at the whole picture. In England, school pupils will typically have only four-and-a-half hours of class contact time. That's about the same as a 'morning-only' or 'afternoon/evening only' school in Argentina - it's just spread out differently. While a school building in England will be open to pupils from about 08:30-15:30 it isn't being used very efficiently during that time and in most cases will be closed out of hours. By running two schools back-to-back in the same building as many do in Argentina, the infrastructure is being used more cost-effectively. Kids seem to make better use of their out of school time in Argentina than they do in England and I suspect that many parents find that it helps them run their working lives more effectively too. Of course the working life of a teacher in Argentina is very different from that of a teacher in England but that doesn't really affect your concerns about class contact time and is probably wandering too far away from the original subject!

 

[Nicole_Ramirez]

Would you say that the general population in Bariloche is better educated than in BA?

I can't answer that. I've never lived in BA. My husband grew up there and he is quite educated. More than I am. I worry about their education though. My 5 year old goes to jardin and basically paints or plays all day. In the states my older son had homework everyday at that age. Which is not a good thing either, just what I am used to.

 

[BAwithkids]

Hi April,

We are doing pretty much the same thing as you, and arrived for a year in August. We have one child in a private bilingual school, and the other in a bilingual jardin. We have had a great experience in both schools, and neither of our kids spoke any Spanish before we came. After a couple of months, both are starting to pick it up. The great thing is that the language issue has not created as many problems with making friends as I had anticipated. My seven year old daughter has been embraced by her classmates, and has a very nice group of friends, and my younger daughter is also very happy socially.

Feel free to send a pm if you have any questions. People on this forum were fantastic about helping me before we came, and I'm more than happy to pass it on! Also, if it makes a difference for you, we live in Belgrano.

 

[BAwithkids]

Thanks for all the information.
We'll arrive probably in Feb. Is it too late to enrol then or is it possible to enrol online?

Also, we arrived without any of the school stuff arranged - it is really hard to do it from abroad, and in the end, we were glad to see the schools before we picked. There are so many schools that you should be able to have choices. We didn't look at public schools, as I don't think they're as well equipped to handle non-Spanish speakers. The publics are free, and some in BA are full-day (jornado completa).

 

[bebero]

Question: Does anyone know anyone here that is home schooling? Or do you know Argentina's attitude about that (probably they never heard of it so have no attitude at all!)

I have friends who moved to Montevideo from the US with one child in kindergarten and the other in second grade. I was amazed how quickly they became comfortable with the language. I know a new school can be tough on kids though.

Homeschooling is not legal in Argentina UNLESS your parents have to take you with them traveling around the world for a very good reason OR you live too far from the nearest school.