Has anyone homeschooled, living in the middle of rural Africa?

[timetosmile]

Any experience of homeschooling (primary ages) because the family are living in an isolated region in a developing country e.g.a small rural hospital / agricultural development work etc?

What UK curriculum did you use? One that you 'supervise' and send the work off to be marked by post, or an on-line one, or another model?

What were the advantages and pitfalls?

We're thinking about moving to a small hospital in rural Africa for 5-10 years....we've done it before, but with a baby and toddler....wondering how it would be with older children. Eldest DC (12) says he'd be happy to board (international school 5hrs away) as he has friends who have done that, and he's pretty mellow and independant, which leaves 9 and 5yr olds with me and DH.

Any advice or reflections on this kind of life welcome!

bump for those MNers who are only pretending to watch the football....

There might be more people with advice in the home ed board. I wouldn't choose to use a school curriculum because the advantage of HE for me is that we're free to do things which are relevant and interesting to us.

How do I get in onto the Home ed board?...and please feel free to move it anyone who knows how to... x

I'm watching this one

I think you could report your OP and request that it be moved, or just start a second thread in home education. There is no harm in having two going.

At 9 your dc is probably used to having a wide range of dc to find friends amongst, activities etc, it will be a big difference being home educated in a small place in rural Africa, not necessarily negative but it might be a lonely move for the 9 year old, especially if the 12 year old is away at boarding school during the week. Is there a daily school option for that dc if you felt HE wasn't working for her/him?

Friends of mine who home educate here ( Eastern Europe) are Americans and use the Sonlight programme for primary, for secondary they register their dc with a distance learning school in the US in order to sit school exams - high school diploma etc. THey get a package at the beginning of the school year and it seems to work very well for them. I know 8 young people who were educated in this manner and are all studying in the US so their qualifications must be recognised. I don't know what options there are which prepare dc well for the UK curriculum.

My Godmother lived in China for a while with her children and she used World Wide Education Service. Both girls went on to Russel Group universities so I assume it wasn't too bad but it was some time ago

me!

Oh no wait a minute, I send mine to the local primary in Jersey. Sorry about that

If you are going to be using online material/lessons do check that the Internet connection is good. I knows when my husband was in Africa for a year the Internet was a disaster but I am sure it just depends where you are.

Good points!
zzz there will be other children, including expats from the states and also other European countries as well as the local children, so she wouldn't be alone. Another family on the compound use a USA based home ed. system but that may not be the best for ours if they want to return to the UK for e.g.6th form......being without big bro will be a wrench.....glad now that we had three of 'em!
GGT the internet is fine, we are exchanging emails with people there with no problems

Have you considered your eldest's fee status for university if you are away still at 6th form? It certainly used to be that if you hadn't been in the UK for 3 yrs prior you were classed as an international student for fee paying. Just by the by.

Thanks all, I feel slightly cheered by the fact DH has found a link to a govt website that says that if we are employed by a UK based charity (but working longterm overseas) we count as 'home' as opposed to 'foreign' irrespective of where our work is based and big sigh of relief...

that's good news. That worldwide education linked to below does seem to be geared towards the UK curriculum so that might work well for you. Or you could just buy age appropriate text books and take them with you I suppose, Galore Park, Bond etc. Perhaps the year or two before you move back, you could do an accredited programme in order to have something to show the schools in the UK on return. If you do end up staying 10 years, the 12 and 9 year old will have finished their school education but the youngest would be 15 and need to fit into the UK school system. I shouldn't think it would be very hard to do.

I would probably do similar to what I have done here - not buy in a curriculum, but pick the most appealing books and text books and design my own. So probably lots of Galore Park books, possibly Rosetta Stone or something like that for languages (have not used that myself as have not needed to), Singapore maths books or Life of Fred, etc.

You might also find that once out there, if there are other HEors, that people might get together for a language conversation group or similar, which could be great.

what is Life of Fred?

mind you if the youngest would be 15 when you come back, s/he might just spend a year at the weekly boarding school where you are planning on sending your eldest atm which would mean you would not need a certified course distanced learning course at all.

I should think the whole thing is do-able. Hope you make contact with some HE in rural Africa. Perhaps you might have more luck on an expat or HE forum though.

Life Of Fred is a maths book series. It goes from 2+2 up to US college level stuff, all written as a story about Fred.

Yes, that's right....if we end up going (which is a pretty big 'if' of itself) the tentative plan would be to home school up to the end of primary for the youger two initially, then see how boarding was working out at High School age for eldest DC and seeing whether the other two fancied it when the time came.
Some good advice re books / schemes - thanks

good luck, sounds like a great adventure!