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Moving to Canada with a 14 year old

62 replies

ColaandBru · 02/01/2021 17:38

We are looking at moving to Canada in the summer. Our DD is 14. Has anyone made an international move with a teenager and how did it go? Half of me thinks it would be fab and half of me thinks it would be daft. She would be transferring to a Canadian (not international) school. She is happy here and doing well. She tends to make friends easily.

OP posts:
ColaandBru · 08/01/2021 10:13

That was a one time wonder attempt to convince myself the other way sadly! A new years resolution to be positive that lasted for a day.

Funnily enough I went upstairs after posting that and looked at the size of my daughter's bedroom. My husband and I read the thread and had the very discussion that the thread was about (stretching to afford 'proper' family home).

Reading the thread and everyone's comments on it made us feel sad for our child that we were not providing the things most people thought we should be (her room is like a cupboard with a window). We looked at the numbers to see what we could do to stretch it and agreed moving here was definitely not an option. We also looked again at our pensions and the value of mine had actually dropped significantly as a defined contribution scheme.

We had a long talk with our daughter at the same time and she said she likes her life here but she finds the house very difficult as the rooms are so tiny.

My husband is European and it is fair to say he has found much of the last few weeks hard here. The cultural identity of the UK etc that has been promoted in the thread are not really ringing true to us and we have actually had some concerns over certain aspects of the English curriculum. We certainly don't live in a cultural hub here in any case. I'm not going to start debating the rights and wrongs of Brexit here but he now feels no wish to stay here and it is clear that that is not going to change.

OP posts:
steppemum · 08/01/2021 10:25

OP can I ask why Seskatuan?
I have no experience, but I know that by asking, you then go through the process of assessing why that place.

Others in Canada have suggested other places, but you seem set on this one? Any reason?
Would you consider the move to another part of Canada?

From my perspective as someone who works with kids and families, you are an interesting family.
You are Canadian, your husband European and you live in UK, so your dd has grown up English.
I think that you may need to think about how much your dd identifies as English/British, and how much connection she has with Canadian culture or the European culture of her dad. For example, my kids are half Dutch, we go to Holland every year, but they consider themselves to be 100% culturally English.
So her pespective of moving will be different. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. If your quality of life will be better all round, then there are plenty of reasons for taking that step. She will manage and she will adapt. If you do it, do it now, or wait until she is significantly older (eg post uni). If she is to feel totally at home in Canada, it will help for her to do a couple of years in Canadian school.

I think, moving or not, you may all beenfit form reading the book Third Culture Kids - growing up between worlds, by David Pollack and Ruth Van Reken

Sup1979 · 08/01/2021 12:30

What part of the do you live?

You say a 3 bed home. Is there not an alternative bedroom for her?!

Sup1979 · 08/01/2021 12:30

Uk

ColaandBru · 08/01/2021 12:58

Thanks. I'll read the book. Saskatchewan because is is where my husband can work due to a specific circumstance and also as it has affordable housing without being a million miles (in Canadian terms) from where our family lives. Further East would make it harder to visit family and in terms of Montreal we don't speak French.

We have three bedrooms but two are very very small and the other has the washer dryer and her desk in it. Even with those two things in it we had to get a sliding door fitted so we could open it fully. We are outside London.

Anyway, I think this is getting quite into personal details now so am going to sign off. I'll let you know in a year or so what we did. Thank you all.

OP posts:
Onvacation · 13/01/2021 22:22

I have read this thread with interest and just want to add that french is not necessary for Montreal. It is a fantastic, vibrant city with English speaking and French speaking schools. So you just move into one of the areas that are English speaking. But I appreciate that doesn’t address the issue of work.

StopAtTheRedLight · 12/03/2021 15:34

A lot of people commenting on "Canadian" education. There is no such thing. Education is provincial jurisdiction and every province is different --- including the number of grades! Curricula are different too. Some posters refer to "AP". This is a commercial US construct that, while offered in some schools, is not part of the public education systems. Just worth noting....

fallfallfall · 13/03/2021 04:24

Accessing English speaking schools even in an English speaking community requires meeting very stringent criteria. There are a few private English speaking schools on the island which don’t follow the criteria.

orangeblosssom · 14/03/2021 07:55

PISA ratings 2018

Canada is doing a lot better in Reading and Maths than the UK.

Here are the top 20 countries for English and maths:
Reading top 40
• 1. Shanghai (China)
• 2. Hong Kong (China)
• 3. Singapore
• 4. Japan
• 5. South Korea
• 6. Finland
• 7. Ireland
• 8. Taiwan
• 9. Canada
• 10. Poland
• 11. Estonia
• 12. Liechtenstein
• 13. New Zealand
• 14. Australia
• 15. Netherlands
• 16. Belgium
• 17. Switzerland
• 18. Macao (China)
• 19. Vietnam
• 20. Germany
• 21. France
• 22. Norway
• 23. United Kingdom
• 24. United States
• 25. Denmark
• 26. Czech Republic
• 27. Italy
• 28. Austria
• 29. Latvia
• 30. Hungary
• 31. Spain
• 32. Luxembourg
• 33. Portugal
• 34. Israel
• 35. Croatia
• 36. Sweden
• 37. Iceland
• 38. Slovenia
• 39. Lithuania
• 40. Greece
Maths top 40
• 1. Shanghai (China)
• 2. Singapore
• 3. Hong Kong (China)
• 4. Taiwan
• 5. South Korea
• 6. Macao (China)
• 7. Japan
• 8. Liechtenstein
• 9. Switzerland
• 10. Netherlands
• 11. Estonia
• 12. Finland
• 13. Canada
• 14. Poland
• 15. Belgium
• 16. Germany
• 17. Vietnam
• 18. Austria
• 19. Australia
• 20. Ireland
• 21. Slovenia
• 22. Denmark
• 23. New Zealand
• 24. Czech Republic
• 25. France
• 26. United Kingdom
• 27. Iceland
• 28 Latvia
• 29. Luxembourg
• 30. Norway

babyyodaxmas · 14/03/2021 08:45

Thanks for the thread OP. We too have some Canadian citizenship (DH and both DCs) and toy with moving out there, we too love skiing, kayaking, climbing and horse riding. We are thinking more of West Coast but I think we probrably won't do it due to children's ages (14&17) although the 17yo is probrably going to do a season out there in his gap year....

KOrgi · 25/01/2024 22:39

Hi OP, wondered if you had any update? We are in a similar situation and would love to know what you decided and if you were happy with decision?

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