Home-Ed in South-Eastern France?

[CSLewis]

I've already posted (in Living Overseas and Edcuation and here) about my concerns regarding putting my kids into school for 1-3 terms whilst we spend a year in France. Mine have always been home-ed, and I'm concerned about the double whammy about going from HE into a rigid school system, AND a foreign language simultaneously.

Apart from my eldest DD really wanting to try school, the only reason I'd send them to school is to facilitate their gaining some fluency in French, which is a large part of our reason for going out there (my dh's family is French, but he hasn't really spoken French to the children )

If anyone knows of any home-educating families with children of primary age (my DDs will be 8 and 6, my DSs 4 and 2) anywhere near Montpellier/South-Eastern France, I'd be really glad to know of them - even just that they exist! But if anyone was available to answer queries/allay fears about the dreaded 'socialisation', that would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance

There used to be a Yahoo group with home-ed families in provence (more to the east than Montpellier though), but it's no longer active. Might be worth checking whether there is one for that area?

IME of trying to do things in the 'non-mainstream' way in SE France, there's more than you'd think about, but it's not terribly easy to find. Best bet is to call likely seeming associations and ask if they know anyone.

If your 8 yo wants to try school and would be OK to go to mainstream, would you consider looking at a Montessori for the others? at 4 and 6 they would be in the same class and it's not as rigid as ms school. If the 2yo was almost 3, he might be able to join a montessori class with his sibs in it, but normally he wouldn't start school just yet.

Thanks, ib. Montessori would be my ideal compromise, and I've been madly researching it, but everything I've found is too expensive - the cost per term per child is about what we could manage per year. It's mainly my 8yo I'm worried about, so I'm almost considering coughing up for her to go to a Montessori school, and trying to find a maternelle for my 4 & 6 yos - but am I right in thinking the 6 yo would start 'proper' primary in September 2010?

We probably won't be out there until early 2011, as I'm having a baby in December. Do you think there's any chance, with the language difficulty, that they would let the 6yo stay in 'nursery' for the Easter/summer term of 2011?

It goes by year of birth here - so depends what year she was born. DS1 was born in December 2006 and was supposed to start last year, so would have done maternelle for 3 years and then started proper school - in his case before turning 6.

I don't know if they would be amenable to being flexible on that - I suspect it will vary a lot from school to school. Do you know exactly where you will be living? If you have some flexibility, maybe get in touch with a few schools and look for a place which gives you access to the school you like best?

Do the Montessoris in Montpellier cater to 8yo? Round here they only do 3-6 afaik....