Moving to France...?

[CSLewis]

I've also posted this in Education and Living Overseas...

Our kids have always been home-educated, but we are thinking of moving to France for 6-12 months. My husband's family is French, so we would like them to get a good grounding in the language before they get too much older.

However, I am concernced about the leap from being home-educated in the UK (with a relaxed, child-led style of learning) to going to Primary School in France, which I've heard is a much more rigid system than in the UK. Plus I know nothing about the system at all. My eldest dd will turn 8 mid-August - does this mean she will be the youngest in her year as would be the case in the UK?

The other thing I'm thinking of is a more relaxed school-ish environment - Montessori/Waldorf, etc - but don't even know if these exist in France.

Of course, we could just carry on home-educating, which would be a lot simpler in many ways, but would make making friends and learning the language much more difficult...

Any advice/ideas/help very welcome!

bump

Are you going just for the language? or are there other advantages for you too? What impact will moving abroad have on your and your dh's lives / jobs?
If it's just the language then there are many other less drastic options around. Is there a French langauge youth club your dd could attend in your area? Could your dd spend some time with cousins or other family members with children in France? Could your dh take over some of the home ed-ing and teach them in French? Have you thought about doing something like this: www.allef.org.uk or www.enfamille.com/?lang=en instead? Then your dd would have an exchange sister to start school with. I'm not sure if you can join if your dc aren't at school though.