Education Comparing US and BA schools

[kc_w]

Hi everyone! Apologies if this isn't the right place for this kind of thread.

I'm not a parent, but rather a freelance writer based in Buenos Aires who is looking to profile parents who moved from the United States to Buenos Aires sometime in the last few years and have experience looking for schools for their children. I also hope that this thread may be able to serve as a place for parents to offer advice and insight regarding the various considerations to keep in mind. From what I understand, some of these factors include:

• Very limited — and expensive/competitive — options for schools that adhere to a Northern Hemisphere schedule, for students who plan on reintegrating to the United States or European school schedule.
• Reputation among some private schools as being elitist, stuffy, overly religious, etc., yet are still considered the best option by many expat parents given endemic issues afflicting the public school system. Not to mention, of course, that many expat parents will be looking for a bilingual school, many (though not all) of which are private.
• Any expat families that opted to homeschool their children? Is this recommended, and if so, why?

Please feel free to bring up additional points, of course, and recommend specific schools with which you have had positive experiences. And also feel free to message me privately if you are interested in setting up an interview or something of that sort. Hopefully this can serve as a helpful resource for folks.

 

[CaribbeanCool]

Hi everyone! Apologies if this isn't the right place for this kind of thread.

I'm not a parent, but rather a freelance writer based in Buenos Aires who is looking to profile parents who moved from the United States to Buenos Aires sometime in the last few years and have experience looking for schools for their children. I also hope that this thread may be able to serve as a place for parents to offer advice and insight regarding the various considerations to keep in mind. From what I understand, some of these factors include:

• Very limited — and expensive/competitive — options for schools that adhere to a Northern Hemisphere schedule, for students who plan on reintegrating to the United States or European school schedule.
• Reputation among some private schools as being elitist, stuffy, overly religious, etc., yet are still considered the best option by many expat parents given endemic issues afflicting the public school system. Not to mention, of course, that many expat parents will be looking for a bilingual school, many (though not all) of which are private.
• Any expat families that opted to homeschool their children? Is this recommended, and if so, why?

Please feel free to bring up additional points, of course, and recommend specific schools with which you have had positive experiences. And also feel free to message me privately if you are interested in setting up an interview or something of that sort. Hopefully this can serve as a helpful resource for folks.

Maybe this crowd is too old for you.........good luck

 

[earlyretirement]

Maybe this crowd is too old for you.........good luck

Speak for yourself. There are a LOT of younger crowd on this forum. Not all of us are Medicaid/Medicare eligible like you are. LOTS of younger crowd that I rent my places to. In fact, I just rented to someone on BAExpats and rented my apartment for 2 years. They are very young as are probably the majority of people on here now. Lots of the old timer BA Expats crowd have left Argentina. They couldn't hack it here.

CaribbeanCool, you're in your last decade or two of life. The others on this forum are just starting their few decades. That's how you have to look at it.

I have a 7 year old and we considered moving to BA with them. I also have a middle schooler and a high school student. The only reason we didn't move is my daughter plays competitive tennis and she made the Varsity tennis team as a freshman. So moving would disrupt her life. I will do it once my two older kids are out of high school. Now, I just commute back and forth for work.

There are elite schools like Lincoln School which I'd never send my kids to. But there are also some great schools that people have posted about in the past. You can do a search and see the names. My friends all have young kids and they go to private schools that are half the day in English. Their kids are all fluent in Spanish. It's something crazy cheap now with Blue dollar rates. I think like $400 US per month per kid which is dirt cheap.

Good luck!

PS I'd NEVER recommend or advocate home schooling. Almost ALL the kids I know that were home schooled have something wrong with them. They don't have social skills as they never were around other kids. Just not a good idea, IMHO.