Homeschooling in the 3rd World

[Embassy]

Has anyone here homeschooled their children while living in the third world? How was your access to homeschooling curriculum and supplies? I suspect it is a huge cost to get things shipped. Is Kindle a good option?

Edited July 12, 2010 by Wehomeschool

[Cammie]

We are in India (and prefer the term "developing world" :001_smile:).

 

I ordered everything from the US and had friends and family brings us bits and pieces as they were coming this summer.

 

Depends on where you are...I remember a great curriculum company in the UK that had free shipping to lots of places but not India.

 

I could probably make due with the books and stuff we have here. We do have the Usborne books and lots of good science and math resources. I also try to find curriculum that I can order online and download - like Lively Latin.

 

It can be done!

[chiguirre]

You can stuff a lot of books into a carry on bag. There are also lots of downloadable and printable curriculum available and I'd stick with those as much as possible. You can also buy the local schoolbooks once you speak the language well. Venezuelan textbooks are quite good in my experience and very, very inexpensive.

[Laura Corin]

Three options that we used when we lived in China: taking books with us/picking up more when we travelled/getting more brought in by friends; downloadable texts; shipping by bookdepository.co.uk (free to many countries).

 

Laura

[Dayle in Guatemala]

We have homeschooled in Guatemala now for 5 years. I have no problems getting basic supplies, but, books are another situation.

 

Here are the options I use:

 

--I plan all my school and order everything and have it shipped to my parents in the US by February. Then, when I hear of someone or a group coming, I contact them to see if they can bring stuff down for me and my mom ships what I need to them and they bring it to me.

 

--When we visit the US, we bring back as much as we can and I plan ahead to include the next books we will need as well, if I can.

 

--We have, on occasion, had something shipped here, but, we will never do it again! It took literally MONTHS for it to get here and it was SOOOOOOOOO expensive to pick it up from the post office, that it wasn't worth it at all.

 

Kindle would be great for regular books for sure. But, on an aside, if you use things like Netflix, they don't stream outside the US so it's not available to you. We've had to work out other options.

 

Where are you moving to?

[Kate in Arabia]

I also order our books for the entire school year to be delivered to my parents in the States; we visit the US each summer for a month, so I pick up everything and (try to) fit it into our luggage to bring back. (We are actually leaving on Wednesday to go home, so I'm struggling with the packing even as we speak.) During the school year if I discover something I really need I will try to find someone coming there who can bring it, otherwise I can have them mail it media mail. I have also bought some things from Amazon.com.uk with success.

 

For general reading we are always on the lookout for book sales, particularly moving sales of other expats; and since my dh works for a college system here, I have access to the system's library which isn't fabulous (especially for children's books), but has a decent number of videos that I borrow from time to time.

[Pata]

We are in India (and prefer the term "developing world" :001_smile:).

 

I ordered everything from the US and had friends and family brings us bits and pieces as they were coming this summer.

 

(snip)

 

I also try to find curriculum that I can order online and download - like Lively Latin.

 

It can be done!

 

 

:iagree: This is what we do (except we are in China). I've never heard of bookdepository, I'll have to check that out (Thank's Laura!).

[Embassy]

Dayle, it looks like we may be moving to Sri Lanka.

 

What do you all do for science lab supplies? I have a science intense kid.

[Kate in Arabia]

 

What do you all do for science lab supplies?

I've had to be fairly adventurous to track down science supplies; I have actually found a fair number of science supplies stores both in the UAE and Saudi -- but they are not fancy stores with the latest packaged kits from the US. Often they are science suppliers for local schools and/or universities. So I can find some really interesting items, but not necessarily as nicely laid out and packaged as what we can get in the US. And at least in my case, we can haggle so can get some really nice stuff for good prices.

[Pata]

What do you all do for science lab supplies? I have a science intense kid.

 

You'll be surprised what you can get in the way of science supplies (and where you can get them). It's very easy to get stuff for your dissections, you just go down to the market ;). So far, if we haven't been able to get something, we've usually been able to find a suitable replacement. Good luck on your move, living (and homeschooling) overseas can be alot of fun!

[KnitWit]

I think it depends upon where you are going. We have friends homeschooling in the Third World (as opposed to *Developing World*, because...well, they are tribal people, and are not *developing* and really are quite happy remaining in the Stone Age). For them, they must take their stuff interior with them. They have *no* internet access until they come back to the coast. They are also limited to how much they take in at a time because it is so damp, basically everything molds.

 

So, depending upon where you are headed, sometimes, less is more...but if you get creative, you can do it! Our friends are medical workers. Their kids have had a BLAST and learned so much already about people/plants/animals/etc. They have hiked places that have never been seen by the *outside* world. :)

 

*Education* is *relative* in a place like that. :)

 

(Edited to add: I began posted and got distracted by a 4yo :) Obviously, I missed your post that you are going to Sri Lanka! COOL! I wish you the best and you will not have the issues my friends have. :) )

Edited July 12, 2010 by MSPolly

[Amira]

We have in the past and are getting ready to do the same for the next several years. We'll use ereaders and an iPad this time because it's so difficult and expensive to get books it the country we'll be in, and we're not with any sort of organization that will pay for homeschooling stuff. I am so excited about having the option of using ereaders this time.

 

Last time we took four suitcases of books with us. We didn't ship anything last time and we won't this time because we can't afford it. I think it's definitely worth your looking into ereaders.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

Dayle, it looks like we may be moving to Sri Lanka.

 

What do you all do for science lab supplies? I have a science intense kid.

 

 

 

Sri Lanka! Awesome!!! Are you going to keep a blog?

 

For science lab supplies, I order them and bring them in. I hesitate to get stuff at the market here because of health reasons (we eat from the market, but, bringing in a raw heart and dissecting it over a couple of days is something I don't want to deal with). I would just really plan. Figure out what you're going to need and order it and bring it with you. We order our supplies from Home Training Tools. The dissection stuff comes packaged in a solution that disinfects them and preserves them. We ordered them months before we actually needed them and they were well-preserved.

[Colleen in NS]

Dayle, it looks like we may be moving to Sri Lanka.

 

What do you all do for science lab supplies? I have a science intense kid.

 

Sri Lanka! Cool! My doctor is from there, and she recently went back there for a three week medical mission. What will you be doing there?

 

I posted on your other thread about Efston Science. It's in Toronto, and they have lots of great supplies. Another place in Alberta that I heard about more recently was this one.

[Embassy]

We'd be doing evangelism among the villages.

 

Thanks for the info about the science places. The place in Toronto has what I have been looking for and they are close enough to visit!

[LuckyDuck103]

I think the "developing world" is fairly broad & there are vast inter-country & intra-country variations. You'd probably be best to look at a particular location and go from there. It also depends on whether or not you want to follow the North American curriculum.

 

We did road-test homeschooling in Zimbabwe & had a blast. I'm a native so ymmv. We brought books with us for the subject we were doing but we could have done just as well without them. Zimbabwe has a great education tradition so educational materials are not hard to come by. Our plan is to go back & settle next year. I have a high schooler with whom I've started working on Cambridge IGCSEs which are internationally recognized.

 

We also did A LOT of field trips & hands-on learning. Arts & culture (from both western & local perspective), geography (settlement, industry, physical geography), nature study, history (did you know they are WW11 veterans in sub-saharan Africa?) etc. I can't wait to go back.

 

Generally, it's fairly cheap to get housekeeping help in developing countries. Getting help with housework helped free up my time for more homeschool adventures. The lady who was helping us also helped a lot with language learning for the kids. My younger one especially picked up quite a bit of the local language. Older DD is already fluent. It may also be cheaper to get a tutor for those subjects you don't particularly care about. My DD did French with a qualified teacher for $5/hr.

 

Hope you have a blast!