Homeschooling overseas"

[abdesigns]

I was wondering if any of you guys have experience homeschooling in Europe, specifically, Sicily? My husband is a civilian working for the Navy, and opportunity has been offered to him to move to Sigonella Naval Air Station for five years. I would LOVE to homeschool in Italy, and all over Europe. This would be a dream come true, but I'm apprehensive as well. My mom has Alzheimers, but they live very far away from us anyway, and we only see them twice a year, but still... Being in a different country if something happens scares me. And, I have Lupus, and am severely allergic to UV, is a mediterranean climate a stupid idea for me (I'll ask my dr all of this as well).

 

Are military bases homeschool friendly? How do you find out about the laws? We probably wouldn't live on base. HELP????

[Lily_Grace]

I am in Northern Italy. It's beautiful, and so homeschool friendly! The laws for homeschoolers don't pertain to us - SOFAs help us maintain our American status, and the military/DoD wants nothing to do with regulating homeschooling. They welcome us into the schools for parttime education if we choose and leave us alone if we don't. There's no reporting needed.

 

I found out about our local group through Yahoogroups. There's probably one for Sigonella, too. Definitely check, or ask your sponsor to ask around on base. Here we try to get a rep to Right Start but it doesn't always happen.

 

And I understand your apprehension! We had a family emergency less than a year after we left and could barely send dh home (btw, definitely look into the hops schedule, too!). Now we maintain an emergency fund dedicated to the cost of plane tickets and a rental car. It's not perfect, but it does mean we can get there in a day if we had to.

 

Benvenuta a Italia!

[abdesigns]

WOW, that sounds great! And that's even for DOD Civilians? I was worried that it only covered Military families. I looked at the homeschooling laws for Italians, I was worried about the mandatory testing, I can just imagine my children just learning Italian, and being thrown into a test that's in Italian, ughh.

 

You don't have to file any paperwork? No testing? No portfolio? No evaluator? OMGoodness, I think I might be in heaven!

 

We are doing the Ancients this year, I'm just imagining the field trips, I just can't stop thinking about that.

[Lily_Grace]

Even for contractors. :) They're covered, too.

 

You will absolutely love it here. I'm pretty sure it's open to you, so take advantage of ITT trips when you can. This fall we're going back to Camp Darby and going to Vinci and Florence. We did Pisa last time and it was beautiful. Spring is Naples and taking a Pompeii trip. We've already done the local area (Venice, Verona, etc.) on our own, but I'd rather book through ITT if I'm going far. Especially since I won't drive in southern Italy if I can help it.

 

Most bases have on post campsites for pretty cheap, but there's also what are called camping villages that are the Italian/European version - about E100 for three nights and you get a camper and access to activities, private beaches and the like. Or there's dh's and my method - hop on a train, go somewhere, and go from hotel to hotel asking if there's a vacancy. :D We've gotten some pretty cheap rooms that way! Ryan Air flies into most major places, too, so take a look at costs to go to France or the UK (Olympics 2012!).

 

The BIG thing is, Italy is not handicap friendly. That means if you have a little one pushing a stroller can be a pain! We use a carrier most places we go and keep an umbrella stroller in reserve. It's just easier than expecting 2000 year old streets and buildings to accommodate 21st century children!

[abdesigns]

Okay, I'm sold. This is awesome! Thank you so much! You have totally put my worries at ease!

 

The next stress, renting our house in America, ughh, so much work to do to get it rent worthy. We have a while, DH has to stay at his job here until December.

[abdesigns]

I'm sorry, just checking. do you know if DOD employees get base housing? I guess I should be asking this of my husband, but he's on travel this week. His boss just offered him the position last night, so it's like a whirl wind.

 

How is health care? I guess I would use the doctors on base?

[Lily_Grace]

:lol: I just like selling people on the place. I never wanted to come (didn't NOT want to come, either) but now that I'm here I'm in love. Would you like the bad now? :D

 

-the first month sucks. Hate to say it, but it's true. "Domani" will become a curse word and the fight for houses is rough. Don't worry, you'll get a house, but those few weeks will exhaust you and what can go wrong, will. Everyone has a different experience - which is good, because what happened to us will not happen to you! :lol: But look on AHRN and if your sponsor (do you get a sponsor?) is willing they can set up appts to see homes the first few days you get there so you hit the ground running.

 

-budget wisely. Bills come infrequently, as do speeding tickets if you get one. Our phone/internet bill arrives about every 2-3 months, for example. People have gotten speeding tickets after they've already been gone for up to a year.

 

-you will need a GPS if you don't have one. Our family center loans them out for house hunting but they are really handy for day to day things. There's about 40 different towns in my area and after a year I don't have them memorized yet, let alone the street names.

 

 

 

I wish you were coming up here! We've got a great co-op and homeschool group that meets weekly. It's one of the best groups I've ever been a part of. :001_smile:

[Lily_Grace]

I'm sorry, just checking. do you know if DOD employees get base housing? I guess I should be asking this of my husband, but he's on travel this week. His boss just offered him the position last night, so it's like a whirl wind.

 

How is health care? I guess I would use the doctors on base?

 

I honestly don't know. We don't have base housing here, just what is called GRP and base-leased along with privately rented houses.

 

Health care is so-so. We have a clinic and the city hospital off base. It's standard, I guess. I do like that our base doctor is very down to earth and has no problems with cloth diapers or delayed vaccinations. She was a pleasant surprise.

If you use a hospital off base, get the phone numbers you'll need and put them in your cell. Here, we call our patient hotline and they call for a translator to meet us at the hospital.

[abdesigns]

It it extremely expensive, compared to the States? I know that gas is. will we be paupers? lol, of course, we'd get overseas pay. He'll be a GS13... tell me, will we be able to afford all of the travel that I'm hoping for? I think there is a homeschooling group in Sicily as well, I'm waiting on approval from the Yahoo group.

 

We are the type of people that disaster seems to follow, so this concerns me. I'll read what you have to say in your link.

[Lily_Grace]

Let me ask around, but up here we get gas coupons rationed to us. We pay $4.00+ a gallon, while on the economy it's $9.00+. Travel can be done really, really cheap. We looked at going to EuroDisney from here and plane tickets were about $70/person with taxes included. Train tickets can be cheaper than driving especially when factoring tolls.

 

Food is more expensive for some things, like milk. We only get half-gallons here at the commissary and pay almost twice as much. The rules to eating out are the same - stay away from the tourist-y places and prices will drop. I think we spent E60 for our family to eat dinner in Pisa because dh wanted a view of the tower. In Venice I have a haunt where we might spend E25 and get the same quality food or better that you would find closer to St. Mark's.

 

 

You definitely won't be paupers, but I've known one too many who blow the extra income and then complain when a bill finally comes due or some such thing. The rule given out here is to get an Italian bank account and have part of your pay put in it each month for rent and utilities. Don't touch any extra in that account until you pay up when you leave. It's better than getting a sticker shock because the company has estimated the bill until then. (which happens a lot!)

[abdesigns]

So much great information!! Thank you so much. I'm reading your blog right now!

[JaniceO]

We moved back to the States last summer for a three year tour in Naples, Italy. We LOVED it and are very sad to not live there anymore. We talk about Italy and Europe just about every day. We are going to try to go back once our tour here is up, that's how much we loved it.

 

It's not hunky dory every day, but it was definitely worth all of the negatives.

 

In Naples, DOD civilians could get base housing (and we knew many that did live on base), not sure if it's the same for Sig though. We sent 2 years living off base and then the last year living on base.

 

Gotta run for now, but I can answer any more questions if you have them.

[abdesigns]

So far, I haven't heard anyone say anything negative. Tell me, is it the dream come true that I'm imagining it is, to homeschool in Italy? What with all of the history, art, etc.... I'm foaming at the mouth right now.

[abdesigns]

My head is swimming, I'm sure I'll have more questions soon.

 

actually, is there a chart or something somewhere that would tell me how long, by train, it would take to get to other places in Europe? and would it be better to fly to places, such as Paris? Probably better to fly, I'm guessing.

[JaniceO]

I don't know of a chart but you might be able to Google it. I know we found train information by Googling. The only real big downside to living in Southern Italy, is that it is a 2 day drive just to get out of the country. Living in Naples, it was an entire (long) day drive to get to out of the country, so you have it worse there.

 

We are a family of 6, so it was often cheaper for us to drive versus fly or take the train. We actually drove to Paris and Normandy and it was a wonderful trip! We drove to the Southern cost of France too (Marseilles) and that was an awesome trip as well. There is much to be said for enjoying the countryside by car. There are plenty of agriturismos to stop at (and I definitely recommend those over hotels). We drove to Germany/Austria/Switzerland a couple of times. We did fly to England though. That would have been a LONG drive and DH wasn't big on the idea of driving through the Chunnel.

 

Homeschooling in Italy was an awesome experience. We studied ancient history and medieval history and there is just nothing like being able to show the kids what we are learning about. They learned about WWII and now they'll have a reference in their minds when we discuss it this year.

[Lily_Grace]

My head is swimming, I'm sure I'll have more questions soon.

 

actually, is there a chart or something somewhere that would tell me how long, by train, it would take to get to other places in Europe? and would it be better to fly to places, such as Paris? Probably better to fly, I'm guessing.

 

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=c79686605528a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

 

If you're looking for better time flying is the way to do it. To give you an idea, it's 8 hours from Venice to Rome by train. Costs vary depending on season and day.

 

 

Here's another site to bookmark - http://www.autovie.it/ If you go to About Motorways->Toll Collection, you can calculate how much the total will be if you drive any distance on the highways.