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Just like no two kids are the alike, not every international school is the same. Some international schools may lack the religious convictions an expat family is searching for, or have the unreasonable twenty-three-kids-to-a-class ratio. Others may not provide the services we find in most U.S. public schools, like quality programs for children with learning disabilities, a good environment for a physical disabilities -- perhaps the school is not challenging enough.

In some the more remote places of the world, there is no international school at all. Whatever the reason may be for finding an alternative to the local school, homeschooling can be a very good solution for families living overseas, accomplished with just a little creativity and the right kind of information.

What is Overseas Homeschooling?

Homeschooling overseas is much like homeschooling is in the U.S. Instead of being taught in a traditional school setting, the child is taught from home.

Who Will Teach My Child?

There's more than one right answer to that question, just depending on what works best for both you and your child. Many parents in the United States reserve the position as "teacher" for themselves, but living overseas with corporate benefits that cover tuition costs, we as expats are open to another interesting concept: hiring a teacher or tutor to do the teaching for us.

Hiring someone outside of the family to do the teaching offers some great advantages.

1. Having a teacher who is familiar with learning disabilities or the challenges of teaching a gifted child can relieve a lot of the pressure for parents to “figure it out”, especially if the diagnosis is new.

2. When living internationally and away from family and friends, your personal social life will never be more important. Remaining active and social is a critical element to overcoming culture shock. Having an outside teacher and a good homeschool schedule can create a healthy balance for the entire family.

How Can We Afford to Pay for a Private Teacher?

Many employers are open to using the tuition that would normally be applied towards a very expensive international school (where tuition can run into many thousands of dollars a year per child), and putting it towards homeschooling instead. Explain your situation to your employer and ask for what may be considered a special consideration. It’s important to remember that most companies have placed a large investment in their international service employees who themselves have committed to three to five year assignments. Employers choose to be more flexible under those circumstances.

Which Homeschool Curriculum Should I Choose?

Here are a few of our recommendations for homeschooling internationally, with information as stated on their websites:

Calvert School

Calvert, which just celebrated their one hundredth birthday, offers nine "enrollment privileges": Access to Education Counselors; Free standard shipping on curriculum materials, including all core courses and enrichment products; My Calvert, your personalized on line resource center, which is populated with tools to enhance and reinforce your child’s education; i-Library, which provides access to Calvert Reference Tools and supplemental on line activities that are grade-specific and interactive; Technical Support for all of your Calvert software applications, included as part of enrollment; Calvert Connection, our quarterly newsletter that celebrates Calvert School students’ accomplishments and includes student artwork, photos, stories, poems, ATS honor roll, and more; Online parent Bulletin Boards for families to connect with one another and with Calvert’s staff, to ask questions, to obtain information and opinions, and to share their insights and experiences; A personalized Student Identification Card affording discounts to software, bookstores, and other national retailers; access to the Advisory Teaching Service, which is an optional service available exclusively to enrolled students.

Laurel Springs School Laurel Springs is a distant learning school that offers several different types of curriculum's, as well as accreditation, all records, transcripts, diplomas and support. It’s a good choice for kids with specific learning needs for three main reasons:

The Learning Style Profile Test. According to the L.S.S. website, "the profile measures five key learning style categories: Disposition (learning personality), Talents, Interests, Environment, and Modality (information processing)." The exam is completed by the student over the Internet with the guidance of a parent or teacher, the test is then sent via email to be interpreted by a L.S. S. Learning Specialist. The results are later conveyed personally to the parents over the phone and a curriculum, as well as and teaching suggestions based on the results of the Learning Style Profile are suggested. These specialists are also open to answering any future questions-- an especially helpful service when the homeschool teacher has run into problems explaining a new concept to the student and needs suggestions.

Teacher services. Laurel Springs offers support to teaching parents and tutors, and depending of the level of support you choose (level A, B, or C), include frequent one-on-one teacher interaction via email or over the phone. This is an invaluable tool for those who choose to teach their own child, as it provides teaching and instruction support throughout the semester (or year) to the parent by a certified teacher who follows the child from year to year, providing the teaching parent with consistency.

Laurel Springs offers flexibility. It is up to you and your L.S. teacher as to how to send in samples of your child's work, when and how often. They are sympathetic to the challenges of doing such business from a foreign country and are very understanding when mail doesn’t arrive exactly when planned.

Ablaze Academy

Ablaze Academy offers an accredited academic program that allows students to complete all classes from anywhere there is a computer and at their own pace.

Everything is delivered straight to your computer, from lessons to tests to progress reports. There are no books or CDs to purchase.

Accredited classes are available in every subject from grade K1 through 12. Courses can be accessed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from anywhere there is a computer and a connection to the Internet. You can speak to the tutor over a mike or "chat" by keyboard. The tutor sees what you mark or write on your screen and vice versa. You receive the help you need, then simply click out and continue with your work. Use the tutors as often as needed. They are available until 1 A.M. These tutors are experts and available in each subject. Ablaze Academy helps at-risk students with remedial help in reading, writing, spelling, science, English, math, and social studies.

Keystone National Highschool

Keystone National High school lets you enroll at any time during the year. Keystone provides the following benefits:

Offers simple single fee pricing: our tuition costs include textbooks and course materials—there are no hidden fees.

Today, more than 20,000 students are enrolled at Keystone National High School.

The benefits of using Keystone: It’s accredited and they have 30 Years of Distance Learning Experience. They are flexible with an open enrollment and students can study at their own time and pace. Graduates receive a valid high school diploma. Past students have been accepted at over 140 colleges and universities through an award-winning Program and Curriculum. Keystone can also help with credit completion.

Time4Learning

Time4Learning is a convenient, online home school curriculum that combines education with interactive fun. Time4Learning's online learning system (an implementation of CompassLearning Odyssey®) teaches language arts, math, science, and social studies, preschool to eighth grade. Kids like using the computer to learn. The Time4Learning homeschooling curriculum gives students independence as they progress at their own pace. Parents like that it tracks progress through the curriculum and helps kids advance by teaching with individualized curriculum that assures mastery of the skills and concepts that makes kids succeed. Time4Learning is proven effective, has a low monthly price, and provides a money-back guarantee so you can make sure that it works for your kids, risk free.

“Time4Learning is a great homeschool education partner because it offers each child their own learning path, with animated lessons, interactive activities, unit assessments, and integrated printable worksheets for reinforcement.”

The Christian Liberty Academy School System The Christian Liberty Academy School System (CLASS) is an independent and non-denominational K–12 home school program. CLASS was established in 1967 by Dr. Paul Lindstrom (1939–2002), a pioneer of the modern home school movement. CLASS has helped thousands of families to get started—and succeed—in home schooling. Today, CLASS consists of thousands of home schools throughout the United States and around the world, with students ranging in age from four to adult. CLASS graduates are being accepted by leading colleges, universities, and military academies.

How It Works:

When you enroll, CLASS assembles the curriculum best fitted for your child based on achievement test scores and other academic information. Books and materials are chosen from a variety of carefully selected publishers. After you begin working with our curriculum, you may request a curriculum adjustment if necessary—at no extra cost. We include management tools such as our CLASS Handbook and Lesson Planner (book or CD) to help you organize and document your school year. Our Customer Service Department answers questions about the administration of your school.

Accreditation

Christian Liberty does not seek accreditation. Given the state of public education in America, our academy sincerely believes that it is responsible to promote education reform by setting a higher standard—to lead, rather than to follow the crowd. Most schools accept our credits. Those who do not immediately accept our credits will do so after administering an achievement test, receiving information about our course requirements, and seeing the quality of the child’s education.

Citizens' High School

Citizens' High School, which has been around since 1981, provides quality coursework for people to earn an actual high school diploma, not a GED, from an Accredited High School Program. Citizens’ High School serves a wide variety of special groups: teenagers from home school families in all 50 states; children of American families living overseas; students unable to pursue their education in a resident setting due to unique personal situations, family or work commitments, illness, or handicaps; and professional athletes and entertainers. The program is designed for self-paced learning, with no school-imposed time constraints for completing a course. Citizens' High School provides a 9th - 12th grade high school diploma program accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council.

What Does "Accreditation" Mean?

Accreditation means that the homeschool has been inspected by an outside, independent agency who has determined it to meet accepted standards for schools. These standards include the seriousness of the course of studies, the managing of academic records, accounting practices, and business practices.

Something to keep in mind: When using a distance learning school, keep in mind that unlike a traditional school, the only person responsible for making sure grades and transcripts are complete is you. Homeschooling will require more than just teaching on your part; it also requires following up with the distant school to make sure your child's work has been received, evaluated and given a documented grade. Continue to follow up until you know that the school on the other end has done their job because mistakes do happen.

Heather Domnick is a freelance writer and lifelong expat having traversed the globe from Peru to Hong Kong and Illinois to Chile. She contributes articles on Chilean expat life to the Santiago Times and the Chile Information Project.

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