The Others

Up till now this blog has been about Jonty's home-schooling journey. Now I am making it about all three children, and their wider education, not just home schooling.

So here's a bit of background about my precious poppets:

Jonty is 6 and has attended Anubaan Suan Angun in Chiang Mai, been in a Thai Homeschool co-op in Chiang Mai, Thabile Nursery School in South Africa, an international school in Lampang, Benjamaat kindergarten, and is now in Arunothai school. 6 schools and he’s only 6!

Poor kid you might think. But no, he "graduated" 4th in his kindergarten class despite the disruptions and language disadvantage, and is doing very well at his new primary school. He actually enjoys school. Although his Thai was his weakest mark, he did win a gold medal in a Thai public speaking last year. His pre-school teacher advised me that his Thai was more than good enough to cope in a mainstream Thai primary school.

Nina (3) and Emily (4, almost 5) are in a small private kindergarten: Benjamaat Kindergarten. It is a separate kindergarten i.e. not attached to a primary school. Emily started there in Triam Anubaan (what I earlier referred to as Grade 0000 or something) and is now in Anubaan 2 (Grade 00).

Nina used to go to the nursery twice a week, but has now started Triam Anubaan where Emily began her Thai education. They go to school from 8h30 to 15h00 on Mon, Wed and Fri, and till 11h30 on Tues and Wed. On their half days I do some activities at home – English, free play, and creative crafts. I guess this is ‘homeschooling’, but it seems a bit extreme to me to call it that for such little children! Really, I'm just being Mom.

Jonty, Emily and Nina are all outgoing and sociable and they craved friendships with peers. We’d heard that children just “pick up” languages, but had seen no evidence of this and were concerned that if the kids did not speak Thai they would be disadvantaged socially.

So, our 2 main INITIAL reasons for sending our children to Thai school were (1) for socialisation and (2) to learn Thai.

Now that we’ve been in the system for a few years we realise that there are untold benefits – such as being more normal to our Thai friends (my life is far more similar to theirs now, they understand some my challenges and I understand more of theirs), being accepted and included in community events, and many contacts we’ve made through the parents and grandparents. It’s a very natural way to be part of society. Our children are also developing a very deep understanding of Thai culture and we’re learning from them.

We do realise though, that there ARE gaps in the Thai education system IF we want our children to cope in other western education systems at some point - which we do, seeing as we have to take Home Assignment every 4 years!

We constantly monitor what those gaps are and do our duty in filling them. We see this as our responsibility rather than a weakness in the school. Our thinking has changed in that we are doing local schooling and supplementing with homeschool, rather than homeschooling and supplementing with local school. Our children are as integrated as much as possible and compete on a fairly even footing with their peers.

Hard? Yes, but enormous blessings in this too.