Homeschooling Abroad

I have been a "homeschool mom" for nigh untoof juice and packs up her swimming gear. She
25 years now. My oldest son is 29 years old andgets her 300 colones from her Dad for bus fare
my youngest daughter is four. We will beand walks the block down to catch the 9:15 city
homeschooling for another few years it looks like.bus. She goes downtown to Heredia for her swim
We have used many different methods, as wellworkout at the city pool. It is $20.00 for a one
as non methods. The best method we havemonth pass. It is a beautiful 50 meter outdoor
found is the one we are using right now. We arepool with all the lanelines etc. She gets her
living in Costa Rica and loving it.workout from a free online swimming class she is
Two years ago we sold everything and movedenrolled in through BYU Independent Studies
here to Costa Rica for a five year adventure.Program. She walks over to the store and
When we made the move we were concernedcatches the bus home, arriving by 11:30.
about our two youngest daughters who would beWhen she gets home we all have lunch together
moving here with us. I researched private schoolsand she gets started on her school work. The
and decided on one my older daughter wouldone rule we do enforce with her is no laptop until
attend here. She attended school for two monthsthe school work is done. That is the only
at the private school, after which time we pulledmotivation she needs to get her school work
her out and proceeded to homeschool, again.done in a hurry. Her curriculum consits of a
One of the reasons we had put her into theprogram we ordered online for $400.00, entire
school was so that she could make friends andyear included. It includes all of the basics and she
work on her Spanish. After a few days we sawseems to be progressing well. She is very
this was not going to happen. All of the girls wereconscientious about completing her school work as
afraid to talk to her because they were selfshe plans to return to the States to attend
conscious about their English and felt that it wascollege.
not good enough. She did make friends with someAfter her school work is completed my daughter
of the braver boys, but she was not happy therespends part of her afternoon on-line keeping up
with the situation.with all of her high-5 friends from Costa Rica. For
Fot the past year and a half she has beenthe first year she kept up with all of her
homeschooling. When we agreed to her pleas formyspace friends from the states. In the
homeschooling we put some stipulations on it. Weafternoons her school friends come by to pick
were both tired of homeschooling and had finallyher up. The walk to the park down the street or
decided it was time to send the kids to school.to town to look at the pet store, or buy food.
For this reason she agreed she would beSometimes they will take a picnic to the park. In
responsible for getting all of her work done,the evening she helps with dinner and clean up
exercise everyday, and get out and make someand has her chores to do.
friends so that she could polish up her Spanish.Her friends all speak Spanish and her Spanish is
It has proven very effective. I do have tovery fluent at this point. We are very happy with
preface this by saying that there were others ofthe progress she has made and wonder about all
our children that it would not have worked with.the time we spent forcing out other children to
Every child is different and has different outlooksget their school work done! She has gained so
and needs. For my daughter the "unschooling" hasmuch more from this experience than she would
worked great and we are very happy with it.have ever received from attending a regular high
What does one of her days look like?school. Yes she will miss prom, oh well maybe we
She gets up at 8:30 every morning during thewill go spend a week at the beach for her
school week. I will not even say when she getsgraduation!
up on the weekends! She gets up, drinks a glass