School

My Island Boys

We did not move more than half way around the world to a tiny island backwater to replicate our suburban life back in Johannesburg, although it does feel like it most days. We sit in traffic jams, moan about crappy supermarkets and trudge around endless 'after school activities'.  On weekends, we squeeze in the beach but we could be living in Wimbledon or Greenwich or [name any middle class suburb anywhere in the world] albeit with a great view.

Our main reason to move back to the islands was to give the boys the same carefree life that their father had experienced when he grew up here. Yesterday the boys went on their own to the beach for a few hours. They fish in our local village on their own, ride their bikes around here and have some wonderful adventures like island treasure hunts. They don't get to hang out in malls because we don't have any and they couldn't care less about brands they wear unless it's Gill.  That seems to matter for sailing. They know who Katy Perry is. They consider Waitrose Cod Fish Fingers a massive treat. They look everything up on YouTube.

The reason why Tylers' family left the island over thirty years ago was the lack of a high school. All kids from the age of 8 went back to England to boarding school. This started to change about 15 years ago when an international school was established on the island and it was one of the main reasons we could move back. The school offers the International Baccalaureate programme something we'd not heard of before, but which is well regarded. It has to be the very antitheses of the boy's old school which was a traditional preparatory school, but they have had some wonderful teachers and have made lots of good friends. The standard of education has generally been good and the classroom resources are in line with other private schools. There is, of course, a cost to this. In our case a brutal $4000 every month.

What we have never got used to however, is the wishy-washy politically-correct non-culture of the school, with its scant sense of community or context,  the reason given that the student body is supposedly transient and 'international'.  The kids don't, for example, sing the national anthem (or even know what it is) or celebrate any national holidays like Commonwealth Day.There are also no school sports just an afternoon 'Clubs Programme', which is priced to make a profit, despite the number of parent volunteers. We therefore pay to sing in the choir or be in the school soccer team. The school and its rather vacuous  'internationalism' feels like an island on an island with no real connection or accountability to anything, anyone or anywhere. It's not for us. School is the whole 'shabang'. The whole school ethos thing.  It's not only about smartboards or howmany doctorates the teachers have.

Plus we havn't had much fun since we've arrived here over 2 years ago since all we've done is work our *$$ off to pay for our neo-suburban lifestyle. On a beautiful tropical paradise of an island.

How ridiculous is that?

So we've decided we need to make the most of Here and Now. Focus on the kids. Have some fun. After much research we've decided to homeschool William (7) and Georgie (10) for a few years, whilst James stays on to finish Grade 7 (the margin for error with him is less!) after which they will all have to go off to boarding school off-island.  There is therefore a safety net - the children will not become uneducated island savages Lord-of-the-Flies-Style. 

We're going to combine the UK National Curriculum with Learner-Led education. We're investing in iPads and we're joining Surf School (mum too). We're going to learn to dance and we may take up another musical instrument such as steel pan or electric guitar. We're going to play tennis and go scuba diving. We are going to consult marine biologists and bug experts and learn how to cook West Indian food. We're going to attend concerts at the Miami Philharmonic (now that we can afford to do this) and travel to Cuba to learn about socialism. We will also learn how to spell properly.

It's as scary as hell, but no more so than our current lives of living on the financial edge or suffering the ghastly Kingstown Twang (the nasal 'transatlantic' accent the kids pick up at school which sounds like nails screeching on blackboards) both of which do my head in.

I was going to write a treatise on how mainstream and successful homeschooling has become, and I may still - but we're not trying to justify ourselves here. We just think it's a good idea for our family and if it doesn't work out, there are plenty of options out there.

If nothing else, it will make for interesting blogs.

The past week has been a good one: The bakery van finally arrived on Friday and it did our first wholesale delivery on Saturday. I started with a personal trainer on Friday and subsequently still can't walk and we've already baked about 100 dozen Hot Cross Buns.  The kids are now on EASTER holidays and we have a busy week ahead of us.