Homeschooling in Spain

[micheleb]

I live in Nerja, near Malaga and home school my 2 daughters ages 13 and 15. They are studying GCSE's and everything is going really well education wise. I have organised for them to sit the IGCSE exams at a college in Malaga in November. Just wondered if there are any other parents out there who home educate kids of a similar age as I feel the only drawback for the girls is lack of interaction with people their own age. They talk to people their own age via the net all the time but only have a couple of friends they see here.

[Stravinsky]

If you do a search in this forum it has been discussed before on here
Welcome to the forum

[kentmaid]

Hi was so pleased to find your posting,
I have 11 yr old daughter who is home educated in the uk at present,and we are hoping to relocate to spain in the next few months,and I was worried that I could not continue to home educate in spain.So it was great to see your posting.
Can you tell me if your children are managing to pick up the spanish language?
Is it hard for them to interact with other children?
I have been really worried about all of these things and more,and any help or advice you could give me would be a god send.
Are there any home educator groups etc in spain?
Sorry to ramble on,but it is just so nice to find that there is someone in spain who is home educating.
thanks and hope you can find the infomation you requirer.

[buena onda]

Hi there,
We are a home-educating family currently living in Coín/Yunquera area.
We have a son, nearly 13, and a daughter, nearly 15.
It's hard for us too, to find social contacts! A friend found your post, micheleb, and emailed me the link today.
Haven't explored this site properly yet to know if you can pm me, but if you get hold of 'Sur in English' for last week (i.e. from Friday 2nd May) I put an ad in there in the personal column, with my phone no.
Otherwise I'll keep an eye on this site.
It would be cool to meet up if you like, maybe in Malaga city?hope to hear from you!
V.

[Theresa]

Hi we live in Lora del Rio Sevilla and have 4 children we are about to start homeschooling in September we have a 15 year old daughter and 3 boys age 12,10 and 8. My daughter is not keen on the homeschooling idea so would be interested if she could chat to your daughter online about it.

[buena onda]

Hi Theresa,

My daughter would be happy to talk - msn ok?

When we figure out how to send a PM (done it once before but it's eluding me this time for some reason) - we can send you her email address.

Kentmaid - just read your post -

As far as language goes, the kids pick up bits and pieces, but they haven't met any Spanish kids yet who are willing to make friends. We've found that it's hard to get chatting to people outside of some kind of context, usually it would be via school of course.

We use the website 'Notes in Spanish' which does free language learning podcasts at three levels.

Haven't found a network of home educators, but there is a home educators website 'Educacion Libre' for Spain.

The Spanish we've met seem to view being out of the system as breaking the law - bit like the attitude to it here in the 70s and 80s I guess. They don't really understand and so we don't go round advertising the fact, and nobody seems that interested anyway. They probably see us as just another bunch of unfathomable 'guiris'!

bye for now
V.

[jojo]

I'm not judging here, in fact I'm genuinely interested. What are the benefits of home education??

Jo

[chris(madrid)]

Originally Posted by buena onda

As far as language goes, the kids pick up bits and pieces, but they haven't met any Spanish kids yet who are willing to make friends. We've found that it's hard to get chatting to people outside of some kind of context, usually it would be via school of course.

The Spanish we've met seem to view being out of the system as breaking the law - bit like the attitude to it here in the 70s and 80s I guess. They don't really understand and so we don't go round advertising the fact, and nobody seems that interested anyway. They probably see us as just another bunch of unfathomable 'guiris'!

I'm actually genuinely surprised you've not had "official visits" - I was under the impression it's NOT LEGAL here.

Just found this too education-spain.info

What would be your reaction if you for example want to teach your child at home and you have such right, but in stead of give permission, you are accused in neglecting your own child? Something similar is going on in the Spain concerning home education.

According to the Constitution, the right for education is guarantees for everyone and elementary education is compulsory and free. Also it is said that individuals and legal organizations have the right to open educational establishments. And public authorities should control and standardize these establishments. But there is nothing about home education. There isn’t written law concerning home education, that’s why the situation with it is rather complicated one.

Elementary education is recognized as an obligatory one, but home education is not recognized. So, all matters related to home education are considered according to welfare legislation. Based on this legislation, if child doesn’t attend school, then his parents neglect him. The reasons why child doesn’t go to school are not important and are not considered. If children don’t visit school, then their parents would appear before the court.

If the aim is to stay here - THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO (IMO) is isolate your children from the local language and culture. I appreciate there maybe other factors at stake.

[Theresa]

Hi
I am trying to work out how to send a private mail so my 15 year old daughter can contact your daughter online, have you any ideas? thanks

[SunnySpain]

Interesting words, as I also thought it was NOT legal to home school in Spain.

It would seems to me that there are very few benefits from home schooling for expats as surely the lack of interaction with other children their own age is not a good thing and the idea of making friends online is well documented to have its pros and cons.

So I ask the question, why would you choose to home school your children in a foreign country ?

Regards, Dave