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Magnificat
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 10:06pm | IP Logged
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Hello everyone,
I'm hoping to get some information, and you all never fail me!!
My husband has a possible job opportunity either in England or Italy. Don't have info yet as to the details of exactly where. Does anyone know if the legalities in either of these places for homeschooling? Any tips, advice or words of wisdom would be really appreciated. Thanks so much!
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stefoodie
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 10:24pm | IP Logged
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Charlotte, how exciting! God willing, we will be homeschooling in Italy also next year (Pescara). I'm looking forward to responses here. And we'll have to share notes!
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stef
mom to five
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JoBeth in OH
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| Posted: April 08 2008 at 10:51pm | IP Logged
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Charlotte, this caught my eye for the same reason as Stef.  Our family will hopefully be in Pescara next year about this time. The book buying has already begun; I've already ordered a book about visiting Rome with children, among others. 
On another hs board I frequent, there are many American ex-pats, several in Great Britain and a few in Italy. They seem to have few problems. (It's Germany that mostly gets the negative hs'ing press. Only military or Department of Defense families can hs legally hs. Tough cookies - or would that be kuchen? strudel? - if you're an American citizen, your children must still attend German school.  ) I digress... A couple of families are in Italy as missionaries (Don't get me started on why Italy would need Protestant missionaries  ...) so I think they are not really "residents" and maintain some aloofness in official status. I think that has an impact on how Italy views hs'ing, but I'm not certain.
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CathinCoffeland
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 12:03am | IP Logged
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My new bil is Italian and he and step sis are living near here in the states until she finishes school and they go back to Italy.
We had dinner over Easter and it came up that we are homeschooling- He was flabbergasted.
He had honestly never heard of such a thing. He said all kids go at 5 but some as young as 3.
Now that doesnt mean that no one does it but neither he or sis had ever heard of anyone homeschooling there.
He did tell me that my dc were better behaved than kids in Italy so i must be doing it right- but i dont any Italian kids to compare 
I can try and ask if he can find out more.
Maggie
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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 6:01am | IP Logged
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I lived in Italy when we began homeschooling; we are military.
It's my understanding that homeschooling is legal in Italy, but it's my experience that almost no Italian family would consider it. Why? Because Italy is so family-oriented and group-oriented that it's hard for the Italians to understand why anyone would buck the system and do things a different way. This is a country in which ALL vacations start August 15; they have gridlock and hideous traffic deaths every year on that day but no one thinks to make the obvious change, stagger vacation periods. Many families vacation in the same place every year and are used to seeing the same fellow vacationers there, so change would mess up the traditions and relationships they've built up.
Pescara isn't close to any American bases and so you will have trouble finding fellow homeschoolers there. Online support is essential. (I was the only Catholic homeschooler on my base, so I really used the internet as my support system.)
My biggest frustration, though, was having to order curriculum materials without seeing them. I had no idea what I was doing anyway (we were just beginning, then) and I didn't like having to choose books without being able to flip through them.
Art supplies were another problem; Italy doesn't have an equivalent to Michael's. I ordered many items from Dick Blick online. You may not be able to do this, though, if you have to go through the Italian postal system. I left in 2004, but my Italian friends told me that they had trouble with mail orders from American companies because they paid so much more (that "foreign address" problem - many companies charge more or won't ship at all).
When education came up in conversation, and it did fairly often, Italians assumed we sent our kids to the base school or to a local Catholic school with a few English-speaking nuns. When we tried to explain homeschooling they were very confused. But, when I stated that we were Catholic and wanted a Catholic education for our children, who couldn't speak Italian, they said, "Ahh! La Chiesa!" ("The Church!") and it made a little more sense to them. Honestly, though, in a society where kids go from school to soccer clubs in shuttle vans, there to engage in yet more group sports activity, homeschooling seems strange to everyone. No one ever said to me that I was doing something wrong or that I would ruin my childrens' futures, though; as long as I explained it in terms of our faith they could find a way to make some kind of sense out of the whole idea.
We, by divine intervention (coincidence has little to do with my homeschooling "career"), were studying Famous Men of Ancient Rome our first year. It was just fabulous to see all those places in person - we lived down the road a couple of miles from Cicero's tomb, for example.
I could go on, but I don't want to hog the thread.
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stefoodie
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Thanks, Nancy, I was hoping you'd chime in. Hmmm... I think as long as we act like tourists (which we probably will look like anyway as we'll be taking our camera everywhere), we'll be fine. Maybe that will prevent questions from being asked?
And I'm glad you mentioned the books and the art materials. DH and I are already talking about what to pack, etc. and it's very strange to say "homeschooling" in one sentence and "pack light" the next.
So far my plans include (besides the Math book), 1 book a month per child -- one that we will use in-depth for everything -- vocabulary, spelling, narration, etc. (so any suggestions, esp. for a 9-yo and an 11-yo would be great!! -- mostly thinking along the lines of history and/or geography, but also artists/composers/writers/great thinkers from the different countries)... rabbit trails will have to be on the 'net and IRL as I don't plan to order additional books once we're there. The kids are shocked at the "one book" idea! ... and then a small suitcase of art materials. I'm thinking either a polaroid or one of those portable printers for our camera would be a possibility, so they can scrapbook what they learn/see.
No idea yet how to incorporate science in there, but I'm hoping Bethany will have more ideas about that!
Funny that you should mention Michael's -- I've already started a list of shops in the area and googled "art supplies". Nothing yet.
Charlotte and Bethany, I think one of the essentials we need to make sure we have is reliable Internet access. I'd be totally lost otherwise!!
Tough kuchen 
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mom2mpr
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Hmmmmm...my dh got an offer in Florence a week ago. I thought I would be lonely. So, I said no. Well, actually I said, "What? Are you crazy?"
In reality, my main issue was being away from my aging parents. My Dad is having radiation for some cancer and so sad. I was worried about him but yesterday he was feeling better and sounded better psychologically.
I might have to re-think this Italy thing
Anne
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Magnificat
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| Posted: April 09 2008 at 7:40am | IP Logged
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Thank you all, but keep these responses coming! We want to do the right thing by our children. I think this would be a wonderful experience for them, and for all of us!
I should say, that if homeschooling was an "issue"-we are considering school (Montessori-if financial aid can be worked out) in order for our children to meet others. The children's education is our priority of course, and is really the major factor if this opportunity becomes reality.
Please keep your thoughts, knowledge and wisdom coming! Blessings to all of you!!
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nissag
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Very exciting! I kept hoping that Brian would get stationed in Italy when he was still in the AF... We did live in England for three glorious years. It's where we began our homeschooling journey. However, we had different circumstances than you will have. We didn't (more than 10 years ago) have to report anything locally. In fact, all we had to do was fill in a little one-page form for the DoDDS school system and hey-presto!
I remember that home education, or "education otherwise" was fairly new amongst the British when we were there. It wasn't widely accepted or understood, and it seemed as though it was very rough going for those families intrepid enough to give it a go. My impression is that things have changed dramatically since then. You can check out: Education Otherwise to get some preliminary information.
I thought that the unschooling-type opportunities abounded in Britain. You are surrounded by history and culture. The town where we lived had a live dig ongoing and my children spend time with an archaeologist. We were the happy and blessed recipients of oral histories from our neighbours. We visited London on every Sunday we could, visited museums, parks, concerts, theatre performances. It was wonderful!
I want to go back. 
Keep us posted on your plans!
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doris
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I've only just seen this. Homeschooling (we usually call it 'home education') is pretty unusual in the UK but there is growing understanding of it. Having said that, many UK home-edders are very much from an unschooling, 'alternative' background and Catholic homeschoolers are a fairly rare breed.
Anyway, bottom line is that hs is legal and if your children have never been to a state school here, the authorities don't even inspect you and you are under no obligation to identify yourself to them.
Feel free to pm me if you want any more info.
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LucyP
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Ditto what Elizabeth said. At the moment (and please God it will continue) home learning is very easy to do in England, but I would say there are less resources/groups etc than there appear to be in America (or maybe I just hang out with cool home eductators online too much and that alters my perception!) It seems to me that there is subtle and growing pressure to get the state involved - home educators calling for state funding or tax refunds, the local authorities saying on websites "you must inform us" when that is not legally required etc.
But yay! Come to England!
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guitarnan
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Back to Italy for a minute; I'd take a photo printer, not a polaroid camera. Also, do research ahead of time; European paper sizes are different (look at your own printer for "A4" and other sizes you've never used) so you will want to make sure your photo printer has some flexibility when it comes to printing sizes. Expect to pay about double for anything related to computers, electronics or kids' toys.
I would suggest Scouting for a social avenue; my daughter's and son's troops both had Italian kids in them, even though the troops were American. In all cases, the Italian kids had one English-speaking parent and the children were in the American troops to improve their English and learn to socialize in that language. If you could find a troop like that (with ex-pat kids, perhaps), it would be a good place to meet Italian kids.
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Kathryn UK
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Another voice from the UK ... as Elizabeth and Lucy said, home education is completely legal here, and although not exactly mainstream it is far more common than anywhere else in Europe. The number of homeschoolers here is difficult to estimate, but it is certainly in the tens of thousands. In Italy I doubt it would be more than a few hundred, if that.
Most areas have homeschool groups of some variety, though as Elizabeth said secular unschooling is the most common flavour, and Catholic groups are very few and far between. I found our local Christian homeschooling group to be very good - being Catholic was never a problem for them, there was never anything I had an issue with, and their parenting styles and expectations were less "alternative" than was the case with the local secular group. There are a couple of homeschool suppliers here who import materials from the US - one Protestant, and the other a Catholic bookseller - and even occasional, small-scale curriculum fairs.
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bfarmmom
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Bumping this up-
I was just wondering if anyone is over in Italy home educating their children. This may become a reality for us. Just wondering.
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Erin
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Kathryn UK wrote:
There are a couple of homeschool suppliers here who import materials from the US - one Protestant, and the other a Catholic bookseller - and even occasional, small-scale curriculum fairs.
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And you always have Book Depository based in England but FREE postage to most countries in the world.
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Kathryn UK
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Oh my! Thanks Erin  . I had no idea they did free postage. I've bought from Book Depository before, but only through Amazon where there is a charge.
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Kathryn
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Erin
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Kathryn
Not only are they free but SO efficient, I can email them and have a response within hours. And PROMPT!! I can order and have books here to Australia within the week, usually 7 days, the most I have ever waited is 14 days!! and I am on the other side of the world.
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stefoodie
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Just bumping this thread up -- we leave March 7!!! We'll be there for 2 months, then back here for a bit to take care of work papers, then back there again 'til about Nov-Dec...
We're so excited as we get to be there on World Youth Day  -- any pointers from those who have attended one, esp. those held in Rome? We will have a 3-mo baby in tow...
Our luggage will be extremely limited. Hubby said 2 large suitcases and backpacks -- THAT'S IT. So I'm in the process of paring down our curriculum and just sticking with mostly online sources... I'm also scanning our Latin work so we can print as needed, instead of bringing all the books!
We plan to focus on art, science, and History (and of course, Religion -- but that's a given!!) while we're there. So I'm planning to get new sketchbooks for all of us... oh and goodness, just found out I'll have to relearn how to drive on a stick shift!  But hey, that's one more part of the adventure, isn't it?
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stef
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Homeschooling in Italy or England?
