Schooling at home

One of the biggest problems posed to expatriates is schooling for their children. The problem becomes bigger when English is not the child's first or preferred language.

The Hechter family faced such a problem when they moved to Dubai in 1997. Their daughter Andreen, who was schooled in South Africa earlier, was enrolled at a local school. Although there were many obstacles, Andreen completed grade 7. The following year Andreen was sent back to South Africa where she attended an Afrikaans school and stayed at boarding school. This also proved problematic, since a family support system was not always available. It was at this point that the family started looking at an alternative way of schooling.

The biggest obstacle was finding a correspondence school offering a curriculum in Afrikaans, as this was Andreen's preferred language.
Andreen's mother Alta, an IT professional of 15 years, decided that she would educate Andreen at home through the Internet. Alta says home schooling can be a success only if one of the parents is involved. "It has to be supervised home schooling," she says.

Getting started was not easy. Andreen had to be motivated to get settled into a routine. Because there was no teacher/class room scenario, she had to be mostly self-motivated. Through perseverance and dedication Andreen has gone from a C to an A student in all subjects. She attributes this success to the relaxed environment and being able to work at her own pace.
Andreen says: "I feel happy to be in control of my own routine." She believes after much struggling she has found the best schooling method for herself.

Andreen's daily schedule starts at 8.00am and goes on until 5.00pm, with a 15-minute break twice a day and one-hour lunch from Saturday to Wednesday.

Because this is not a normal school environment, Andreen has to work harder at socialising with people her own age. She gets to socialise with children her own age by taking part in modelling, acting classes, voice-overs and make-up lessons.
"I am surprised that it is working so well. Of all the options available to us, home schooling proves to offer the least stress and most harmony in the house," says Andreen's father.