Supplementing Your School Adventure

Family Travel Guatemala

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You’re staying for a while. You’ve found the best school for your child that’s available in your unique adventure location. Especially in some of the more remote locations, there may be gaps in your child’s education. There are great options available to supplement their learning.

Family Travel Guatemala
Friday assembly at AMA

Family Travel Guatemala

My personal favorite, tutors. There are two kinds, on-line and in-person. We try to find in-person tutors first. Check with the school or other parents for referrals. In Guatemala we found a French tutor this way. Sometimes older high school kids are great tutors, sometimes they aren’t. Online tutors are the next option. Cali has taken Spanish online for years now, with the same teacher she had in Guatemala. Music lessons with a favorite teacher can also be continued this way.

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On-Line Courses
Just about any course you can imagine is now online, for any age group. Most states offer online schools, some are well established. We have utilized this option often, and even did a full year this way. If you don’t have free access to an online school, there are many you can join for a fee.

Family Travel Guatemala
entrance to school

Take Curriculum with you
Depending on your location, sometimes the wifi speeds can’t support online classes, videos, active blackboards. We struggled with this in Costa Rica. In these locations you may need to resort to hard copy curriculum supplements. Crazy paper talk, I know. For Guatemala we usually had one small carry-on full of supplemental texts and workbooks.

Family Travel Guatemala

 

Play
The best way to learn a new language is immersion. When we first lived in Guatemala, Cali went over to a Spanish speaking family’s house for a few hours after school. I paid childcare rates instead of language tutoring rates. She played with their kids, learned to make tortillas, feed chickens, and climb roofs. These extra hours of daily cultural immersion were fun for her and she absorbed the language lightening speed.

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With a little planning and creativity, all your kid’s educational needs can be met while you are off gallivanting through the world.