I am American and my wife is Japanese, and we have been living here in Japan for many years. We were thinking of moving back to America with our elementary-aged kids for just 2 or 3 months to give them a learning experience. We thought to enroll them in a school from September. Has anyone ever done anything like this? My wife thinks it is okay from the Japanese public school perspective as long as the kids are enrolled at a school in America. What about from the American perspective? Do schools accept students in this scenario? Any ideas about how I could find such a school?
7 comments
You’re probably better to directly ask the target school district than reddit, though I think I’ve seen discussions about it in the past.
My son did 7 weeks overseas, but it was during the Japanese school holidays.
Enrolling in US schools, you’ll need a shot/vaccination record–not for covid, but for the usual suspects, such as measles, mumps, etc.
Some places/districts will be pickier than others for residency, and you may have to decide whether to misrepresent to the school about your temporary status (some may not mind, others may not want to accept you).
An alternative for you to explore is summer camps. These are always temporary, unlike schools. And once you start googling, there’s a camp for just about everything–short term (day by day), to 6-8weeks of live-in experience, and of course costs vary.
Do you have any relatives with kids your kid’s age? We didn’t have this ‘resource’, but I was always a little jealous of folks who could visit there, and leave their kid(s) with cousins/family for a month or more.
Yes, for a couple years I would send my daughter to my parents house in rural Pennsylvania for 2 months, August and September, and have her enrolled in the first month of the local elementary school. It was a great experience, and the school had no problem with the situation.
Got the whole yellow school bus, packed lunch experience.
When my kids were little, my friend was able to wrangle a school visit or two, but it seemed rather difficult (state capital school districts). It was MUCH easier to get permission for her kids to have a week on our tiny country school.
But I do think kids have to be accommodated if you are talking a couple of months. Start with the target school district, I’d say.
I know it’s cool in Japan as we had an English speaking American boy with a military father and with a Japanese mother come to our elementary school for three months for three years in a row. They’re pretty receptive to that kind of thing. Checked with a few other Japanese teachers and they also agreed.
As an American, we’ve had this kind of exchange with mostly South American children. I’d think they’d also be receptive to the idea.
Thanks for your ideas! I’ll probably just start contacting schools in areas that we are interested in and see if I can get nibbles. Interesting that rural areas might be easier, but my wife is not so much a rural lady 🙂