When we were first offered the position in China one of our most prominent questions was about the girls' education.
The first morning after the job offer I woke up with very clear thoughts about the girls doing online school. The reasoning was, in part, because of the time difference, the girls would be available to talk to family and friends back in the US. It would also enable us to travel and they would not have to miss school. The idea also came to go on field trips to enhance their education. There were other reasons that made sense at that time, but I can't remember what they were. As we investigated that option, it continued to feel right--even when others who had lived abroad expressed how much they grew from the international school setting. We didn't rule out the option for an international school in the future, but for the first year, it seemed right and would give us time to explore all of our options. It definitely ended up being the right option with our year of visa-waiting because the girls did not have to make up any school because we were traveling or in quarantine. We're still on schedule for graduation without having any make up work. It has been such a blessing.
"First Day Pictures 2022"
If you've read the other posts, you know that this has become a very clear and important direction. Education here is lacking in SO many ways. It is so sad for these dear Chinese people. And the more we learn and the more people we talk to the more thankful we are for that divine direction. High schoolers here (Tessa's age) go from 6:00am -10:00pm with homework in addition to that. If they have a school break (for National Day etc) they have to make those days up on Saturdays and Sundays. Middle schoolers (Greta's age) go from 7:00am -9:00pm. I can't imagine. Nor could I imagine the make up work for when we can travel a bit. And selfishly, I can't imagine what I would do all day if they were gone that long.
But while online school is the right answer, it is still difficult. The girls are more thankful than they were about doing online after going into the school and seeing the conditions and learning of the hours-- but having no social interaction is hard. Keeping motivated to learn and stay on task is stretching. One lesson they are learning, sometimes the hard way, is that too much time on media is life-sapping.
However there are several perks to online school. Pajamas, sleeping in, eating while in class, taking as long on assignments as needed, multiple attempts on your assignments, wiping out all of your work in a few days if needed.....And time to watch every YouTube video of your choice...(if that is a perk)
In the beginning, the plan was to take daily field trips to enhance education. We've learned that that is not realistic. Weekly or biweekly is more feasible except when you're in China with Covid restrictions; then field trips are very difficult. But we have done a lot of things that wouldn't have been experienced without online school. One of the main things while we were still in the US was temple trips. Temple appointments were difficult to make last fall and to get appointments for baptisms once a week was difficult, even if we were willing to travel. But because we *could* travel, we were able to do baptisms at least once every week from June 2021 to April 28, 2022. We rotated between Payson-Oquirrih Mountain temples frequently, but we were also able to go to the extremes of Monticello, Cedar City, Rexburg and take educational stops for the farther ones.
Other field trips in the US: we visited the Teton Dam museum, the State Fair, Spiral Jetty, Arches National Park, the Aquarium, Zoos, FamilySearch, Brigham Young's home, tabernacles, the Lion House, parks, treat trips, the Golden Spike, Snow Canyon State Park, explored an air plane museum, the bird refuge, rode horses, looked at murals in Tremonton, hiked slot canyons, took a cooking class, visited local museums, went bowling, fed ducks, and lots and lots of swimming.
Park downtown Dallas
In China we have visited the zoo, a textile museum, a denim factory, parks, lots of ethnic food experiences, walking field trips...(and would be more, but Covid tests are required to even visit parks lately so our field trips have been sadly minimal...)
Online school means your art projects, cooking projects, photography projects, ukulele videos, PE classes are all done at home....
Here in China, to motivate, when the girls finish school for the week they get to order lunch.
I know this post makes online school so idyllic...but the girls would give up the experiences and field trips any day of the week to be back at school in person with their friends and teachers. Although difficult, I am thankful for this answer for our specific situation and this opportunity to provide them with this type of education.
One other item to record: Our online school in Utah is $10 per girl per year. International school here is $30,000 per year per girl.
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