Job Discussion Forums

[hails]

Would any female teachers like to come in here and share their experiences of living and working in Mexico? Any Mums? Any Ozzies/Kiwis?

I'd like to hear your stories but I also have a couple of particular questions - where you do you think is a nice part of Mexico to live, and why?

I've lived in Thailand with my now 10 year old daughter, she attended the school I taught at. Wasn't always easy but was quite an experience. Am planning to move back overseas now we are both older and wiser and am investigating my options.

MANY thanks in advance

[thelmadatter]

Ive been living in Mexico for 5 years now. I have a 20-year-old (damn am I that old?) but he doesnt live with me here, but I know some moms with kids here.

Generally, Mexico is a good place for kids. They are valued and pretty accepting of others. A friend of mine with kids aged 2 and 6, had a bunch to play with within a week. In fact, she had to get satellite TV because they were starting to refuse to speak English and she needed it to make English "cool again" (her words). My son is mildly autistic and during his last visit, the kids in my apt building took very well to him (soccer/football IS the univeral language), better than he gets accepted by strangers in the States.

Education is the issue. You would have to have your daughter in a private school, and depending on her language acquisition abilities, in a bilingual or English-speaking school. Since that is not cheap, you would have to do similar to what you did in Thailand, have her attend the school you work at and be sure its a good one.

[notamiss]

I second what thelmadatter says about this being a good place for kids.

The best choice for education could depend somewhat on where you are. In most places, public schools are out of the question, but we are fortunate to live near a considerably better-than-average public secundaria (in the DF).

My kids were aged 5 to 10 when we arrived 11 years ago. They started out in a small private school. Tuition per month cost the same as music lessons used to cost us in Canada�pricey for 45 minutes a week of piano lessons, but very reasonable for full-time schooling. When they finished primary and passed to secundaria I switched them to public school and it has worked out well.

[hails]

Thanks very much for your replies! Sounds very positive.

Could either of you tell me of any parts of Mexico where I might find good private schooling - as yes you are right, I would probably need to teach at the school so she could attend for free.

Also, in my part of the world the school year starts in Feb - what about Mexico? And in places like Thailand etc, you can pretty much go over any time of the year and get a job - is this the same there?

[thelmadatter]

The school year just started for most kids here.

As for good education, recommend the central highlands (Mexico City and the cities surrounding it like Queretaro, Puebla etc) or the other two major metro areas of Guadalajara and Monterrey. You'll have more choices.

Some times are better than others for the job search, at least for private schools, like right before the school year starts.

[MELEE]

When my girls were infants we lived in Morelia, Michoacan and I was impressed by the wide range of school options available there--basically every educational philosophy I ever knew existed was represented, but not cheap. As I said my girls were infants so I didn't really investigate any of them, but we considered moving back last year and I contacted some and they only offered a discount to children of teachers, not free tuition.

There are lots of great places to live with children. It depends on you and what you choose--mega city, large city, small city, or semi-rural. At 4 years old, my girls can already identify many kinds of wild eatible plants, obviously we are a semi-rural type of family. The draw back is we have limited choices when it comes schools, but for us the real education takes place outside the classroom.
This is a big and varied country, you should start your search with a list of what is important to you. Then from there you can naroow your search. Another important area will be medical care and the needs of you and your daughter. Keep in mind in addition to lack of facilities, rural Mexico doesn't have much diversity in terms of blood donors. I'm A- in the US one in 16 people are A-. In Southern Mexico one in about 50,000 are. I post-poned an elective surgery until I got to Morelia several years ago because if something had gone wrong in the surgery the blood I may have needed wouldn't have been available.