School Is Out!

We another year done and duster. Ebi-kun is no longer a 5th grader and not quite a sixth grader!

We have been thinking about Junior High, here we can choose to a certain degree which JH he goes to. We have also been considering homeschool - it's so hard!

As much as I would love to go the homeschool route, the lack of friends and social life is a BIG issue. This would be different if we were in the US or back in the UK because there are bigger homeschooling networks and groups.

Here homeschooling is usually for kids who quit school for some reason, learning issues, bullying or are kids of religious parents who are sheltering their kids from the world. The education side doesn't worry me and knowing what Ebi-kun is like, I know he would thrive in a homeschool environment but not having friends is a big deal.

He could join some online groups but that's still not the sam as having friends to hang out with. He'll continue with aikido but what usually happens is that when the kids get to JH age they drop out because of the school club activities.

And that is another gripe I have about the system, kids spend far too much time at school and then with club as well, they often leave the house ridiculously early and get home stupidly late and have club at the weekend and holidays too! No time to do anything but school relate stuff - all good training to be a salaryman! Not my idea of life!

We have 2 local JH schools, one is part of a high school and has an excellent reputation but is difficult to get it. They only take 80 students at JH and the competition to get in is stiff.

The other option is winning the lottery and moving - we have 12 months to make that happen! Ha.

So right now I'm not really sure what we are going to do, the compromise would be to get him in at the good local JH and accidentally forget to tell them that we will not be here in the summer...

For now, we will enjoy the holidays, short that they are and try and pack as much fun as possible in!