Living in Putin's Backyard ~ Our Adventures in Mother Russia: Sakhalin International School

I wanted to get situated a bit before I just threw the kids into school. I figured the last thing they needed was to be uprooted from everything they knew in Houston, move to a foreign country, then immediately go to a new school. There is a week break at the end of October and I was going to wait until then to enroll the kids but I decided to enroll sooner.

Sakhalin International School is located outside of Olympia (Exxon Compound) in Zima (Shell Compound). The school is very small. It only goes to 6th or 7th grade. Kids older than that have to attend boarding school in Sapporo, Japan. SIS curriculum is based off the National Curriculum of England, International Primary Curriculum, and the International Middle Years Curriculum . Accreditation come from the Netherlands.

Kids start at 3 years in a 5 day a week half day program (8:30-12). School is in session all year long with 3 week breaks every 3 months or so. Some months will have a few day break in between semesters.

Here is what the outside of the school looks like

Main Entrance

Secondary Entrance

Today I meet with the Head Master Mr. Freeman. He and I have been emailing for a while now. We had some questions about whether or not this school would be a good fit for Ashlynn so having this meeting today was amazing. He did a visual assessment of her abilities and language progression. This is such a small school with now "special educational" resources so it was questionable if we would be able to enroll her.

I am going to have her Houston therapists and previous preschool teacher email him and give a brief rundown of what they did in the classroom for her. Since she is still in PK, we have some wiggle room since in USA, PK is not "graded curriculum" yet. When she gets to Kindergarten we may have additional hurdles to jump as this is where she would need additional resources. Luckily, her momma is very well educated and can be her teacher at home or even full blown homeschool her for a year or two.

Ash is going to be a work in progress and we will take is one step at a time. Based off the initial assessment, he did not say she couldn't attend.. So that great!!!! We shall see, and I am hopeful for her.

Mike on the other hand is good to go. He will probably start next week. Since he is only 3, I will have to see in the class with him the first few days. Its an adjustment/observatory phase that every parent has to do when they enroll a 3yr old. He was so excited about his new school.