Spain Dad, a baby blog

I met April at the front door of our apartment buildling. She was standing in the snow with Teo asleep in a sling inside her coat and pushing Alleke in the stroller, who was busy admiring her mittens. As we walked down the slushy street together towards a friend’s house, April handed me a white [...]

Hi, this is April, the mom from Spain Dad. Today I’m going to be interviewing Kelly, the dad from Spain Dad, about sending kids to school in Spain. We are far from experts on Spanish schooling or even sending kids to school in general, but we’ve experienced the whole process once now. We have a [...]

I stood at the door of the convent and put my phone to my ear. “Hi,” I said. “I just dropped Alleke off at her classroom, and she was crying.” “Did she say what was wrong?” April asked. “She told me this morning that she didn’t want to go to school, and then when we [...]

Grab your backpack and tag along with Alleke on her first day of school… Watch Alleke’s First Day of School on Vimeo.

We continue our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Jay Sensenig raised three kids in Venezuela. He talks about setting aside time each day after school to listen to your children talk about how things are going at school. If you would like to ask Jay a [...]

We continue our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Lawrence Braniff has two kids in school in Madrid. He suggests that the traditional school setting is not the only option. He and his wife Cathy have sent their two kids to Spanish school half days until they’re [...]

I emailed my friend Joe to see if he had any advice about sending Alleke to the preschool where he sent his daughter last year. He wrote back later in the day. I read April the email while we were sitting at the table drinking a cup of tea, and Alleke was sitting in her [...]

We continue our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Teal Rapp says one of the hardest moments of his life was dropping his two daughters off at a French elementary school in Aix en Provence for their first day of school, knowing his girls didn’t speak a [...]

We continue our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Phil Graf lives in Amsterdam with his five children. He talks about the importance of a democratic household where children are involved in making decisions, including schooling. Watch Starting School in a Foreign Country (Phil Graf) on Vimeo.

Hud McWilliams, a psychologist who specializes in families living abroad, begins our series on dads talking about sending their kids to school in a foreign country. Alleke will be starting preschool in the mornings this fall, so I went looking for some dads who could give me advice about how to handle this transition well. [...]