Given the rising COVID rates in California, the fact that we were already working remotely (as were all of our colleagues), we decided to stay in Finland for the fall and work from here. After our decision in late summer, we scrambled to find a spot in an English language school for our daughter, but there were no spaces. She was put on the waiting list at one, but ended up attending a public school, taught entirely in Finnish.
This was not, and is not easy, since, though she speaks fairly good Finnish, she has never read or written in Finnish, and there is a lot to adapt to. The first thing she noticed was that the mathematical symbols for multiplication, division, ratios and so on were completely different. She is compelled to learn Swedish, in addition to Finnish, which is an official language here, and compulsory in school. And, as she has been homeschooled for so many years (with a brief foray into traditional education in 2nd and 3rd grades) she had to get used to things like sitting in rows in classrooms, and compulsory PE.
Finnish schools start much later than American schools, and when our daughter came home after the first week, she reported that they are working on things she already did two years ago--and especially in Math. so she is doing some classes remotely from here to the U.S. as well, so she doesn't fall behind.
It's an adjustment, and we are going to try to see if we can get her out of the compulsory Swedish. It's hard to learn a language in another language!
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