Upon my acceptance to the study abroad program here in Seville Spain, I knew that I had to take this journey with my daughter. Wow, how cool is that you may be thinking. Well, I agree, it’s really cool now that we have managed to overcome most hurdles that welcomed us the moment we stepped off the plane. My daughter is four years of age, and up to now she had been consistently home schooled by mom.When I made the decision to study abroad, my first thought was what affect will this move have on my daughter. So I did the research; compiled the data, then analysed it. After breaking each fact down to its smallest subset, the results were in, and what I discovered left me mystified. According to my data collected, the cons of studying abroad with a child out weighed the pros. I became very disenchanted, and started to believe that I was going to take a normal happy kid abroad, and return with a dysfunctional space cadet that would require professional assistance in order to regain her natural persona.
I did understand that relocating anyone, not just a child, could produce a temporary negative result, so I planned to arrive at least two weeks before the start of my program in order for my daughter to acclimate herself to her new surrounds and the new language. Flash forward a bit, to discover that my daughter and I have been here in Seville Spain for over three weeks now and I have yet to discover any drastic mood changes.; any appetite reduction, change in sleep patterns, and lashing out at others. Many parents worry that living abroad even on a short term basis could damage their child’s education, stunt their development and harm their chances of ongoing social interaction within their peer groups – however, as I will now show, living abroad can actually benefit your child in so many incredibly deep and important ways, you’ll be planning your study abroad journey before the day is out! When you study abroad your child will be absolutely surrounded by strangers from the word go and your child, along side its parents, will learn how to communicate, adapt to fit and integrate seamlessly. Already my daughter, is learning new sights, smells, tastes and experiences.
Living abroad can be a wonderful
experience for your child.
They’ll be exposed to different cultures and languages, they’ll broaden their worldview, become more culturally sensitive and empathetic and learn to be resilient in the face of change.