Family Move Abroad

Inspiration and Information to Move Your Family to Spain

Expat Life in Spain

Moving Our Family Overseas: Two Years of Expat Life in Spain

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Moving our family overseas was something my husband and I had always talked about. Like, from when I was pregnant with our older child. Yet that vision lingered in the background for most of our kids’ childhoods. Finally, the time had come. Our sons were 8 and 12. Act now on our dream of moving our family overseas, or it might pass us by.

However, it quickly became apparent we had no idea how to move abroad. My husband had lived in multiple countries before we met, but he’d always gotten work visas. We, on the other hand, were moving just because we wanted to. And, initially anyway, we weren’t totally sure what country we wanted to move to.

Spain was a top contender from the start. I’d fallen in love with the country the one time I’d visited nearly thirty years earlier. But more importantly, our most well articulated concrete goal was to bring our kids home bilingual. Spanish was the most obvious contender for that. Of course, that made us wonder, should we consider South or Central America? Hmmm. No, we want Europe. Spain it is.

The fact remained, however, we had no idea how to move to Spain. We had zero personal contacts to guide us. We knew nothing about how to get Spanish visas. And even less than nothing about education in Spain. But even more fundamental to our quest, Spain is a wondrously diverse nation. Where was the best place in Spain to live as a family?

A Podcast Interview on Moving Our Family Overseas

Admittedly, looking back on our sheer lack of knowledge at the time, it’s hard not to question our sanity. And yet, after more than two years living in Seville, Spain, I know we’re not the only crazy ones. In this interview with BigDreamsBoldMoves podcaster Malia Russell, I speak honestly about our expat life in Spain, including:  

  • The challenges we faced researching how to move to Spain
  • Our crazy journey to get the Spanish Non Lucrative Visa
  • The many problems getting settled in once we got there
  • Education in Spain and issues you might consider for your kids as non native Spanish speakers
  • Getting our kids adjusted
  • Adaptation considerations your kids might face moving to Spain from the US 
  • Additional psychological and logistical advice for expats moving to Spain as a family

Looking back on our journey to move our family to Spain for a year, it’s easy to see where we could have made better choices. But despite the many hardships before, during and even after, the experience changed our lives forever.

https://player.acast.com/5cac8e6ff08339e732709ad1/episodes/expat-family-life-in-spain-an-honest-assessment-after-two-ye?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1&fbclid=IwAR0eSrl_yKHwQmrcsr3dHJ55TMScE0dO-PrzYOlAcElpoBIBmGmmkSjukTU

Listen to the interview on Spotify and iTunes.

First Day of School in Spain – A Family Expat Story

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I thought dropping off my kids for their first day of kindergarten was scary. It was nothing compared to parenting them through their first day as American expats going to school in Spain.

The curriculum at the Colegio San Francisco de Paula in Seville is completely bilingual. Half the core classes are taught in English, the other half in Spanish. Awesome. It would give our kids the Spanish immersion we wanted, yet still maintain some English education during our time here. At the primary level, kids also receive two hours each week in both French and German. Even more foreign language exposure for our younger son, Kaden, entering school in Spain as a fourth grader. Double awesome.

Or so we thought. This recap of our conversation upon picking up our little expat from his first day of school in Spain opened our eyes to the reality we’d created.

Foreign Language Onslaught

Me: So, how’d it go with the Spanish today?

Kaden: I could barely understand a word she was saying.

Me: Ok, well, it was just your first day of school in Spain. And the accent is really different here than the Spanish you hear in the US. It’ll come. What’s your teacher’s name?

Kaden: I couldn’t even get that. I just called her “Maestra” all day.

Me: Sounds like a good strategy. What else happened?

Kaden: We had art class.

Me: You love art class!

Kaden: Yeah, but this art class is taught in French. I’m not sure exactly what happened. I think I’m supposed to buy clay.

Me: Clay?!? That wasn’t on the supply list! I don’t know where to buy clay in Seville! I don’t even know how to say “clay” in Spanish. What kind of clay? I specifically paid the extra money to the school for them to buy all the supplies for us precisely to avoid this kind of situation!!!

Kaden (looking a little frightened now): I don’t know.

[Deep breath. I remind myself I’m supposed to be the calm one in this conversation. I smile and try to act casual.]

Me: Never mind. We’ll figure it out. And then?

Kaden: I think we had German next.

Me: Cool. How was German?

Kaden: Mom! It was German! I don’t. Speak a word. Of German! I’m not even sure what class it was. Music? Maybe?

I dig deep to find that encouraging, it’ll all work out, supportive voice…

Me: Ok. Well, then. Were any of your classes taught in English today?

Kaden: Yeah, the last part of the day was in English. I think.

Me: Great. Bet that was a relief. What’s your English teacher’s name?

Kaden: I have no idea. By the time that happened, I couldn’t even understand what the English teacher was saying.

School in Spain — Challenges and Trade-offs

Those initial weeks had their moments of tension. (Okay… initial months.) And the difficulties didn’t limit themselves linguistic matters. Differences in curriculum, student expectations, procedures governing how to contact our kids teachers… It seemed as if nothing was the same at our school in Spain compared to the States. As if that weren’t enough, the English used is British English, giving even the kids’ native language a foreign element to it.

That conversation opened our eyes to some inherent realities of this expat parenting thing, especially with respect to the boys’ education. Our time here demanded accepting both challenges and trade-offs. What did we need to do to strike a balance between the new competencies our kids would gain living in Spain with the losses we valued in the education they’d get at home?

Expat Education Management

Managing those trade-offs has become like an ongoing ride on a metaphorical teeter-totter. On one side, our big picture vision for living abroad as a family. On the other side, the day to day details of curriculum, content and structure of the academic expectations being asked of them as students in Spain. Pan out, zoom in. Step back to give them the chance to navigate their new experiences. Step in when those challenges cross a threshold harmful to their self confidence and learning.

Giving our kids the opportunity to acquire a second language as a key feature in that bigger picture. We were willing to accept a reasonable amount of content loss in service of that. And we we’re also aware that not only might “reasonable” change over time, but it would be defined differently for our 13 year old compared to our 9 year old. More importantly, we regularly reminded ourselves of an intrinsic belief that an education comprises far more than what a kid is taught in a classroom.

Nonetheless, we learned to keep a close eye on the mechanics of their classroom and overall school environment, and sometimes that means being the squeaky wheel. When it comes to my kids, I’m pretty good at squeaking. Need homework instructions written down for you ’til your Spanish comes up to speed, instead of strictly spoken directions? Need math tutoring in English, even though math class is taught in Spanish? I’m gonna email the school and make sure they get that. (Well, actually, I’m gonna call the school, because they don’t allow parent/teacher communications by email.)

School in Spain — Then and Now

We eventually got leave for Kaden to drop German, though he muddled his way through French for fourth and fifth grade. He peppers me with stories about the differences between British English and American English, which he finds rather humorous. His Spanish overtook my own and he has no problem correcting my mistakes. Rather snidely, I might add. My Sevilliano friends swear that if they didn’t know he was American, they’d assume by listening to him he’d been born and raised here. That initial foreign language onslaught that, at the time, almost sent us into a panic has now become one of those humorous family anecdotes.

In grade 6, multiple language exposure gets left behind as kids choose one language to study more in depth. The options are French, German or Arabic. I took another expat mom’s advice and steered him towards Arabic. Since none of the kids have previously studied Arabic, he could start off on equal footing as his peers. Our conversation when I picked him up at the end of his first day of school this year? A smiling face greeted me with wonder. “Mom! Did you know that in Arabic they read from right to left?”

Setting Priorities as an Expat Parent

What about your family? What are your biggest concerns managing your kids education in a foreign country? Has your vision changed over time?
Got any wild first day of school stories? Share your comments with me here.