Let me just say that there are a lot of options as far as schooling in San Miguel de Allende.
It was shocking and also overwhelming in the beginning. There are public schools and private, just like anywhere else in the world. Public schools do not cost a penny, have lots of space, large palygrounds but they tend to be overcowded. 50 kids in one class is not uncommon.
The curriculum is in Spanish which we wanted, but the ratio of kids to teachers is waaaaay too high.
Private schools can be devided into Christian and nonreligious, crurriculum in Spanish, English or both. Most of the schools have very educated staff. There are schools that are run by Americans for all the gringo kids that live in town. We even found a school that not only tought English/Spanish and all the regular subjects but also sustainable/ecofriendly living. The couch in the office in that school was made of cardboard. How cool is that!
We were sure that we wanted Spanish because all we want our kids to learn is the language. The rest we can take care of 🙂
The fact of „only Spanish school” became a little difficult to understand for some. People started refering us to schools that were mostly bilingual thinking that it will be better for our kids. I know from experience that complete emersion is the best. We already did it once with English so we know it works!
Anyway, after quite a few visits to different schools we found one that seems to be perfect….so far.
There is only preeschool and primary school kids in the building. The classes are so small that Nadia has 8 kids in her class and Alex has 9. The principal speaks good English so if there is a need the kids can always comunicate with her. Their classrooms are very close to one another. That was very important to me since it is the first school for Alex! As far as costs go most of them are not expensive, especially coming from North America or Europe. Our school costs about 860 pesos a month which is about $62 per child. We also had to pay one time coop fee of 1500 pesos ($107) and pay for books and supplies (roughly about $200). That is a pretty good deal for 5 hours of education 5 days a week. Did I mention that they also teach the kids martial arts there?!?!?
Another great thing about Mexican schools is that 99% of the kids wear uniforms. It is different in every school but they are all very cute. So far I have not found one that I did not like:-) My children were very excited to wear one and I have to admit that they look adorable. They are very affordable because we paid $60 for both.
So here we are in SMA walking to school every day at 7:30 am. Yes, we walk just like most people here, holding hands for 25 minutes one way observing town coming to life. I drop them off, Robert picks them up.
It is bonding time with our children, without any distractions besides cars passing by and belive it or not they never complain about the walk:-)