My family of five may finally be close to being in a position where we could live out our dreams of living in Cancun. It's probably a year off, but we'd like to start preparing now. We've scoured the Internet for others' experiences, but still have so many questions! On my mind right now is this... Would living in the Hotel Zone with children (ages 3, 5 and 9) be just too isolating for them? Is there a community of English speaking expats in the HZ that could provide some social interaction for them? Are schools just too inconvenient to get to from the HZ? Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this. This forum has been an extremely valuable source of information for us! Adam...
Hi we live in the Hotel Zone with children- as do lots of people. The schools they attend (International American school and CES ) are half an hours drive away which can be tiresome but we feel its worth it. If you do decide to move here get the kids Spanish lessons before you arrive- it makes the first days at school easier for them. Good Luck Tracey
Tracey, Thank you. I gather from your reply that you are happy with IAS/CES? Thanks for the advice on Spanish lessons. We were actually discussing that very topic last night and will be looking to get Spanish lessons for the whole family. Any must know pointers for living in the HZ? Thanks again, Adam...
My daughter moved down here (from the U.S) to live with me when she was about 11. She went to school here for a couple of years. She attended both CES and IAS. She had several excellent teachers in those schools. And she had several teachers who ought not be inflicted on impressionable young people. The two schools have the same owners, and so they share some of the same management & turnover problems. Teachers in Mexico are poorly paid, even at IAS and CES. So when a good teacher stays for more than a year or two it is because it is a labor of love and that teacher usually has another source of income. Unfortunately many good teachers can't afford to stay, so turnover is high which means instability for the kids. IAS and CES are bilingual schools. About half the classes are taught in English and the other half are taught in Spanish. Their method is to throw all the kids of the same grade level into a classroom together, regardless of the children's various abilities in either English or Spanish. It's a sink or swim approach that forces the kids to catch up quick in their weaker language. You end up with kids that are at grade level in English sitting next to kids who are well below grade level in English, and the same in Spanish. In my humble opinion this creates a situation where academics are not as strong as they should be because there is too much energy going into basic comprehension. In my opinion it would be better if their program included special tutoring for kids that are not up to grade level in English or Spanish. The weaker kids should not be holding back the bright ones. My daughter is a good Math student. At IAS she had a Math class in Spanish and then another Math class in English. It was too much review for her. She got the concepts in the first class, she had no need for a second Math class, in any language! Last year my daughter came to me and told me that she was bored silly at IAS. She was not fitting in socially, which was part of her problem there. Academically she felt she was being held back in her English classes by the kids in her classes who had weaker English. And in her Spanish classes she was hampered by one teacher in particular who has low but inconsistent standards. At that point we made the decision to send her back to the U.S. to live with her dad. I'm very grateful that we had the option to get her out of IAS when she needed to leave. She is now in a school where she fits in better socially and there is more consistent emphasis on academics. In my opinion the model that IAS and CES are using works well for kids who come in early, kids who go to CES when they are young. It works for kids who are growing up bilingual anyway. I don't think they do such a great job with kids that are weak in Spanish or English. I also think that IAS is a school with very inconsistent academic standards. I've seen kids there get failing grades on every test but still pass the the class, that's not right. Some kids graduating from IAS are going on to good colleges. But many kids at IAS are not planning to go to college at all. To me this is a sign that the focus there is not fully on education. My daughter is already planning to get a Master's Degree, she needs to be around kids who are at least planning to go to college! In my daughter's case we are all happy that she had the opportunity to go to school in a foreign country. But two years was enough! She's glad she came to school here. But we are all glad to have her back in a school with more consistent management and better academics. Just my 2 cents, or 3 cents, or whatever...
Yep I agree with RG. CES is much better for my young son than IAS is for my elder daughter. However sending ours kids back to UK to boarding school feels a desperate measure also. Every school has its faults- IAS has not impressed us. Good Luck Tracey
Wow. Thank you both for the feedback on the schools. I can't say I'm not disappointed. Are there no other options for english speaking students? What about in Playa? Thanks, Adam...
For us IAS was the only option because it is the only school in the whole Yucatan peninsula that is accredited in the U.S. If it wasn't accredited my ex would not have given me permission to put her in school here. Now if the school was not working so hard to meet the requirements of two countries it might have been a better school. If your children are fluent in Spanish then there are lots of other choices here. If not your choices are more limited. I have a couple of ex-pat friends in Playa with kids in school there, not one of them is happy. I think you have more choices in Cancun. If your heart is set on living here I recommend you come and look at a few different schools in Cancun, St. John's and Colegio Alexandre are two to look at. You should look at IAS too, now that you've been warned and know what's up with it.
We are really happy with CES. Our son was 5 when we moved here and he did very well. Today was his first day back in First Grade and, as usual he was very happy, leans heaps, and has tons of amigos. Good luck to you!
In general I think that kids can thrive in more diverse school settings when they are younger. The older they get the more important it is to find just the right school situation. Younger kids are more flexible and more malleable and older kids are more distinct in their needs. I do want to reiterate that my daughter got to work with several wonderful teachers at IAS, the problem is that all but one of those has left. Why do the bad teachers stay...?
