Retiring with family to philippines

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You already appear to have put considerable thought and well-informed planning into your tropical-island family-escape Greg. I'm sure we all wish you well with your family adventure

Thinking through what you've said, it would seem your main priority should be to ensure your two children make your family international-transition as smooth and as happily as possible?

You and your wife can probably no doubt cope happily and well with just about anything and everything regarding your relocation. But your young kids will need much care and thoughtful attention to all aspects of such a whole-of-life change to their environment and social settings. 

For example, I'd be making sure that any medical matters (eg, inoculations) are well taken care well before you leave. And perhaps considerations of language and cultural lessons will be in order, well before they land in new school classrooms with often forty or so new peers?

It might not be exaggerating to suggest, the success or otherwise of any family international transition, will depend to a crucial extent on how well your kids adapt to their new country?

With such careful planning  and fore-thought, you and obviously your wife will surely cope with mostly anything at all that may eventuate.

But  your kids won't have your life-experiences and self-confidence. It could possibly turn out to be a heaven, or a hell, of a change in their young lives. For them, and thus, also for you two.

So one wishes you well indeed with your family plans Greg, and really all one might say at this early stage, put your children's needs and future experiences at the very peak of any planning?

Happy trails!

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I appreciate your feedback and of course the kids are our top priory. my wife has been working hard with both of them in learning the Visayan language and we're both trying to educate them as to the differences life will hold for them. we've looked at schools in the area and feel we will actually have to be there to make a more informed decision as to which one we choose. All in all they are looking forward to the adventure as well. We have much to do to prepare for thus journey but the four if us are ready to face all our challenges and build a lide in the Philippines.

Be careful about used motor vehicles, keep in mind all the flooding/typhoons here it may be a risk of purchasing a submerged vehicle that has been recovered. Used often come with no warranty or very short warranty period. My wife and i chose to purchase a brand new Toyota Wigo with full 3 year warranty because of the unknown. At one point we contemplated purchasing a single cab refurbished motor cab but after a lot of research online and speaking online with a couple of expats that went that route there were as many nightmares as there were success stories. Enjoy, make sure you do your research. Good luck.

Good to be aware of. thanks. we really wanted to take our vehicles and ship them but taxes and duty render that idea prohibitive. new are so expensive too though but i guess we will cross that bridge when the time comes.

I felt the same, but betweem 3 to 5 thousand US for a decent used vehicle without warranty seems to be a big risk. we spent 648000 pesos for a 2023 Toyota Wigo last year brand new from Toyota in Tacloban. Around $12000 usd. Having reliable,  comfortable, and Aircon was life changing. we are too old to be waiting on jeepneys. Good luck.

    I appreciate your feedback and of course the kids are our top priory. my wife has been working hard with both of them in learning the Visayan language and we're both trying to educate them as to the differences life will hold for them. we've looked at schools in the area and feel we will actually have to be there to make a more informed decision as to which one we choose. All in all they are looking forward to the adventure as well. We have much to do to prepare for thus journey but the four if us are ready to face all our challenges and build a lide in the Philippines.         -@Gregsdigitalpics

My wife is Filipina and we are now retired in PI but we raised 2 kids in the US through college at NCSU. Because correcr English is highly prized here, my wife never bothered to teach the kids cebuano. Even living here with kids for long vacations, lack of fluency in cebuano is not a major problem because elementary English is so well understood here. I did know of a Fil-Am family who lived here in Dumaguete and the man had an American son from a previous marriage living here with them. They sent him to an English-speaking high school that is a part of Silliman University, a US-rooted SDA religious institution. On the high school campus, everywhere you see signs "Speak English"...as I say, fluent english is a highly prized skill amongst the educated. But the kid could not speak any bisaya which resulted in classmates teasing him endlessly in cebuano. His parents were not interested in having him tutored in cebuano so, and I have to hand it to the kid, he learned bisaya on his own in that "english speaking" high school. He learned it out of self-defense and  because  his friends (and enemies) spoke it all the time, he could speak it as well as any native speaker. Later his father died here and they moved back to the US. The kid had a medical technology degree from SU (US Accredited) so he works in a US hospital in Texas. He doesn't use his hard-won bisayan fluency anymore although I imagine he can converse quite well with any single Cebu nurses recruited by thd hospital (I am sure there are several).

@jcole4455 yes ive been looking at new and used but the vehicle  i prefer is 2.3k-3k pp so im looking at a 2019-2020 models to save a few bucks. i may end up buying new but just considering all options.

loving all the feedback from everyone.  Others experiences are invaluable when taking on a whole new life . much appreciated.

The biggest consideration, as someone already mentioned, is the education of your children.  I have researched the school situation in Dumaguete quite extensively, as I'm considering a move from Lapu Lapu to a place that is less urban but that still has a good school.

First off you need to understand that private schools here, regardless of their local reputation, are run under the Philippine department of education curriculum standards—which are simply not on par with those that are internationally accredited—either CIE or IB. 

My daughter is finishing nursery at “Newtown School of Excellence” here in Lapu Lapu and it is considered one of the best in the city—with a fair amount of expat kids.  However it is not internationally accredited and it shows.  Yes it has small classes and a nice building etc. —but the curriculum as per the principle's own words “is fitted to the education expectations of Filipinos.”  That means lots of activities but only modest learning of core skills.  This is fine if you expect your kids to attend a Philippine college in the future—those colleges also operate by the local standards.  But if you foresee that your kids will return to the US to pursue their higher education then they will not be adequately prepared—you would need additional tutoring and even then entry into a better College might be much more difficult without an accredited high school degree.

So in Dumaguete there is only “One International” in Dauin that is internationally accredited.  It's a tiny school with a beautiful campus—to my knowledge only 35 students currently and 9 foreign teachers.  Tuition is $7,000 a year which compared to CIS in Cebu is cheap!

For the “Filipino school track” there is “Silliman” and “Don Bosco.”

Both good by Filipino standards and will give them good access to Filipino Colleges.  Tuition is a non-factor at about $1,000. 

I'm debating myself if the local track with added tutoring is the right way to go.  I'm eyeing One International but it is very pricey.  My alternative is actually an international school in Lipa Bantangas called Stonyhurst. 

There are more accredited international schools around Manila and also in Cebu City (Singapore School is excellent and with a $3,500 tuition very reasonable.)—but the downside is that these schools are in expensive and highly urban areas.

So that is the low down on schools—hope it helps. 

Thank you, we will be looking at this as well as homeschooling and any other optionsxwe may have.

In 1994 my then-wife and I adopted a 5 yr old boy from Leyte. We flew out to the orphanage he was in and my then-wife (Fil-Am raised in the states) couldn't speak a lick of Tagalog or Bisayan but she understood it. My mother-in-law spoke Bisayan so that helped in the beginning. Five days after picking him up we were on a plane to the US.

Within maybe two weeks of his arrival ex-wife took him to the school nearby to get the needed paperwork and info on home-schooling. While in the office talking with the staff, he went into the class room, I guess kindergarten? I can't recall. But with no English skills he was genuinely involved with the kids. We decided at that point, no home-schooling. Throw him into the fire! And the results were great. Kids pick these languages up so much more easily than us hard headed adults.

Just sayin.

@Larry FisherI think it is true what you say about kids picking up language easily. It may be that the brain functions that way for young children. But I will also say that English is one of the easiest languages to learn because of its wide tolerance for mistakes, i.e., you can really mess it up royally and people still know pretty much what you are trying to say. Not true of filipino or bisaya. But when my kids came here on vacation they rapidly picked up the language much faster than me; I was really surprized.

danfinn said. . . . Larry FisherI think it is true what you say about kids picking up language easily. It may be that the brain functions that way for young children.

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My own thoughts on learning new languages.

It all boils down to Memory. Our brain is like a hard drive, a child's brain has much more storage room available.  Their info is accumulated over a period of a few years.

Us old Expats have filled our brains storage to the maximum after many years. Once you reach that point the brain starts to delete memory once capacity has been reached, maybe by the time of 60-70-80-90 years of age.

We sent the little 3 year old boy we're adopting to the local private preschool. The mayor's grandson was the only other child in his class. The class is taught in English which is good since our boy only speaks English, and he speaks it very well. Friday was religious indoctrination day so we kept him home on Fridays.

Each year there is a parade and a boy is chosen to be the prince in the parade. The way this works is you bring in all the cash you have on hand and it is counted, recorded and photographed then all but P4,000 is returned to you. This is apparently a big deal in the Philippines so my wife wanted to participate. We brought P50,000 and it was recorded and P46,000 was returned to us. You can bring cash each day until the deadline but they only keep the P4,000 once. The mayor's grandson jumped out in front since the mayor has a lot of cash on hand from her construction company and the obvious grifting. The next day we brought P100,000 and jumped out in front again. The mayor kept bringing the same money day after day to have it counted and recorded. I considered this too ridiculous to continue so we just took the boy out of the school. We will enroll him in a U.S. school as soon as the adoption is complete.

We moved to Dumaguete a couple of years ago and have two boys in high school - one in Don Bosco and another in a Catholic school in Valencia.  I tutored the one who is in Don Bosco early on (since first grade), when we were in Cebu, and where I put him in a Catholic school.  He excels in math and science, and the emphasis on team sports at Don Bosco has been good for him - he has made several friends with other kids from good families and they work out and play sports together. I have been very impressed with his progress there.

The other one joined our family when he was older, after his father (my partner's brother) died, and he did not have as much early educational support. He was in a public school in the province for most of his elementary school years, didn't speak much English, and despite our efforts and private schools since then, has struggled to catch up.  He is a really good kid though, and seems to be doing better since we moved to Dumaguete. His English has improved and overall I think this area is much better for both boys.

I will add that I think fluency in both languages (and also Tagalog) is important - it allows them to converse with friends and locals in Cebuano and within educational or business settings (or with me, haha) in English.

@danfinn

Interesting link about the subject.

https://www.livescience.com/why-are-kid … eractions.