Moving to Brazil with kids

Hello to all of the members of the Brazil Forum,

For parents who are living in Brazil with their children, or for those planning on coming to Brazil with children I guess that one of the most important considerations they have is their child's education.

First of all be warned that the Brazilian public education system is in chaos, teachers are paid poorly, schools for the most part are in terrible conditions, children get 4 hours of school as compared to 8 in most other countries, the list goes on and on. That said, the teachers are doing the very best they can with what they've been dealt.

Private schools are much better, but they are extremely expensive. In most places you are going to be looking at a monthly fee of R$1000 or more per child you enroll, so let's say you've been offered a job paying R$7000 per month and you've got 2 school aged kids, then you're going to have a difficult time making ends meet on that salary if you put your kids in private school.

So for most of us we'll probably think something like this... "Well, that's no big problem, I'll just homeschool my kids!" Be warned here in Brazil...

HOMESCHOOLING IS ILLEGAL

It is regulated under both the Penal Code and ECA (Estatuto de Criança e Adolescente). Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you're an expat that the Brazilian authorities won't apply those laws to you.... THEY WILL and they have done so in the past with expats.

Brazilian Penal Code: Decreto/Lei 2.848/1940

Art. 246 - Fail, without just cause, to provide primary education for your school age child:

Penalty - Detention of 15 days to one month, fine. (there is jurisprudence for a fine of R$10 thousand / USD 5 thousand).

Estatuto de Criança e Adolescente: Decreto/Lei 8.069/1990 (and amendments thereto)

Art. 55. Parents or guardians are required to enroll their children or wards in the regular school system.

The Courts in Brazil have ruled that "the regular school system" means ONLY the state or municipal public schools and private schools recognized and licensed by the Ministry of Education.

So, what the heck can you do given all the foregoing information. Well, don't despair there is actually a way around this if you can't afford to put your kids into private schools. You can't legally homeschool your kids INSTEAD OF putting them in school. But, there is nothing to prevent you from legally homeschooling them IN ADDITION TO their regular classes. So if you can't afford private schools and you're not happy with the level of education they're getting in public schools then arrange for them to get a few hours of schooling at home every day in areas they may be lacking. Simple as that and you won't become a target of the Conselho Tutelar (child protection authority) and police.

Another concern most parents have is that their children are going to have difficulties in school because they don't speak Portuguese. Well yes and no. That all depends on their ages and sometimes on their mother tongue. Spanish and other European languages are similar to Portuguese in many ways so if they speak one of those languages they're ahead of the game as compared to English speaking children. The younger the child is, the less difficulty they will have in picking up the language. For the most part they won't need any special teaching, they'll pick most of it up from those around them and from the other kids. Remember they're going to be immersed in the language completely and that makes it much easier for them to learn it at any age. Truth is that most expat adults pick up their Portuguese language skills from their kids.

Safety concerns are also way up at the top of the list for expat parents too. Brazil has an extremely high crime rate as opposed to most other developed nations. That goes for the whole spectrum of crimes from petty theft all the way up to murder. But don't let that fact terrify you... For example, the vast majority of murders in this country are committed by someone related to, or well known to the victim; or they are crimes between rival criminals. For the most part you're not going to see murders perpetrated against expats anywhere in Brazil, unless it is a case of a robbery gone very wrong, or the expat is involved in some criminal activity like drugs.

You should use safety precautions no matter where you travel, not just here in Brazil. Crimes happen anywhere in the world, even in my precious Canada, but even here in Brazil the chances are good that they won't happen to you if you take all the necessary precautions. Read and follow the safety tips I've provided in my topic A Gringo's Survival Guide to Brazil, and you'll be fine. If you don't drive or walk your kids to school yourself, then arrange with the school for private transportation for them, it is easily available.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

Hello,  we are planning to move to Brazil with our 2 small children.  My oldest is now turning 6 so het have to go to school when we are there. We all can't speak Portugees,  only me and my husband,  english and my children,  dutch.  Is it not difficult to move there without the language knowledge? We are planning to learn it when we are there.

Hi! We are moving to Brazil also. Currently my wife and kids (8&4yrs) are already there. Wife is Brazilian so that helps with language. Kids are currently in a private school where they are picking up Portuguese a little bit at a time. We decided on a full Portuguese school where a few teachers speak English. Kinda forced learn it and let's go. Our kids are stubborn and would just rely on English and not care to learn Portuguese if it was international school. I will arrive in December, been hitting up Rosetta Stone but immersion is best I think. Household goods shipped out Thursday with expected delivery 2 November. This move has been easy with my wife's family all being there. Do you have a connection down there?

You should start learning Portuguese before you come here. It is extremely difficult to get along here without at least some Portuguese language skills. English is not widely spoken anywhere in Brazil, not even in the workplace.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

Thank you for the advise. I have a friend from Sao Paolo,  but we are not staying there we have no family coz we are both from Asia but citizens from Europe.

Hi

I saw your post. It is not easy the change but I am sure you will love it. I have a house in the Alphaville located in Campinas, Sao Paulo that I rent for expats.  I had my house rented 3 times since 2006 and I always get to hear the difficulties that the expats have with change but after they are settle in they loved it every minute of it.  The first expat rental family had two little kids and they both loved Brazil and the Brazilian people. The second had only one kid and they also enjoyed the 2 years they stayed in Brazil. The last one had two kids, one at 7 years old and the other had 14 years old and they both had a hard time the idea of having to leave the country. It is harder for the wives  because most of them do not know Portuguese and their husband basically work full time leaving the majority of the house chores to them.  One thing that helps a lot for the expats that comes to Brazil transferred from companies abroad is that they have a designated person in the husband's company (part of the relocaction team)who will help you with not only finding the house of your dreams to rent for your family but will also help you with all the necessary things you need to be familiar with such as find the school for your kids that is close by to the house, English speaking schools, maid, helping in purchasing a car, open a bank account, introduce you to neighbors and community, and many other things so you are not alone, you will get around just fine and quickly. Also, Brazilians are very friendly people and you will have no problems meeting people and getting around by yourself. The only thing is that you need to make sure to know where are the good and safe places to rent,  good schools for your kids, where to go shopping, etc. The kids are very nice to foreigners and they love to meet people from different countries too so your kids will not feel bad at all and it will take maybe less then a month to have them with friends around. All 3 expats who stayed in my house loved Brazil and felt sad to leave but unfortunately the assignment is only between 2 to 4 years and longer than this is almost impossible to stay. Companies then to move people around to another assignment since that is the purpose of international assignment.

I think you will love Brazil and you and your kids will be sad when they will have to leave. That is the experiences I had with my expats  who rented my house. Let me know if you need a home in Campinas, SP because my house just became available this month of September. More information go here  https://youtu.be/RicyzMVIwn0

Good luck.

Maria

Maria is very spot on with Brazilian children being very friendly with your children. They will go out of their way to try to communicate and include your child. We had one bad experience and it involved another expat child in summer camp. Our child 8 yrs old and other child 10 yrs old. The 10 yr old was a huge bully and was absolutely horrible to our son. Ended up moving him to another class because of it. We weren't the only family to deal with this spoiled little brat.

ooops ... I am sorry to hear this. Yes, unfortunately spoiled little brats are out there. :-) Hope your child is ok now.
Maria

Hi,
we moved one year ago from holland with our 1 and 2 year old (now 2 and 3), they are going to daycare half a day each day of the week and they integrated and adapted very quickly and positively. Now they come back home talking portuguese, which is a good learning experience for the parents to learn the language as well They play very friendly with the children and their amigas like to play with them also. We hear from their parents the children are talking about ours and they like playing with them ....... after all it has been a good decision for all of us.

You have just summed up in a nutshell the experiene that most expat parents have here in Brazil. Their young children seem to have relatively few problems in adapting to life in Brazil and picking up the language with relative ease. In fact, they are almost always the ones who are responsible for improving their parents' language skills.

Thanks so much for your positive reinforcement of what I've always told our members, it has so-o-o-o much more force when it comes from someone who has walked a mile in those shoes like you have.

Cheers,
James    Expat-blog Experts Team

Dutchstang
Hi, may i ask if you already speak Portuguese prior to moving to Brazil? Im from Netherlands too and we are planning to migrate for good in Brazil. Which papers do we have to bring with us from Holland to Brazil.? Do you have heimwee ?
Thank you

Hi there, We moved to brasil because of my work in holland transfered me to a facility here in Jundiai, SP. Before that time i went back and forth for a few weeks or months also for my company in holland, so i was familiar with the language, but i can tell you it is not an easy language. Although, when you know the basics, people are very patience and kind with you if you do not understand them well. I have not gotten into a portuguese course, i just learned it by TV (movies in english spoken and subtiteld in portuguese) and reading and listening. I still struggle with the language, but can make myself understandable. Now i may consider a course as i am familiar with the language which makes it lot easier to learn.
To enter brasil it all depends on which terms you want to enter, are you moving because of work or any other reasons that can help you entering brasil? Are you moving with children also?

Please read this website of the brasilian embassy in holland, which could help you further. if you have any questions please feel free to ask me. 1 note, if you want to email the embassy in rotterdam as indicated on the website, please consider calling them, because they never respond to any email. best option is to go in person. This is what i experienced.

http://roterda.itamaraty.gov.br/en-us/

I do not have heimwee neither my family does. People are very friendy and patience with you as a foreign, also Brasil has much beauty and opportunities to offer. your mindset should be flexible with daily life, because it ain't europe or US here!! We talking about 2 or 3 generations back when it comes to daily life. You have to be very open and accepting the things as they are.

When it comes to which papers or documents you need, it all depends on which terms you would like to immigrate.
Let me know, perhaps i could be of any assistance.

Hi James,
The homeschooling idea sounds good because the public schools are simply terrible and teacher have strikes all the time, the children miss weeks sometimes months of classes and the facilities are also terrible. So preferably it's better to choose a private schoo and reinforce their education with home school, but how can we afford public school plus homeschool or how to have the courage to drop them off at a public school and make them feel like coming back home and spend more hours studying?
That's what I've been thinking...

Hi MrsW,

If your children attended school in the USA then they're quite used to a 7 or 8 hour school day. Here in Brazil in most cases the classes in public schools are only 4 hours in duration. This includes recess and the time they may have for lunch (if provided).

Your children won't have a great deal of problem understanding that the only way they're going to be able to keep up to the educational standards used in developed countries is to either study in private schools which have full-time classes, or to be home schooled for a couple of hours each day on top of their regular classes to keep them up to speed.

Unfortunately the educational standards in this country lag way behind much of the developed world.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

Hi James,

I know, I'm actually Brazilian so I'm well aware of the education system and the type of conditions that those public schools have. I was living in the USA and I had to comeback to Brazil and I'm actually pregnant and this is my first kid, but I'm already concerned about his education and I know that at this moment in my life I wouldn't be able to afford a private school and I hope that in the future when he reaches his school age, me and my husband are gonna be able to enroll him in a private school. So if schools are still not affordable for us we gonna have to see if homeschooling would be affordable too to be able to reinforce his education. Hopefully it will and then I'll have to work hard with him to motivate him to come home and study more. It's not only the quality of the education that worries me but the type of kids that are gonna be in those schools, the violence, the physical conditions of the classrooms etc.

Hi MrsW,

Well from my personal experience with my 8 year old Brazilian son from my current marriage, and past experience with the two sons of my ex-wife. I would be much more concerned with the poor quality of education than I would be with the other kids who attend the school. Yes, there is bullying in the schools and some of the students involve themselves in petty crime or more serious crimes, but the media here tends to blow that all out of proportion. I'm sure that, as a Brazilian, you're well aware that the media here is extremely sensationalistic and far from being unbiased as we in North America are used to.

I have no real problems with my son in the public school system, other than the fact that they don't seem at times to be prepared to handle children who are well above average in their intelligence. I actually had to stress to the school administration, as a teacher myself, that my son needed to be presented material that was much more challenging to him. Since that time his grades have skyrocketed.

Home schooling remains a viable addition, but just remember it is ONLY and addition. There are provisions in both the Código Penal Brasileira - CPB and the Estatuto de Criança e Adolescente - ECA, that require all parents or those legally responsible for a child to enroll the child in traditional school settings (i.e. public or private schools). There are heavy penalties for not doing so and the government here will make no distinction whether the child's parents are Brazilian citizens or expats, in enforcing those provisions.

One thing that I would highly recommend is that you certainly give great attention to home schooling your child in English. It is not taught until the later grades in Brazil, and even the teachers in most cases are not qualified to teach the language. A child is never too young to begin learning English, in fact the earlier the better.

Cheers,
James    Expat-blog Experts Team

Thank you very much for the tips James, you are beyond helpful in this blog and I appreciate your dedication. That's a great point about the media and the homeschooling in english. I surely want my son to be bilingual and I think that could be a great post here because I would like to know more about raising bilingual children. I guess I'm gonna make a post about that if I don't find one, because I can imagine it must be tricky and I've heard a few myths about it like for example that the child gets confused or takes longer to start talking.

cant speak about us school system, but I took my 10 year old daughter to Florianópolis for 1.5 years and am now back in uk. She now speaks fluent Portuguese and is therefore capable of having a significant ie emotional conversation with her mother (Brazilian). She also has a grasp of Brazilian culture etc and would be able to live there in future. On the negative side she has struggled since returning (1year ago) -she initially missed her Brazilian friends very deeply. Anglo culture is much cooler and more emotionally restrained even at age 12, she had reverse culture shock. Now she's ok but only time will tell. I would say go for it but don't underestimate the effects on your kids, it's a heavy thing to deal with. The benefits are real but the costs are too. With the way the world is going preparing your kids for a non us dominant world is a good choice. Florianópolis is probably the easiest place in Brazil for an Anglo to acclimatise. Good choice. Feel free to pm

04/05/23 Welcome, fabirizar!  American citizens can only stay in Brazil for 180 days in every 365 days on a visitor/tourist visa (VIVIS), so staying a year is not possible on that type of visa.  Before you make any commitments, you should check the VISAS page of the website of the Brazilian Consulate with jurisdiction for your state to determine whether you qualify for a resident visa (VITEM series) that will let you stay longer.

If one of you is a Brazilian citizen, that person can bring the rest of the family in after satisfying some formalities.

04/05/23 I had read that ee can apply for a digital nomad visa.. if that still available we would go that route. Thank you
-@fabirizar

I expect that it will be.  If we hear about any plans for the government to end the program, we'll certainly post about it here.  You should also check the website of the nearest Brazilian Consulate regularly as you  make your plans, to be aware of any changes.