Relocating Family to Argentina

[JBahr]

My Wife and I have been talking about temporarily relocating to Argentina. We have a 5 year old girl and 2 year old boy and we are looking to slow time down a bit and really enjoy the time they are young and give them a unique life experience. I spent some time down there out of college and really enjoyed it, specifically Patagonia. The idea is 2-3 years until about middle school age for my daughter.

Wife works in the online world, and I work in the industrial one. She has really been pushing me to hang it all up and do something I love. I am researching outfits I could volunteer/work for in the fly fishing and stag hunting realm. Cost of living down there is such that my income likely will not be needed. We have good savings and investments.

I am looking for people who have spent time down there. Vacationing, hunting, fishing or just living. Curious about your experiences, what was great, things to avoid.

Also very interested in people who have experience with non traditional education for children, i.e. homeschool or world school.... still coming around to this idea for the kids.

Broad net, I know... Just thought I would try some like minded individuals in the Rokslide community. Appreciate it!

 

[schmalzy]

My Wife and I have been talking about temporarily relocating to Argentina. We have a 5 year old girl and 2 year old boy and we are looking to slow time down a bit and really enjoy the time they are young and give them a unique life experience. I spent some time down there out of college and really enjoyed it, specifically Patagonia. The idea is 2-3 years until about middle school age for my daughter.

Wife works in the online world, and I work in the industrial one. She has really been pushing me to hang it all up and do something I love. I am researching outfits I could volunteer/work for in the fly fishing and stag hunting realm. Cost of living down there is such that my income likely will not be needed. We have good savings and investments.

I am looking for people who have spent time down there. Vacationing, hunting, fishing or just living. Curious about your experiences, what was great, things to avoid.

Also very interested in people who have experience with non traditional education for children, i.e. homeschool or world school.... still coming around to this idea for the kids.

Broad net, I know... Just thought I would try some like minded individuals in the Rokslide community. Appreciate it!

Nothing of value to add in your search for information but think it’s an awesome idea. Good luck in your search and I really hope it works out for you guys.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TaperPin]

My first wife and half her family were homeschooled. Her experience after high school graduation is very close to that of every other person we met that also grew up home schooled. Home schooling sounds like a good idea, but every single person who came out of it was way behind everyone else. It’s a lot of work to teach kids and once the fun wears off home school turns into no school, or barely half ass school. Other folks may have a totally different experience, we just never met anyone that wasn’t also playing catch-up well into their 20’s to actually learn the things they should have in heir teens.

Over the years a number of coworkers home schooled their high school age kids, and it was a lazy way of not having to deal with their problems in school and very little was expected of them.

Our oldest wants to home school his kids - neither his nor his wife have the interest, energy, or personality to teach kids - they like hanging out with them and doing stuff with them, but that’s not an education. He tries to get me in on it because I like to train smart motivated adults how to do woodworking and I remind him that I’m not interested in teaching kids all day or I’d be a grade school teacher - it’s real work.

 

[butcherboy]

Hope it works out for you but there is no way in hell I would
Move my family out of the U.S. I always say going out of country is a nice place to visit but not live. If your daughter is 5 now and you stay till she is middle school age that’s 13. You are looking at 7-8 years not 2-3. It would certainly be a life experience but I think your kids are a little young to actually appreciate it and get the most out of the experience.

 

[Beendare]

We are headed to Patagonia after Christmas for a couple weeks.....

 

[el_jefe_pescado]

Where are you moving from OP? Sounds like a cool idea.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Geewhiz]

Homeschooling your kids is exactly what you make it. My 4 siblings and I were all homeschooled, and we all scored very well on our SAT and ACT exams, and we all have at least a bachelors degree in post secondary education and professional careers. My mother was a hard ass when it came to our educations, and her and dad both are very smart and well educated people.

Personally I think there are huge advantages to be had by homeschooling your children, but it is a significant responsibility and a commitment that should not be taken lightly.

I know a good number of people that were homeschooled for the wrong reason, and it shows.

 

[jimh406]

I'm not sure how homeschooling could do a worse job that what most public schools have been doing for the past few decades. There are tons of online tools available now. There's frankly a lot of wasted time in a public school day even if you don't count the time to go to school and get home.

I'd strongly consider homeschooling if I had any school age kids. Homeschooling vs public schools are frankly close to opposites. Completely individualized lessons vs being part of a class with kids of many different abilities and behavior issues.

 

[P Carter]

My two cents: Argentina is beautiful, Nd great to visit, but economically underperforming, unstable, and corrupt. The education system is poor. There are few opportunities for young people, and the opportunities for outsiders are few and far between. It’s orders of magnitude less economically dynamic than the US. Would be fun to go there for a few years if you were going to be part of the upper crust. Not a place to go to seek opportunities. But if you have modest economic goals, or enough money to buy your way into the elite echelons of society down there, it might be cool.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Homeschooling your kids is exactly what you make it. My 4 siblings and I were all homeschooled, and we all scored very well on our SAT and ACT exams, and we all have at least a bachelors degree in post secondary education and professional careers. My mother was a hard ass when it came to our educations, and her and dad both are very smart and well educated people.

Personally I think there are huge advantages to be had by homeschooling your children, but it is a significant responsibility and a commitment that should not be taken lightly.

I know a good number of people that were homeschooled for the wrong reason, and it shows.

Now it’s starting to make sense.

 

[RockAndSage]

Would be fun to go there for a few years if you were going to be part of the upper crust. Not a place to go to seek opportunities.

^^^ This is important. As long as you think of it as "a couple of years of lifestyle vacation", you're fine. And as long as you have an emergency reserve of cash that will cover evacuation, along with actual evacuation insurance.

My wife and I currently homeschool. And as someone else said, it is what you make it - but it is not the stereotype of old. In the early years of it, homeschoolers were often socially awkward. Subsequent generations learned from that and went to great lengths to have better socialization opportunities for their kids, like scouting, sports, FFA, 4H, etc. I personally spoke with the admissions head at the US Air Force Academy and asked about homeschoolers. He made an explicit point of that for me, and shared that there had been a complete shift in that population - at that time (2004ish) the top cadet was homeschooled, and as a group they were some of the absolute highest performing all-around (academic, athletic, military affairs). And they were some of the most socially competent.

In the modern era, there are tremendous opportunities for homeschooling - they tend to fall in very distinct curricula groups. Generally speaking, you've got religious types; libertarian-ish and non-ideological types; and hippies that do "unschooling", which unless very carefully guided usually ends up creating feral and uneducated children. But there are plenty of very rigorous non-ideological curricula out there, and especially with Covid, the general explosion of online and remote learning has been excellent. Homeschoolers are at all the Ivies, and are welcomed at the service academies. It is what you make it.

I've also spent a lot of my adult life living and working overseas, almost none of it in the first world. With what you described in Argentina, it could be a good time, but it will have its limitations. As noted, it's not a place of opportunity. Regarding your kids, unless you're in the capital and can have your children socializing with kids of local and international elites (business, diplomats, etc), the only real opportunity you're providing them from the experience is language and cross-cultural skills, if you choose to make points of that. Remember the principle of Birds of a Feather - they will program to the values of the kids they hang out with. The further your kids are from the capital and those social opportunities, the more limited the social and educational opportunities will be for your kids.

 

[Geewhiz]

Now it’s starting to make sense.

I should have spelled all the words wrong.

 

[turbobrick]

If you can get ahold of Johnathan O'Dell, formerly of AZ Game and Fish, he moved down to Argentina for schooling, and was there for a good while. I'm sure he'd have some insights. He is sciurushunter on Instagram, that is the only contact I have for him.

 

[Seth]

As noted on the homeschool front, there are many options and resources. My kids have been homeschooled since day one and excel academically. We utilize a co-op model where they meet weekly with a campus of about 50 other kids with grade specific tutors utilizing a classical education model. With the curriculum we use, graduates are actively recruited by universities. It is what you make it, and it is a serious investment of time on the parents’ part for a successful outcome.

 

[AndyB]

Argentina has suffered from nearly 100 years of collective socialism, from one of the richest countries in wealth and resources to near the bottom of the pile….so the only place it can go is up! Especially under Milei…., and here’s wishing him all the best.

I listened to his speech at the wef recently, boy did he make them squirm.

Probably a good place to invest at the minute, or move a business to.

Op, if I had the opportunity I would go in a heartbeat.


Know before you go….

 

[bbell]

That is a great age for the kids to do a big move like that. They will soak up the language and are happy to be with mom and dad. Much easier when they are young versus pushing the teen years.

 

[308ld]

I don't think I would have to move to Argentina to slow life down, but that's me.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

This move benefits 1 person: you. So if you do it, you better own that and not make any cop out bs excuses about how is better for everyone else and you're a martyr just going along with it. I propose a couple experiments before jumping in:

1. Take 2 weeks off, stay home, be Mr dad. Your wife needs to keep working during this time. You need to log daily how your relationship is with her. I've seen a bunch of couples fall apart when there's a major shift of the woman into the masculine role, you need to know if yours is one that can handle it or not. Also, if you can handle being Mr dad.

2. Buy plane tickets for your whole family from wherever you currently live to the furthest point in the u.s. and back again with no dwell time at the destination, keep yourself in airports or on the plane the entire time. Try to recreate the trip duration from your inlaws house to Argentina. Keep a log of how you feel during the trip, how your kids are, and how much fun you have.

3. Buy an early reading curriculum and teach your daughter to read English. Do this yourself, no help from your wife, to simulate being the homeschool teacher. Record how you feel, how she progresses, and how much fun you have doing it.

Running a few simple tests like this is a good way to go into this with a realistic assessment of how life will actually be.

I moved back into an area I liked right out of college, but with a wife and kids. Suffice to say, the second time around was way different, and we couldn't wait to get out of there as a family.

 

[MallardSX2]

Any chance I could get you to take about 13 million people with you?

 

[Coveyleader]

I work there. It’s a great place if you have money, and don’t live there. It is impossible for our American minds to understand the level of corruption and how their society can even live. They are just coming out (hopefully) the worst economic situation in decades. Truly crushing. Inflation there is mind boggling. The positive? You’ll be eating real food not contaminated with poison, and see people that look like “People” and the culture is incredibly positive.


If you want slow, old school Kansas type living junp the border to Uruguay. Talk about sleepy!


Good luck in your move, there are worse things you can do and Arg despite its issues is a beautiful place.

Suerte!