Homeschooling in Egypt--Part 5

CAIRO

Then we found out we were moving to Cairo. There is an ISC-Cairo but after some asking around we were convinced it’d be more of the same of what we experienced in Amman. We then looked into sending them to Cairo American College (CAC). CAC is where the majority of expat kids go. The embassy kids all go to CAC. Once we added it all up for now 6 school age kids, we came to the grand total of about $92,000 to send our kids to CAC. Todd’s work gives us an allowance for our kids’ education but it wasn’t $92,000.

We also considered location. Todd’s work was in an area of Cairo called Heliopolis. CAC is in Maadi. Someone was going to have a killer commute if we chose one of those places. Our church is in Maadi, so is scouts, piano lessons, doctors . . . So we knew we’d be making some trips to Maadi. We settled on living in Katameya, in between Maadi and Heliopolis. (However, we’re now looking at moving to Maadi because now after living here the “horror” stories of the commute from Maadi to Heliopolis just aren’t true. We find ourselves making the 30+ minute drive [depending on day/time of day] to Maadi several times a week. Since we have a driver Todd can work during the commute, thereby not losing any work time.)

But lets get back to cost. We analyzed that as well. It was roughly $15000/per child for CAC. Keep in mind you as tax payers are paying that for those that are gov’t workers. But we can get into a political discussion later. For less than what it would cost for CAC, we were able to get things like:

• A full curriculum for each child which included all textbooks, workbooks, online guidance, lesson plans, teacher guides, science experiments, art supplies, literature books, for all subjects (Math, Language Arts, Literature, History, Art, Science, Phonics, Music, etc.)
• Macbooks for each child
• Microsoft Office for said computers
• Custom built bookshelves and desks for each child
• Health club membership
• Piano lessons
• Arabic tutor
• Tennis, gymnastics, baseball, and swimming lessons
• Two languages from Rosetta Stone
• Multiple “Field trips” to the pyramids, museums, Nile River, Azhar Park, etc.
• Extra supplies like notebooks, printer cartridges and paper, pencils, etc.

I list this just to give you an idea of what we were able to buy for less than what it would cost to send them to CAC. After this, it was a no-brainer for us. So we took the plunge and committed to homeschool.