Kids, schools and youth sports/in the VI

Suzie & George - Kudos to you for taking the time to explore how the move will work for your children before packing them up and hauling them down here!

There are activities for children, but some of them differ from what is offered on the mainland. The schools don't play tackle football here, but there are baseball, soccer, volleyball, basketball, track, swimming and other sports teams. There are boy scouts and girl scouts. There are some youth activities unique to the island, too, such as steel pan drum bands and mocko jumbies (walking on stilts in costumes), etc. There are art groups and majorettes and dance groups. Many other water activities are available, too, such as snorkeling and scuba diving and kayaking and sailing, etc. Some of the organized sports teams are offered through the schools and might not be available to children who are home schooled. Others are open to anyone.

You can search past threads on this site to find information about home schooling your children. This is growing more common as the private schools continue to increase their tuition rates. Even if you homeschool, your children can have many opportunities to interact with other children via sports activities and by attending events at the private schools. Some families pool their kids and home school together since different parents have different ability levels to instruct some subjects or ages of children. I'd suggest doing a little research on home schooling to see if you think it would work for your family and then talk to your children about it and see if they agree. For home schooling to work well, the kids have to be accepting of the change in lifestyle and also fairly self-directing in their studies. It works extremely well for some kids and doesn't work at all for others. If your children need any kind of special education assistance, then you probably shouldn't bring them to the islands, as these resources are not as readily available as they are in mainland public schools.

One thing to consider is whether you would be able to afford private school tuition for them when they are in high school. If you can get them that far with home schooling, the tuition for high school is likely to be rewarded by your children getting into good colleges and having scholarships to pay for their continuing education.

No, they are not exaggerated. They are simply not an option for transplantees. Private school or homeschool only.
Most of the organized sports are through the schools. The football is pretty dismal. The public schools on stt and stx have teams - and the private schools all club together to field a team. Absolutely NOT stateside quality.
I personally would wait until your kids are off to college and there is just the 2 of you - you will be young enough and IMHO, life on a middle income with 4 kids would not be fair to them.

If you cant afford private school for all of them can you afford to live on one income and have the other home school? Do one of you have a career that would transfer over to here well (meaning your chosen field of profession is in high demand) and be able to support the whole family? Its one thing if its just two adults risking it all to move down here. It can be really hard to make the transition and I'm not just talking emotionally or culturally. It is extremely expensive to live here, to make it make it work on one income with four kids you're going to have to cut way back.

Whoa - 12 is a really tough age to move a child to the VI, IMO. Kids in the islands are part of a different culture. They speak differently and have a very different upbringing. 12 year olds are sensitive anyway. Moving them into a new culture and new school seems especially traumatic. Then again, it might depend on how they view their current school environment. They might welcome the change.

As an example, some island kids make fun of the way kids from the states talk. They call it "YANKin" - white kids/statesiders are the minority and I hear there's no mercy.

IMO, I wouldn't want to put a kid thru HS in the VI unless it could be the very best school and they could have had time to adjust. Most people that I know are doin the revese...getting their kids back to the states before HS - for that reason, alone.

Hi everyone,
There is excellent information on this board on why you should not bring children here. I have a 3 1/2 year old here on STX. He will be going to Country Day. Does anyone have any experience raising children on STX that do attend private school. Were your children happy? I also would like to hear from parents that moved back to the states with children that they raised in the VI. Was it hard for your children to adjust to living in the states.
Thank you all.
Tammy

One of my close friends was raised in St Croix and attended Country Day and loved it. She thought Country Day was an excellent experience and never stops talking about all of her wonderful experiences growing up on STX. She is so open minded about people of different cultures and I really attribute that to where she was raised.

She reminds me a lot of other people I know that were raised with military parents and became adjusted to moving around and fitting into new cultures around the world. I'm not saying it's easy but there are challenges for a child no matter where they live in the world and even switching between a public and private school in the same city can be a challenge for some kids as they try to fit in.

Thank you Alexandra and everyone who replied. This is really helping us in thinking our decision through. We cant thank you enough for your honesty.

We are both medics and firefighters with training in a few different areas like hazardous materials ( which includes anti terrorism and WMD/bio terrorism) and technical rescue. We were both planning of working and maybe hiring a private tutor to home school the kids. We just aren't sure if that is possible.

As for the kids adjusting to being minorities, trust me it wouldn't be a problem. We live in Hammond IN, right in between the South side of Chicago and Gary IN which for a very long time was the murder capitol of the world. The schools they are in are largely African American and Latino. We know first hand that it doesn't matter what color you are you have nice people and bad people. Our kids have black and Latino friends. The have also encountered blacks white kids that want be black who have threatened them and called them crackers and what not. Our kids are disciplined enough to leave it be. They know not everyone is like that. We have ( white,black,Latino) that are very dear to use. George is also a head coach in football and baseball. Half of the kids and staff are also African American so our kids are also used to taking instruction for people of different creeds and color.

In debating on moving now or later we were also trying to buy a house there before the next spike in prices. One idea we have kicked around is buy a house now while the prices are steady and renting it out until we can make the move. However, we aren't sure how being an absentee landlord would work out.

When we mentioned above in our first post that we wanted to move" while we were young" we should have probably said healthy. With in 6 mos of each other we were both told we had cancer ( at the ages of 31 and 27 ). We wonder what the mathematical chances of that were. George had a aggressive form of melanoma on his nose that was also in the nasal cavity ( which was close to the brain) and Suzie cervical. While we probably are good to go and wont be leaving this world anytime soon it was a wake up call. We really came to terms with the fact we are all here a very short time and you never know when that time is up. There are many things we want to do before that happens.

We guess all we are trying to do is see if we cant find away to make our dreams a reality without hurting our kids. So we are exploring as many possibilities as we can. They are our testament to this world and will always come first.

Thanks again to you all.

Suzie and George

Suzie and George,

I had similar wake up call when I was 27, although it didn't lead me to the USVI directly, it did change my life. Just a few thoughts on your most recent post.......

Very familar with the Hammond, IN area, much of my mothers family still lives there, and in nearby towns. Having said that, the USVI doesn't have much in common with that area. I agree with earlier postings regarding sports for your kids, while there is a wide variety of sporting activities, they are not very similar to what they currently enjoy now. That doesn't make these activities better or worse, just different. Community attitudes toward teenage sporting activities are different here than they are back in the states. High school sports get minimal newspaper and television coverage, and it doesn't seem to be the community event they are in the states, espcially like high basketball in Indiana.

I wouldn't focus so much on racial differences between your kids and those that live here, the differences are much more culturally driven than they are racially driven. I also think that cultural differences are easier to handle for an adult than they are for a child. The biggest cultural gap you would experience between your kids and any other group stateside would be dwarfed by those they would experience in the public schools here. It would be a tough transition. A private shcool would be better, no doubt, but would be tough, if not impossible, on a firefighter's / EMT salary.

I am assuming you would hope to work in thjose fields once you get here. Because they are government positions, they are highly sought after, and it might be tough for a non VI native, or short time resident, to get such a position.

I don't mean to sound discouraging, I moved a number of times when I was a child / adolescent, and it was hard. having lived here for three years, it seems like moving with kids would be exremely difficult.

Best of luck.

Hell Suzie and George,

Wow! What are the odds? I am sure you all are definitely having a different perspective on life. I think I understand why you are wanting to move to the islands. We moved to the islands with three kids and thought our research had prepared us and were excited to be adventurers. While I don't regret moving to the islands, it wasn't a great experience for my kids. I think they would have been much happier to stay stateside and visit the beach rather than live next to one. We moved back stateside last August after two years on island and haven't regretted that either. We are in Atlanta and really are more appreciative of what we have now than before our island experience. The kids are happier here and are getting a better education. Living on island with kids is just not ideal. My kids had friends of all colors and religions in the states before moving to island, but it didn't matter so much. What was difficult was the language barrier. The accent is heavy in the Caribbean and my kids had a tough time with it. I really don't like ranting about the islands in a bad way, so I will stop. Let me just say it is very difficult with children and in no way easy. It of course can be done and if you are set on it and want helpful advice, this board is great for that.

IMHO, you might find happiness anywhere and not have to work so hard for it like you would in the islands. Good luck to you in whatever you decide.

Teresa

EMT's are affiliated to the hospital (government) and not to the Fire Dept. like the rest of the world. My husband who was a health care provider on stx, says...think of them as glorified ambulance drivers. There are very few openings as they are coveted jobs, despite being very low paid. Unemployment is very high on the Islands, so any steady job with benefits is a prize. And the prizes go to relatives. friends etc.
As a fireman and emt (if you can get a job as either) you will not be middle income in the VI. It will be very hard to provide housing etc for your family. I am not sure that a private tutor could be found.
Life could be pretty grim. The cost of living is very high there.

It is nothing like living alongside minorities etc. That sentence said it all. Your kids will be the minority in a world where the others hold all the power. Even if they were the only white kids in their class in the States, everything else about your lives will be dominated by WASP's. I am generalizing here. On the islands...you will be the minority without adequate representation.

My daughter graduated form CD, she found the transition back to Stateside very easy as she only spent 5 or 6 yrs in the Caribbean. Academically, CD was behind most of the other kids she was in college with. Socially, it was much quieter for her - no drinking. She has really enjoyed getting back to 'normal". I asked her if she felt that her experiences had enriched her...she said that she wished that she had stayed in the States and maybe moved somewhere different within the 50.

Actually, EMT's are employed by the health department (VI Govt.), they work from the hospital (semi autonomous from VI Govt.). Go figure. In any case, they are tough jobs to get (family, favritism, ect) tough jos to do (constant lack of support and supplies),andof course, they pay fairly poorly.

What a combination. No wonder response time is so bad.

Thats sad to hear. What happens within the first few minutes of a medical emergency is SO very important. For example after 4 mins without O2 the brain starts to suffer damage which, cant be fixed. Same with a heart attack once the cardiac muscle is damaged it cant be fixed. Bypassed yes.Fixed no. And of course there is the Golden Hour after an emergency occurs. IF you have a severe injury and dint get to a hospital within that hour your chances start going down really fast. Maybe one day ( the good Lord willing ) we can move down and be an asset.

As for moving somewhere else and being happy. We don't mean to sound dumb or anything, but we want to try to express what we have felt. We have traveled a lot and seen many beautiful places and things. But there is just something about the the VI that pulls at us. We have been to the Bahamas, Mexico , Puerto Rico, etc..but haven't felt the same pull. We don't know anyone personally that has had that same feeling but we are sure someone has.

And just a thought, not that it has anything to do with this because in reality most of us can't ignore time and throw away our clocks.

We once read an article about Jost Van Dyke and the stories of Foxy and a few different things. It said that there were only between 175 to 200 locals on Jost and that there was only one clock on the island and it was broken. Don't know if thats true or not (it was an older article on the web). It got the both of us thinking how we would live our lives if the only thing we had to judge our time here was the rise and fall of the sun, moon and tides. Just a thought lol.

Thanks again to all of you.

Suzie and George

There is more then one clock on Jost but that is a funny story. It is one of my fav islands. They have at lest two little hotels (the one on white bay makes great roti's) and a bunch of beach bars and little beach shops. The pop on the island is extremely small. White Bay is actually my computer background. Love it cant say enough good things about the bvi. I love to vacation in the bvi, but as an American you would find it extremely hard to make a go at it, forget about it with kids. By law they have to hire locals first. And while it is even more laid back there, they do work hard as they're are world famous beach bars, marinas, hotels, etc there. And IMHO I find the people to be much friendlier there (but the govt seems worse), but it would be worse then trying to make it on stj

We read that in an article about a book by Peter Farrell that was written about Foxy. The article was written awhile back (early 90's ?). We weren't thinking of moving to Jost. But after we both found out we had cancer it just made us think of that article.

You are preaching to choir re. importance of response times etc. However, the USVI is NOT the mainland and what is important and obvious to you, is perhaps of absolutely no imprt to the Powers that Be or even the general populace. We have seen a lot of people who want ed to be an agent for change from outside crash and burn.
The VI will be changed by the Islanders at the speed and in the way that they want, not how we think it should be.
Active and passive resistance to external forces of change is almost an art form.

The life in the USVI, especially if one is just a working stiff is not idyllic...the 'clock' is not broken! It is just like anywhere else, but more expensive and without amenities. Great place for retirees with good income etc. Great place for couples without encumbrances. Great place for adventurous singles ...you get the drift.
Lousy for 'ordinary' people with kids.
In light of your previous health issues, the healthcare services on the Islands would also be another negative. Most transplantees go off island for most things other than basic health care.

Sorry if we came across as people who want to change the world or USVI. That wasn't the point. However, we feel anyone who is willing to try to make things better is an asset. We chose our profession because everyday we impact someones life. (We sure as hell don't do it for the money lol). Just an example. Suzie was on a call for a motor vehicle accident. One of the people involved was definitely not going to make it . But she held him and prayed with him until he passed. It didn't change how fast the helicopter response times were or anything major. But I am sure it meant a lot to him at the time and we know it meant a lot to his parents to know he didn't die alone on the side of the road. We might not be able to make a difference in the govt but we all can make a difference in someones life and make things a little better. We understand its not the same as the mainland. We just cant think of anything more important than a human life.

One of my favorite things to say is " One person may not be able to change the world, but you CAN change one persons world."

Sorry about heading off into left field lol. Hope we didn't offend anyone.

Thank you to all of you who have been very honest. We read this board a lot and one thing we have noticed is whether peoples views are good,bad or indifferent, everyone is pretty honest. So thank you for your help.

Our best wishes to all.

Suzie and George

Jane, what college does your daughter go to that has no drinking? I sure wish I had sent my kids to that one.

She went back to Colorado. There is drink available, of course, but there is also a larger percentage of "cool" kids that don't factor alcohol in as a social life. Way too busy doing sports, travelling etc etc. There's more to do than bars and Buck Island - lol.

I am sure Jane's daughter follows from example.

I think that they all do...for good and bad. I do know this, eric and I rarely set foot in a bar on StX and we haven't been to one since we moved - last May. I am no prude or raving teetotaller, but the amount of alcohol consumed on island always did concern me. The kids watched their parents getting hammered at Buck, or by the pool or out for the evening...and so it continues.

I have read all of the posts and I now for a fact that life in the VI is not for High Schoolers.
We have custody of some children that did not fit in well in the life style that is offered. It is ok if you think you can get things by working the system and make sure you check out the health care for your children. It is not all that it is cracked up to be. It is wise to go there when your children are grown and you do not have to worry about them. But if you are considering moving them out of the high school they are used to then you don't worry about them.

My husband was born and raised in Highland, Indiana. I can see why you would want to "get the hell out". 🙂
No, just kidding. I was diagnosed with melanoma and luckily we caught it in time. I must say that is why we moved back from STT to the states. Being in that situation taught me that we needed to be where our families were and where my child needed to be. The islands are very tough on families trying to make it. The public schools are pretty bad (you can ask Teresa) on this board. She tried it w/her kids because she couldn't afford private school. I realize you guys have had some tough news about your health, but may I suggest you stay put and travel with your children every chance you get to different islands, different countries, etc....I am not sure you will find "your dreams" coming true by living on an island. The locals sometimes are very indifferent with newcomers due to the fact that people don't stay long because of different reasons. It's hard to get to know someone just to once again, have them move away.