Moving to Grenada with kids

We moved to Grenada with two boys 10 and 12 at the time.

We lived in the community, in Belmont, St, George's. People were very welcoming and it was very safe.

School was a little challenging. There was lots of racism, which is good for white kids to experience because now they know what other kids face in Canada & the USA. The quality of education is definitely below Canadian standards. We had the boys enrolled in a private school and it still was not what I expected. HOWEVER we were only staying for a year and they learned about Caribbean history, agriculture and other subjects they would never have learned otherwise. Your children will be educated in the Christian faith whether you like it or not. Every school will have prayers, spirituals and sermons. My boys just dealt with it. The school system is British which was totally new to me, but I understand Harry Potter a lot better now! Win-win. All schools have uniforms and you will need to buy books and there was always some expense to pay! Paper is very expensive so don't expect newsletters or reports.

Kids are ranked in school and the rank put on their report card. It took me a while to figure out why the boys weren't popular, until I realized they were dropping the number 1 kid to number 2, or number 6 to 7... and that trickles down. Parents take school very seriously and not being in the top 10 or five could cause a child to be beaten. There was nothing we could do about this, but understanding the dynamic helped.

Beaches are amazing. Hashing was fantastic. You can buy the newest movies in the theatres for $2XCD downtown on the street- not that you should- but you could. We watched lots of movies at home and the movie theatre in St. George's had first run movies at a very reasonable price (way cheaper than in North America). There is a kids steel pan band open to any child. There were always free or cheap things to do and since we were volunteering we did all of them.

Be cautious about "cross country running" This in my mind is insanity. Our 12 year old went on a 12 km run up the mountain and back down with limited supervision. Thank God my husband thought he should take pictures and drove behind! There was no practice, just "go". I was not happy!

Books are very expensive. bring lots of Archie or something for them to read. The Mt. Zion Library definitely helps as there is a children's and adult library. Don't expect the school to have a library, the private school didn't.

Every weekend we  went to a beach, some days we made it after work but not usually. The youngest wanted to go home constantly ( and now misses it like crazy- aghhh), the oldest never wanted to leave!

Not somewhere I would let my kids be permanently educated, but for a year it was fabulous.