Hi to everybody. I'm new to Home schooling. We have just moved here in dubai with our 1o year old Daughter and we have decided to do homeschooling for her as she prefers to stay at home than to go to a normal school. If there is anyone here from Dubai who can guide us on the proper way of starting, I will be very thankful. :angel:
Welcome to the forum I'm not sure what the laws are in Dubai, but I suspect it may be a case of following the laws of your country and state of origin, as it is with the tax laws. Most of Dubai is made up of expats. Maybe the embassy should be your first port of call. (And expect the red tape of Dubai in all areas to be frustrating to say the least... I used to live there, and it appears that nothing goes smoothly, Inshallah.) I never utilised any libraries in Dubai, and am not sure if there are any (although I'd expect there would be!), but there are lots of book stores and you can get anything you need over the internet as long as you are happy to pay extra customs fees (to make up for the lack of tax, everything has fees attached). There are also many social group options in Dubai so your child can get as much interaction as you both want. Good luck!
Glad to have you here! I've never been out of the US, so I certainly can't help you with your local questions, but I'm anxious to get to know you and help you along in any way I can.
Hi Mamabear Welcome to Dubai! There are many homeschoolers here, of various ages and from many different countries. There are also a homeschoolers group based in Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi Home Schoolers Association) and one for the northern emirates, which includes Dubai (Northern Emirates Homeschool Association). If you join one of these groups (or any others I might not know about) you'll be sure to make friends, and find lots of help from those that have been homeschooling in Dubai for as long as 20 years! (That's the most I know of). As for the libraries, yes, there are public libraries. They do have more Arabic books than English, but we have always found something there so far (2 years only). Having said that, my boys are KG and Grade1, so our requirements will be very different from yours. There also is a private library located in Mall of the Emirates, where you pay membership fees and a small fee per book. We haven't been there yet, but other homeshooling friends have and they are happy with it. As Melissa has mentioned, there are also loads of bookshops, my favourite is a cramped, overstocked secondhand bookshop in Satwa, you never know if they'll have exactly what you're looking for, but the turnaround time for their books is so good, that it's basically different books every time we go there. If you need craft materials, stationery, files, art materials, etc. then you could find some in the supermarkets (Carrefour, Hyperpanda, Lulu's, Union Co-op), and most others will be in Dubai Library Distributors, they have one branch in Satwa and I think there's another down Sheikh Zayed Road. Please ask if there's anything specific you need help with!
salam. my family will be relocating to dubai at the end of september insha Allah and I hope to get my 10yr old boy, almost 7 yr old girl, 5 year old girl and 3 year old boy into a homeschooling group. My husband and I will be attending school also studying for our masters and we need all the extra time we can have with the kids. We hope to live in sharjah but we really have not made up our minds yet. we just may end up in dubai town. Kindly let me know if there are homeschooling groups in sharjah and dubai we can enrol them in with their fees please. I would really love to get any info i can on this subject. thank you.
