Doulos Discovery School

Where will your kids go to school? Are you going to homeschool? We often hear these questions and decided to add our answer to our blog because we are excited about the school Ben and Elena will be attending this fall. This past year in Guatemala and Minnesota we did homeschool since we were not in one location for a full school year and in Guatemala "summer break" is from mid October to mid January. However our preference in the D.R. is a Christian bilingual school.

Doulos Discovery School was founded several years ago by long time missionaries to the D.R. "Doulos" means slave to Christ; it is the school aim to raise up children who are slaves to Christ--pretty radical! In 2005 we had the opportunity to tour the school and were impressed. It has a unique vision for sharing the gospel in the Jarabacoa area and providing a quality education to children who would not otherwise have the opportunity. Using U.S. curriculum, the students are taught in both English and Spanish. They have a focus on experiential learning that includes outdoor education. The students are also involved in community service projects.

We believe this is a place where our kids will thrive educationally, socially, and spiritually. For more information and great photos see the Doulos website: www.doulosdiscovery.org

Since being here, we have visited Doulos a few times. We want to do everything we can to help Ben and Elena make an easy transition into school. Ben, who is very social, played in the playground while we talked with the director of the school. Unknown to us, he was playing on the playground with this year's First Grade Class, the class he will be a part of next year. And after a few minutes, he had made friends and figured this out. Ben was also excited to learn that there is a soccer camp in July. Doulos has a very strong soccer team. For Elena, who is quieter, she was able to meet her teacher, an American from South Carolina. And they seemed to bond, especially when the teacher told Elena she could help teach the other children English. The transition for Elena will be a little harder. We know it would have been in the United States as well. But we are looking for ways to help ease that.