Twin,

Thank You!
Thank you for your thoughtful response. Much of what you said my husband and I intuited (about the board). As far as WE goes, I don't think we're too expensive either and I apologize for insinuating all ISS or IT's are anti-family; It just seemed like quite a bit of child prejudice around here.

Yes, big benefit packages are not going to be our fate. Now, I guess I just assume ANY employer has to deal with potential problems when they hire someone. I will likely not be teaching for quite a while and maybe never if online work is steady. I was originally a secondary english ed major until I saw the quality of the other students and no offense, but some of the most ridiculous "education" course work required. These students were struggling in their "major" courses and complaining they didn't need to understand literary criticism theory. I was quite turned off by it all.

Yes, I know homeschooling "doesn't count."
Which is why I will likely not teach, but continue with other avenues of making money at home, leaving me free to take care of my kids. In 10 years I'm not sure he's missed work because one of us was sick!

We are contemplating a Christian school so pay is low, but since I bring income to the table, it should work out. It is a good fit for our family and maybe in 3 or 4 years we can look at better paying schools.

He is also still looking at universities abroad, but then we run into the problem of affording an ISS education! We are leaving up to God and will see what happens. Again thank you for your response:)

Maybe I'm just daft, but besides flights, which I know some will just say "we can only provide 2" and that's not a problem for us, I don't get the huge expense. In actuality only 3 tuitions are needed and from my understanding you just pay a discount. We would be given 3 bedrooms with 3 kids anyway. And once I get my licensure we are a teaching couple. My dh will have his licensure for this hiring season.

I'm not sure I want to be in a school that's anti-family oriented anyway. We are not looking at making money in this but to raise our children abroad. I wonder if our priorities are just different from a lot of you in IT. I can't believe a director would only be interested in only single people who will be up and leaving in a few years. Maybe my assumptions about the quality of international schools is incorrect if there is such turnover and anti-family sentiments.

And why on earth when the application asks how many children you have would a school even waste time interviewing?

Obviously you aren't aware of how most families live:) We would not be renting a FIVE bedroom house. I've already found furnished housing for 1500 euros in the city where my husband has an interview. I found unfurnished housing in Germany for euro 900-1100 a month. Theses are all 3 bedroom homes. We would not use/own a car. We have done city comparisons and I know the average utilities run similar to our own american city, food does as well. My income would not be eaten up by taxes and with 4 children we'd get quite a bit returned to us vis credits. Living anywhere can be expensive if you seek to fulfill certain desires.

Anyway, not interested in further discussion with you, respectfully. I know your opinion on my situation so thanks, I'll wait to get any feedback elsewhere.

Thanks oldmanChan! Yes, my husband is going to get certified through the exam route before hiring season. We'll see what happens.

Psyguy-I'm not sure why you insist that we can't live in WE. We have friends in WE living on 50-60 euros and not having a hard time. I've researched enough to know our family would be fine on 3,000 euros a month. I think we just have different perspectives. Also we have always wanted to live abroad for an extended period with our children, possibly graduating at least one, so no we aren't just interested in being tourists:)

My point is if my husband were so unqualified he wouldn't be getting interviews AT ALL.

Thanks for your info. I've spent LOTS of time researching, that's what I do, here and elsewhere and I'll clear up a few assumptions for you.

It can happen. My husband contacted/applied to 5 schools. He was a finalist for one that paid well and provided housing etc. to the kids. If I had been able to teach right away we would have been the choice, they flat out told us. He's interviewing for another school in the next week. He was considered for another, no one mentioned certification. Also I don't think children are a death sentence like you say, yes more difficult, but not impossible. We are also prepared to pay for a child's education or flight if necessary.

We are in this for a longer period than you think, 5 yrs. minimum and maybe longer. And he is a TEACHER. Not all professors are just researchers. He loves to teach. He has taught younger high schoolers, ESL, has curriculum development experience, etc. Yes, he also completed a dissertation and has published, and also gets paid to write. He plans to go through the Missouri program and get certification through testing.

I bring 50k of online work with us. So yes, I am marketable and yes, we can live in WE. I don't have to teach, but would like to make that happen for future placements. I can get experience through substituting. My background is development and marketing some admin work is a possibility as well. We are open to lots of schools and are thinking about some ME universities, but to be honest I'm not going to the ME without an awesome package that allows us to save a good bit of cash.

Thanks for your opinion, I knew you would be the first to weigh in and what your responses would be so I'm not surprised or deterred. I would
appreciate someone who has done this with children to give us some tips as well:)

Ok so this past fall my dh and I finally decided we were going to go abroad for the foreseeable future. We were interested in only 1 school in SE Asia and it got down to the end and they had to choose a couple over him. We knew this would be a possibility and so were not too upset. They loved him and we knew it was a financial issue.

He also spoke to a european school who had already hired one person and had a couple for the other opening. The director was quite interested, but again, we knew it was a issue of business sense.

Now we are researching and preparing for this coming year and want to employ the best strategies for placement. Here's the thing, we have 4 kids. I'm not able to teach until the 2015-2016 school year when the baby is 2. I'm going to start the Teach Ready program in January and be able to teach in the PYP program. My degree is in English, but I'm also in my 5th year of homeschooling my 3 other children and am adding continuing ed in Math to my CV.

My dh has almost 17 years at the college level and holds an MFA (creative writing) and PhD in English. He has lots of admin and technology/online learning experience as well as traditional classroom. He is publishing, etc. We are just not interested in the mess Higher Ed has become. We want our children to be bilingual and travel and experience other cultures. We are in the process of downsizing and selling (house/cars) quite a lot and storing some things.

He has only been in touch with a few schools and had a good bit of interest, etc. We have one interested in early hire. It's in Europe, but not in the Germany, which is where we would like a long-term placement since my husband is almost fluent and would like to become fully bilingual. We hope by the time I have my credential that we will look like a good fit despite all of our dependents.

Would we have better luck with an ME school? Until I read this board, saving money wasn't the goal, but now I think it might be a potential fit and dh can get the IB experience while I'm working toward the credentials. They also may not be as against our many children?

What would your plan of action be? Do we even stand a chance at a decent placement?