Thanks for the great replies.

My wife is planning to long-term sub or go back for a single year for the upcoming school year to get more relevant and current experience.

I am definitely not going to be able to qualify for any type of teaching program. Aside from not having much patience for children that aren't my own, I don't have a college degree and am about 40 credits short of having one...maybe more, It has been about 15 years since I have in a classroom.

Central/South America is more appealing to me then Asia, but that is only due to the language barrier being less of an issue in the community since my wife is fluent is Spanish and I am passable, and could improve. At this point, we would love to feel that there is a chance and wouldn't be overly picky. Macau happens to be the (again it censors the game I play professionally - not sure why that word needs to be censored) capital of the world :-) lol

We did look, albeit briefly, at QSI, but they only hire teaching couples, which isn't us.

Thanks again for the constructive comments, we really appreciate the assistance and any other ideas, etc.. please feel free to write.

Good morning all,

My wife and I (along with 2 kids) have been putting serious effort into researching the international teaching scene and it is something we would really like to pursue but it looks like our situation is somewhat bleak. I've been reading through many years of archives as well as many websites, etc... and it appears we are in a tough spot as far as actually getting a placement. Please note that I know it is rather late in the process to get the ball rolling for the upcoming year, so most of out goals revolve around the 15/16 school year and beyond.

A bit of background:

I am a trailing spouse. I had a small business that I sold and have been enjoying a little time with our 2 kids - ages 4 and 2. I have also been playing (it keeps editing this out - it is a game with cards and chips) professionally for about a year and keeping food on the table :-) while my wife stays at home with our kids. This is not a priority for us and I would become the stay at home dad.
One kid will start kindergarten this school year and the other will not be in the school system for 3 more years. Preschool will start next year though.
My wife has a BA in Elementary Education. After college she spent 2 years in the Peace Corps in Guatemala and then taught for 4 years in the public school system before taking leave to stay at home with the kids. She is quite comfortable with Spanish having spoken the language daily in the Peace Corps.

Ever since her time in Guatemala she has wanted to return to teaching internationally. I am fully supportive of this and quite excited at the prospect of living elsewhere and the cultural experience it would provide us and our children. Ideally, we would find a place that we fell in love with and stay for a while, but that is jumping ahead of ourselves.

We aren't trying to "get rich" or have tremendous savings, but we would want to make enough to afford a bit of traveling on off times and be able to provide for the kids. I don't have a problem paying for my own airfare, etc... but would hope that insurance for the entire family is doable? Perhaps tuition once the becomes relevant? It is becoming clear that my role as "trailing spouse" is quite the issue, although staying home beats daycare in our opinion.

So - is there a chance that my wife could find employment is a safe environment given our dependent situation and with her just resuming teaching after 4 years at home? She has started an application with CIS and we have considered ISS but aren't sure it is worth the fee to have them tell us we are not very likely to get a placement. Who doesn't want W. Europe, but it appears that is not financially doable and not likely, so we are open to most other areas of the world assuming safety is not an issue for our family.

Sorry to ramble, we'd appreciate any thoughts of whether the situation is as hopeless as it appears?