What Happened When We Sent Our Kids to School in Korea

We usually try to avoid going to Korea in the summer.

My husband and I both grew up in Korea, so we know exactly what a Korean summer feels like - hot, humid, sticky, and sometimes just plain miserable. Since we usually visit Korea at least twice a year anyway, we've always preferred going during the more comfortable months. 

But this year, I made an exception.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to send our younger son back to Korean kindergarten for one more month. 

Our first Korean school adventure actually happened the year before, when both of our boys attended school in Korea for a month. It was March, the beginning of the Korean school year, and I still remember walking the boys to their very first day of school and watching it snow.

This time was a little different.

It was June.

And it was hot.

Very hot.

But after seeing how much the boys loved their experience the year before, I couldn't let another opportunity pass. I wanted our younger son to experience Korean kindergarten one more time while he was still young enough to fully enjoy it. So despite the weather, I packed our bags, booked the flights, and off we went to Korea for the summer.

And while this year's trip looked a little different - our younger son went back to kindergarten while our older son had a very different kind of summer - the story really starts with what happened the year before.

Because that's when we discovered just how much our boys could gain from actually living the Korean school experience.

"But We Don't Live in Korea!"

The whole thing actually started with a letter.

In December 2024, a letter arrived at my parents' house informing us that our older son needed to enroll in elementary school because he would be entering first grade the following March. Korean schools start their new school year in March, so luckily, we happened to be in Korea visiting my parents that December. 

My husband and I were delighted.

We went through all the paperwork, attended the orientation around Christmas, and got everything ready for our son to start first grade. The elementary school also had a kindergarten/TK program, so we arranged for our younger one to attend there as well.

Then we flew back to California and the boys went back to their regular schools.

In the meantime, I casually started mentioning their upcoming Korean school experience.

"Wouldn't it be fun to go to school in Korea?"

"You could make friends there and see them whenever we visit Grandma and Grandpa!"

I was basically doing months of advance psychological preparation. 😂

The boys, however, were not nearly as excited as we were.

When we first told them they would be going to school in Korea, their reaction was basically:

"But we don't live in Korea! Why do we have to go to school when we're vacationing?"

I actually thought that was pretty funny. In their little minds, Korea was where we went to visit grandparents, eat delicious food, and have fun. School was something we did in California.

It took quite a bit of sweet-talking, explaining, persuading, and probably a few questionable parenting sales tactics to convince them to at least give it a try.

And then March came.

We flew back to Korea, and our Korean school experiment officially began.

Why Korean School Was So Important to Us

For us, this wasn't really about academics.

Of course, learning how to read and write Korean is important. But our motivation goes much deeper than that.

My husband and I always speak Korean to our boys at home. We basically insist that they respond to us in Korean, even though they would much rather answer in English. 😂 They understand Korean quite well and can speak it reasonably well, but reading and writing have always been a much bigger challenge.

And language is extremely important to us because we don't believe it's simply a tool of communication.

To us, language is a representation of culture. It's an expression of where you come from, how you communicate with other people, and how you understand the world around you. Your culture is embedded in your language.

We also want our boys to be able to communicate with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives in Korea as they get older.

So yes, we want them to be able to read and write Korean. But more importantly, we want Korean to remain a part of who they are.

And we thought there was no better way to strengthen that connection than to let them actually live it.

Our Older Son Goes to First Grade in Korea

I'll be honest: I was nervous about sending our older son to first grade in Korea.

He was six years old at the time, and he could speak and understand Korean fairly well. But he could not read or write Korean. At all.

I had tried teaching him several times at home.

Nothing registered.

Absolutely nothing.

Meanwhile, if you've spent even a few weeks in Korea and met families with young children, you probably already know that Koreans take early education very seriously. Almost too seriously.

It's not unusual to meet preschoolers who already know how to read and write Korean and English. By kindergarten, many kids are already reading books and writing sentences.

So imagine how nervous I was sending a six-year-old American-raised boy who couldn't read or write Korean into a Korean first-grade classroom.

I was worried he would feel behind. I worried that other kids might make fun of him.

Thankfully, neither happened to the extent I feared.

In fact, his classmates seemed more fascinated by him than anything else. They thought it was pretty cool that they had a friend who was a native English speaker.

And then something amazing happened.

After his very first day of school, he came home and wrote his name in Korean.

By himself.

I couldn't believe it.

Then he started writing individual Korean words. Then sentences. By the end of the month, he was reading Korean cartoon books.

One month.

A child who had been completely unable to read or write Korean suddenly could.

I don't know exactly what made the difference. Maybe it was the complete immersion. Maybe it was being surrounded by classmates who were all reading and writing. Maybe he put pressure on himself because he knew everyone else was ahead of him. Maybe it was simply being in an environment where Korean was no longer something Mom was trying to teach him at the kitchen table - it was the language he needed to use to participate in his everyday life.

Whatever the reason, something finally clicked.

And it clicked fast.

The First Two Weeks Were a Little Rough

The first couple of weeks weren't completely smooth.

One day, our older son came home and told me:

"Mom, nobody plays outside during recess. Everybody has to stay in the classroom and read a book."

I was shocked.

So I did what any curious Korean-American mom would do: I went and asked the teacher.

It turned out there was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

The first graders were kept inside for the first two weeks while the school taught them safety procedures and helped them become familiar with the school and its facilities. It wasn't that the school didn't allow recess or didn't want the kids playing outside. It was simply part of their transition period for new first graders.

Still, I'm not sure he completely bought the explanation. 😂

He spent those first couple of weeks complaining about having no recess and having to read too much.

But once the regular routine started, he absolutely thrived.

The classroom itself was meticulously clean, as was the rest of the school. Every child had an assigned seat and even a student number. Our older one was number 4. This wasn't strange to me at all because I grew up in Korea and had the same system when I was in school. Back when I was growing up, I believe the numbers were assigned according to height. In his class, they were assigned alphabetically by last name.

I still don't completely understand the logic behind the numbering system, but every child had a number.

The kids also raised their hands when they wanted to speak, and overall, I found them to be much more reserved and polite compared with what I'm used to seeing in American classrooms.

I think a lot of that comes from Korean culture. Children are taught from a young age to respect adults and older people, including learning different ways of speaking and behaving toward them.

It was interesting for me to watch my own child experience something that had been completely normal in my childhood.

And Then He Made Friends

Once he got past those first few weeks, our older son was having the time of his life.

He made friends.

He learned Korean slang - kid-appropriate slang, thankfully. 😂

He learned how to read and write.

He learned the little ways Korean kids communicate and think.

And after school, he wanted to follow his friends to their Taekwondo and art classses.

So we let him.

He loved every minute of it.

He enjoyed his month at the school so much that when our departure date got closer, he started crying at night.

He didn't want to leave.

He told us:

"I don't want to leave."

"I want to live in Korea."

"I miss my friends in Korea."

He said those things over and over for a long time.

Even now, every once in a while, he'll randomly ask me:

"Can I ever go to Korea school again?"

His classmates knew he was leaving about a week before we left, and they all wrote him little goodbye notes. They put all the notes together in a nice box for him to take home.

He still has that box.

And I think that might be one of the most meaningful souvenirs he has ever brought home from Korea.

Meanwhile, Our Younger Son Was Having the Time of His Life in Kindergarten

Our younger son was barely four when he started Korean kindergarten. Because his birthday is in January, the kindergarten allowed him to enroll as a younger TK student.

It was a public kindergarten attached to the same elementary school his brother attended, which made drop-off and pickup incredibly easy.

And he loved it.

Every day when I picked him up, he came home with something he had made.

Pixel-block creations. Origami. Paper rockets. Art projects. Science experiment kits. Sometimes surprisingly sophisticated little projects that I wasn't expecting from a four-year-old.

He was always so excited to tell me what he had done that day.

He learned Korean children's songs and came home teaching them to us.

One particular song was adorable - and the more I understood the lyrics, the more I realized it was also a little sad.

It was basically a child begging their mom:

"Please don't rush me again and again, Mom. I'm really, really busy! I have school, math class and English class afterwards. I'm not just goofing around. I really need a break! I wish I could just run around and play with my friends."

It was sung in this cute, comical way, but when I actually listened to the lyrics, I couldn't help thinking about how much academic pressure little kids in Korea experience.

It was funny.

But also... not entirely funny.

Of course, my own four-year-old wasn't complaining about academic pressure.

He was having a blast.

He learned games like Spot It, Hali Gali and Guess Who. And I especially loved watching him use those games to practice describing things in Korean.

His vocabulary grew noticeably in just one month of full-time exposure to Korean.

He also loved the crafts.

The kindergarten's regular hours ended around 1 p.m., but the after-school program started immediately afterward and continued until around 5 p.m. The kids didn't have to move anywhere. They stayed in the same classroom, and an after-school teacher came in to lead different activities.

It was such a smooth and efficient system.

Our younger son especially loved the afternoon program because there was so much time for crafts and hands-on activities.

Even now, he'll randomly tell me that he wants to go back to Korean kindergarten because he wants to "make new things." 😂

The Daily Book Program Was One of My Favorite Things

Another thing I loved about the kindergarten was their book program.

The kids could choose a book from the kindergarten's collection every day and bring it home to read. 

Every Friday, they got to bring one book home to keep.

The school also kept track of which books each child had borrowed and sent home a list of the available books. So if there was a particular book you wanted your child to read, you could request it.

Our younger son would try reading the books himself first, and I helped him whenever he got stuck. Then I would read the book again at bedtime for both boys.

And yes, of course, I brought all those Friday books home with us. 😂

So even after we returned to California, we had a little collection of Korean children's books that reminded us of their school experience.

And Then There Was the School Lunch

Oh, the school lunch.

If you know me, you know I am not a huge fan of LAUSD school meals. I pack lunch and snacks for my kids here, which means they generally eat cold food because they don't have a way to heat it up at school.

Even with a thermos-style lunchbox, there is only so much you can do.

Korean school lunch was a completely different experience.

A typical meal would have some kind of rice, soup, several side dishes made with vegetables and other ingredients, and usually a special drink, fruit or dessert.

And the rice was rarely just plain white rice. There were often beans, grains or vegetables mixed in, so even the rice itself had more nutritional value than a bowl of plain white rice.

Most importantly, the food was cooked fresh on-site and served  warm.

Every day.

And they send you a photo like this every day so you know what your kid ate that day.

My kids pretty much devoured their lunches.

They even tried kimchi for the first time at school, and now they occasionally ask for it at home.

I loved that the school lunch gave them an opportunity to try foods they probably wouldn't have tried on their own at home.

And because both boys were attending the same school facility, they were essentially eating the same meals every day, just at different times. The younger children ate first, followed by the older grades.

Honestly, I sometimes wished I could eat lunch at their school myself. 

While the Kids Were at School, Mom and Dad Got a Little Break

There was another unexpected benefit to having both kids in school.

We actually got a break.

When we travel to Korea, my husband and I work remotely on Pacific Time. Because of the time difference, our prime working hours are usually somewhere between midnight and 5 or 6 in the morning.

Which means we don't exactly get the most normal sleep schedule while we're there.

But when both boys were at school, we could catch little naps during the day, run errands, work on things, go shopping, try local restaurants and just experience Korea as adults.

The kids were having fun at school, and we were getting some time to ourselves.

It was honestly a pretty great setup.

Then Came Summer 2026

After having such a great experience the year before, we wanted to do it again.

This time, however, only our younger son was able to attend.

I had contacted the elementary school around March, around the same time I was contacting his brother's kindergarten. I followed up with emails and phone calls for about a month but never got a clear answer.

I had heard that some Korea elementary schools allow children in situations like ours to "audit" a class for a short period of time instead of going through the full enrollment process. We were hoping that might be an option. We were also completely willing to go through the regular enrollment process if the school would allow our son to attend for a month.

But we never got an answer.

So the day after we arrived in Korea, we went to the school office in person.

And we were turned down.

The schools didn't offer auditing, and they wouldn't accept a student for only a month.

I was incredibly disappointed.

Especially because this was the same school our older son had attended the year before.

Unfortunately, that meant he couldn't have the same experience again.

So we came up with Plan B.

Our Older Son's Very Busy Summer

Our older son is a very athletic kid.

He's always been naturally physical. He's a strong swimmer, has great body control, isn't afraid to use his body, and seems to pick up sports quickly. He was flying around on his scooter at three and basically taught himself freestyle swimming by watching other people when he was five.

But he's also softie with a very creative side. He loves art.

So we decided to make the most of his time in Korea.

Mornings were golf and tennis.

Afternoons were art, piano and Taekwondo.

Basically, we created a full-time summer curriculum for our seven-year-old.

I fully expected him to complain.

Instead, he kept asking for more things to do.

He wanted to do soccer and ice hockey too, but we couldn't find the time to squeeze those into his already-packed schedule.

So, although we were all sad he couldn't go to school in Korea, I think Plan B worked out pretty well.

The funny thing is that because I had to drive him to and from all of his classes, I couldn't maintain my usual remote work schedule.

So I decided to take a break from work altogether and be a full-time chauffeur.

And that led to another unexpected discovery.

Mom Discovered Pilates

Most of his afternoon classes happened to be in the same building.

Which meant that while he was in class, I occasionally had two or three hours to myself.

And there was a Pilates studio in the same building.

I had never done Pilates before.

I decided to try one class.

And I fell in love.

I loved how I could get a full-body workout without running or doing anything insanely vigorous. I was sweating, I could feel muscles I didn't even know existed, and I walked out feeling refreshed and stronger rather than completely destroyed.

So naturally, I made a very ambitious decision.

"I'm going to do this three times a week for four weeks!"

Apparently, I was slightly more enthusiastic than my body was capable of handling.

😂

I caught a cold after my first session and ended up being sick for a good two weeks.

So out of my ambitious four-week, three-times-a-week Pilates plan, I actually attended...

three classes.

But those three classes were fantastic.

Maybe next time I'll pace myself a little better.

More Than Just Going to Korea

After experiencing Korean school with both boys, I know I would absolutely do it again if we ever get another opportunity.

Not because of one particular thing.

It's not just the language.

It's not just the school lunch.

It's not just the crafts.

It's not just the books.

It's not just the Taekwondo classes or the academy shuttle services that I desperately wish we had in America.

It's the whole experience.

When you spend a month in Korea on vacation, you're still a visitor. You might eat amazing food, visit beautiful places, see your family and do all the fun things tourists do.

But when you actually live there - even temporarily - you experience something completely different.

Your learn how people think.

You learn how they talk.

You learn how they behave.

You learn the routines of everyday life.

You make friends.

You go to school.

You eat the same lunch as everyone else.

You learn the songs other kids are singing.

You burrow the same books.

You experience the culture from the inside rather than simply observing it from the outside.

And that is exactly what I wanted for my boys.

We happened to be Korean, and we happened to have access to the Korean school system, so we took advantage of it.

But honestly, if we had the opportunity to do something similar in another country, we'd probably throw our kids into that experience too.

Because you learn so much more by actually living something than you ever can from a book, a classroom, or someone else's story.

And what you gain from firsthand experience?

That's something you can't buy.