For one Newtown family, living in Thailand is offering a wealth of educational and experiential opportunities. Part-time resident Peter Gold reached out to The Newtown Bee recently to share an update about his family.

Mr Gold met his wife, Noi, while traveling in Thailand, his wife’s native country. Mr Gold, the owner, founder, president and CEO of Goldmine International, works for his company when home in Newtown, and he also owns One Eyed Jack’s Saloon in Sturgis, S.D. They have two sons together, Pete and Nick. Mr Gold adopted Mrs Gold’s older daughter, Chakleeya “Nat” Kaewkhamtai, who graduated from Newtown High School in 2012 and lives in Houston now. Since then, the Golds have decided to give their younger children the opportunity to live and go to school at the HeadStart International School in Phuket, Thailand. The boys are now the equivalent of a sophomore and freshman, but schools in Thailand mark grade levels differently. Both formerly attended schools in Newtown.

Nick said attending school in Thailand has offered him and his older brother exposure to more than what they would have experienced in the United States. Looking back at his own time at NHS in the 1970s, Mr Gold said the education his sons are experiencing more reflects his own experiences rather than the environment he thinks NHS offers now.

“I would say they know six different languages,” Mr Gold said of his sons.

One of the nice things about having the students attend school in Thailand, according to Mr Gold, is that the boys can easily travel during the school year.

School breaks are two to three weeks long, offering the family more chances to travel without infringing on the boys’ school schedules. Last year, they went to London to see a Rolling Stones concert. For Nick, who plays guitar, the experience was educational. When not attending school, the family goes to the beach frequently, too. Both Nick and Pete are scuba divers.

“Here you have a lot more freedom,” said Mr Gold. Pete and Nick drive themselves to school on motorcycles, and in the US, Mr Gold said he would be in charge of driving the students to school. The freedom granted to them has helped the boys mature faster, according to Mr Gold. When traveling alone by plane, Mr Gold said his sons are treated like “they are in their 20s, and that is how they act.”

“I don’t think the kids could go back to Newtown High School, only because… they have been given so much freedom,” added Mr Gold.

Nick said he loves the freedom HeadStart International School in Phuket offers him.

“You can do what you want... within reason of course,” said Nick.

Switching to a school system in another country did not have many hurdles, but Nick said learning to understand strong Irish, Scottish, and Australian accents was hard at first. Calculus and algebra are also taught a year earlier in Thailand, he said.

Pete is on the HeadStart International School’s football team, and Nick recently performed in an evening of performances called A Night At The Movies. As a father, Mr Gold said he notices the quality of the singing and acting as superb. If he closed his eyes, one girl who performed in A Night At The Movies in December could have been the late Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, Mr Gold said.

Before graduating, students at HeadStart International School can take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Challenge, a fundraiser that takes students out of his/her comfort zone, according to the dofechallenge.org website, and which Pete participated in last year. Nick has participated in the World Scholars Cup.

“It’s the most wonderful place to live in the world,” said Mr Gold.