Well, the girls finished their first week of school although Dayna only went one day. All in all it went well and I think all of us were relieved to start a real routine. We didn't have tears or anything (I was scared to death to leave Karissa the first day). Jay about shed tears when he tried to "pre-work" Karissa's homework assignment on verb tenses!! German is such a complicated language but he managed to get through the assignment and explain it to her. She seems to be taking the language thing into stride. Her teacher has volunteered to tutor her and her Icelandic friend for an hour every Monday which is very nice of her.
Karissa started school on Monday - she was so brave, she said she was nervous and couldn't sleep the night before. She had no problems that morning though. Her class only has 17 kids. 10 boys and 7 girls (4 of which live here in our apartment complex - amazing since there are only 25 apartments). Her teacher doesn't speak English very well at all but seems to be really nice. She goes to school until 1:00 3 days and 12:20 the other two days. I hope to work with both girls after school on their English skills. I do not consider myself much of a teacher so we'll see how it goes.
Dayna started school officially on Thursday. German children don't go to public school until 1st grade so they make a big deal of it when they start. They start the first day with a service at a church (yes, a church service), then they walk to the school where the 2nd and 3rd graders form a line with pom poms and they parade through it with their "schüle tuté", a cardboard cone filled with presents. Then, the 4th graders put on a musical program for them and their parents. They go to their class for an hour and then are done for the day!
German children go to private "kindergarten" - the equivalent of our preschool- but they aren't taught letters or any real curriculum. It works out great for Dayna as she can already read and will be learning letter sounds and then to read in German along with all of her classmates. She has a real advantage compared to Karissa. Since she has only had one day and they get out at 11:20 most days life is good for her!
Dayna's teacher is very nice but has 17 girls and 9 boys!! Her English is better than Karissa's teacher but not great! She has a friend from a Greek family that we have befriended who speaks both German and English so she and Ariadne have become fast friends along with her little Icelandic friend from the apartments. Just knowing someone the first day has helped so much for both girls.
The school is a 5 minute walk away which is great. The original plan was that they would be at a school for non-German speaking students clear across town so we are thankful for our German friend who convinced the neighborhood principal that they could handle being in a German-only school. We pray that it works out to be true!! It is so nice because the kids regularly see fellow students as we go about our day here in the neighborhood. Not to mention that I'm not trekking clear across town trying to coordinate their two schedules. God has been really good to us.
I'm excited to have a few hours a day to myself. We've managed to get a bike working for me and I'm going to hit some of these fabulous trails. Jay and I are going to start taking a long walk 3 or mornings a week as well. Fall is upon us and the forest is beautiful, so we're looking forward to that.
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