School Days!

The first day of school went great for everyone. You can see them on their way to school in the top row of the collage. The bottom row shows them on the train ride home. They were just a little tired! We leave the house at 7:15am to walk to the school bus stop which picks them up at 7:30am. The school day runs from about 8:30am to 3:15pm. (It varies per grade.) The bus returns them to the stop around 4:00pm and we get home at 4:15pm. It makes for a long day. It'll be nice on September 1st when we move closer to the school.

C.J. said the first day was "much different than expected." He was very quiet after the New Student Orientation and now talks quite a bit about school, so I believe he finds it "much better than expected." He thinks his tutor is "funny" and enjoys the fact that the majority of his teachers are male, including his tutor. His tutor is a math teacher and believes that math can be boring, so he has to make up for it with a good sense of humor. C.J.'s other favorite class is humanities, especially the discussions about space. He is thrilled that his performing arts class is drama (vs. dance). Classes on his schedule include: tutorial, humanities, english, science, physical education, performing arts, arts (visual), german, french, and technology. He only has 7 periods of classes a day, so not all the classes occur daily. Class sizes range from 11 (tutor group) to a maximum of 20. His closest friend is of Swiss heritage, was born in America, and spent the past 4 years in France. We seem to be the odd ones out only having lived in one country.

Brendan reports that his first day of school was great because he teamed up with the other 3rd graders to play soccer and they completely dominated the 5th graders. He is worried that there won't be enough soccer competition, but I'm sure that won't be a problem! We've already signed him up for a soccer camp held by one of the high school students who is raising funds for his 10th grade expedition trip. It'll be 6 weeks of soccer on Saturdays. Brendan was thrilled to be able to bring his favorite book to class to share.

Abbie has had a great couple days and seems to be friends with everyone in class. We had her Parents' Information Night last night, so I have the most information to share about her class:

• There are 16 kids in her class along with a classroom assistant.
• First grade is the year to learn to read, but the teachers cautioned that kids will read when they are developmentally ready. Our responsibility as parents isn't to push them to read but to foster a love of reading. The teachers responsibility is to teach reading as to each child's ability. They reminded the parents that when your child applies for a job at a Fortune 500 company at the age of 30, no one is going to ask them what age they learned to read.
  
• There are 6 "units of inquiry" for the year. The first unit will be "Work it Out" which is about jobs. They start the unit discussing jobs in the classroom. From there they broaden the discussion to jobs at school. Students take turns shadowing different people at their job, such as the school secretary or custodian. When they discuss jobs in the community, Abbie will need to take a morning and shadow either John or myself at our jobs. Finally, they go on a field trip to the town to visit people at work -- a baker, dry cleaner, police station, fire station, etc. The teacher attempts to tie all subjects into the theme. For example, they may graph the most common jobs for math.
  
• Math is taught with an inquiry approach. There are no math books or workbooks. Instead, math is primarily taught through the use of manipulatives. They supplement with Everyday Math, which is a program we used in the states. Kids will be expected to have their math facts memorized through either 10 or 20 at the end of the year, but they are encouraged to use manipulatives, including fingers for as long as they need them.
• Homework is only 10 minutes a day and should be enjoyable for the child. They reminded the parents that our kids have spent 7 hours in a classroom and time after school should be less structured. Hooray!
• In addition to the regular subjects, Abbie will have German, IT, ARt, PE, library, music, assembly, dance, and cooking each week.
• Parent volunteers were requested to help with literacy centers and handwriting groups. She also requested a parent for the weekly cooking class, which she will do by sending groups of 4 with the parent to the kitchen to prepare and eat their recipe for the week. I volunteered to help out with literacy and handwriting. I held off on cooking, but I'm sure I could be persuaded! I figured I should see what opportunities await at Brendan's Parents' Information Night on Monday before I over-commit.
  

I'm really excited about the school and the kids' education!