School days

The kids started school last Monday, and they are hooked. It was no difficult task really, since they had been longing for other kids to play with since early July.

I have to admit I shed a tear or two as I watched them walk off to meet their teachers on orientation day. So much anticipation on all of our parts for this day, made us all a little jittery with excitement and nerves.

When you are so happy in a place, leaving it is much harder. We all love Davis, and we especially love our elementary school, Birch Lane. I say "we" because I feel that I am as involved as the kids are. That may seem a sad statement to some, that I love my kids' school so much, or that I have no life of my own, but that is the truth.

I have been involved in their education since birth, from their days at the co-operative nursery school up until now. And it has been only natural to take an active role in their elementary school, whether it is fundraising, planting a garden with the class, or driving on field trips. I like to be involved.

Now they are in a new school and a new environment altogether, and I feel a little lost. The kids do not.

The school itself could not be better. It is an international school, with 570 kids from over 60 different countries, from ages 5 to 19. The school covers kindergarten through 12th grade and is needless-to-say quite diverse.

The teachers all appear to be enthusiastic, interested, motivated and involved educators, coming from a variety of English speaking countries. I'm sure my kids are going to come home with some kind of mish-mash American/German/British accent when we leave here.

Noah already loves his teacher, who is from the UK, which he explained is not just England mom, you know, Great Britain covers more than that! Ok, so world geography is going to be a natural course and topic of discussion.

Louise has kids from 16 different countries in her class, and the best thing is that kids are kids all around the world, they all like to play! There are 2 other Louises in the 2nd grade as well, (one is Lois actually, but she is French speaking so it is pronounced like Louise - I am told by my daughter, who now wants to learn French so she can play more with Lois).

The school days are long, the kids are in class until 3:20, but they don't seem to mind.

The kids' curriculum is very full. On top of the basics, they have music, art and computer lab as well as PE in a gym twice a week. They wear real gym uniforms and indoor gym shoes - something rather exotic for us.

They also have German lessons everyday, which means that we can help each other with our homework. I too have started taking German, which is good for my brain and my humility. I thought German would be a lot easier for me since I speak Swedish, but they are completely different languages, go figure - like Steve Martin says, "there is a different word for everything!"

Both kids have opted not to do any sports after school this first quarter, since they are a bit overwhelmed by their schedules, and I am all for it. But they are interested in the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts troops on offer, so we are off to check those out tonight.

Really, life is not that different from Davis. We have to rush in the morning to be on time, we bike when we can (if we are not too late in the morning or it is not raining). Play dates are always asked for, friends are fun, school is good, and in not too long I will be volunteering for one too many things again, just like at home.

For now, auf wiedersehen, or Tchuss as the say here.