Yes, I will bore you once again with differences in schools. (I think being so passionate about the problems in our education system makes this topic so fascinating to me). Mia has learned a few "different" things this week, and I thought I'd share...
Once a week, Mia has Religion class. There are 2 different Religion classes available at her age: Catholic and Evangelic. Even though her kindergarten was Catholic, she attends the Evangelic/Ethics class. Being that we are in a very Catholic town, that class that Mia attends is quite small. I like that they offer religion, but I especially like that they offer choices for Religion. In the religion class (especially in the upper grades) the kids are exposed to the backgrounds and practices of the many religions. Anyway.... In Mia's religion class this week, they went to the Cemetary. I did not realize this, but Mia said it was actually the second time that they have gone. She said they spent 2 hours, walking around, looking at all of the graves, looking at the dates, seeing all of the candles lit etc. She found a child grave that had the same name: Mia, which was very interesting to her. In Bamberg (and I presume most of Germany), the cemetery is a busy place. They even have a full time Floral business that sits outside the cemetery for all of the visitors. I thought it was a neat thing that they did this in her religion class. All of these things they do in school, really make me understand how the culture is the way it is....
2 weeks ago, Mia's class had a track and field day. They had all of the different track and field events, and it was really fun for the kids. After the event, all of the kids came home with a pedometer type computer that they clip to their clothing. The German company Bosch, had provided the kids with these simple computers for 2 weeks. Basically, when they do a certain amount of activity each day, a sunshine appears on the computer. VERY SIMPLE. I thought it was brilliant though, because it makes the kids want to exercise each morning, so they can be sure to get their sunshine :-) Even better was the fact that each child was responsible for this computer for 2 weeks. No contract signed - just trust that they would bring it back on their own without any parental assistance!
We always learned about healthy eating with the food pyramid. Mia has learned a different way though. She has been taught a very simple, yet thoughtful way to think about food. Red, Yellow, and Green. Just like a stop light. Green, you can go ahead and eat. Yellow, is sometimes good, but not too much, and Red is not healthy. She constantly reminds us what color certain foods that we are about to eat are... Later, I am sure she will go into more detail about carbs, protein etc, but for this age, to have a very simple, but realistic understanding is fantastic.
We are fast approaching the end of the school year for Mia. Mia has had the same teacher for 2 years, and I feel absolutely indebted to her for the kindness and education that she has provided to my youngest child. My idea is always to give a big gift (I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think, that is often the mentality of where I come from) - especially after 2 years with the same teacher. The class has decided that each family can chip in up to $3.00 (euro) and we will get her a small gift. I spoke with my friend about this, explaining how I felt that after 2 years, this seems very small. Her explanation was that the teacher is doing her job, and it would be inappropriate to do anything more. It reminded me of when Bailey and Camden were at the Gymnasium last year. We sent in a few gifts to their favorite teachers, and they seemed confused in accepting them. So different! It makes sense though - after all it is their job, and they take pride in it.
Gedicht - Over the last 2 years, Mia has had to memorize many poems and short stories to recite in front of her class. Last weekend, she came home with a page long poem to memorize by Monday. I really see the benefits of these memorization exercises as I was floored at how quickly she memorized the entire thing. Literally, she spent probably 20 minutes and had it all in her mind. It would have taken me hours...
Different Math... One of the things I find so intriguing is how different German Math is. One thing that you see early on is that you might have a problem in second grade that looks like this:
4 times 9 divided by 6 plus 8 minus 14
With Bailey and Camden, they would only learn 1 thing at a time, and nultiplication was only touched on briefly in the 2nd grade, and division not at all. By teaching this way, it makes the kids think in a different way. Another thing that I find interesting, is that they learn to divide simple division with remainders in their head. For example 33 divided by 8. The kids really learn the concept of what a remainder is. They easily figure out the answer (4 remainder 1). Another big difference is the signs are completely different then what we are used to. Lastly, they learn adding, multiplying 2 or 3 digit numbers by starting on the left and going to the right (we obviously do the opposite) Who would have thought 2nd grade Math could be so different!
Lastly, I just have to smile, because the end of the year school gathering is at a bier garten. All of the classes in the school are invited (there are only 4 classes). It will be a fun night for both the kids and the parents!
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