Ski Course

And then after her winter vacation, Mia came right home and headed to Italy... (such a rough life!) As part of the German school curriculum, almost all German kids get to spend a week learning to ski in the Alps. (it is pretty much a normal thing all over Europe too, not just Germany).  It is an amazing opportunity and is so well thought out. It is much more than just skiing; it is learning to keep up with your stuff, being , self sufficient, science (learning about elevation), Geography, language (learning a little Italian), getting along with others etc... The amazing thing is - there are 40 eleven- twelve year olds with only 2 teachers (All week) - no parent chaperones!. The kids are expected to act appropriately and it all seems to just work out perfect. They even have freedom to walk to the local grocery store (but the rule is - you must stay in a group of 4 - that way if someone gets hurt, one person can stay with them and the other 2 can go for help - no one is ever alone - so simple, yet so brilliant. It is also extremely affordable - so it doesn't leave anyone out. She was excited to graduate from a mixture of snow plow to now parallel skiing and red to black diamond.  She loved every minute! (Oh.. and I told her to take lots and lots of pictures - so these are the ones from her camera)

On the bus, with the start of the Alps off in the distance

Heading up in eleveation

At a rest stop on the way...

Complete goofiness on the bus (I cracked up at this one :-))

The girls in her class got to decide if they wanted 2 rooms or if they wanted to share one big room (it is funny, because even something like that empowers the kids to think about scenarios and come to a decision all together. In the end, they opted for the big room (although not as easy a decision as you would think it was). They also had a bunk bed in this room and Mia slept on top.  I asked if there were any problems during the week - but not a single bit of drama at all - she has such nice friends!!

And finally at 2500 meters

so pretty!!!

cute little skiers:-)

 

And on the way home, they stopped and had a hike up to this waterfall...

so pretty!

Mia's "girls" :-)

and a few more random shots...

They will go again next year, but will go to the Austrian Alps instead of Italy. I will sooo miss this for her - I am in love with the German School - it just makes so much sense to me!