Vicente & Miguel have been in school for almost 7 weeks now and they're doing very well. The first 5 weeks they went to school for only 3 1/2 hours each day and learned only German (DaZ Klasse). Now they have added in some regular German classes as well, so their school week is divided between DaZ and regular classes. I was under the impression originally that their first regular classes would be things like gym, music and art. However, the German school system has proved to be a bit more flexible than I anticipated.
In the initial meeting with their German teachers we explained that both our kids like math and are good students. Vicente & Miguel are probably regretting that. Miguel is taking gym, math, physics and geography. Vicente has gym, math, physics, chemistry and biology. The school week is quite different from what we're used to at Dumbarton. One day Miguel goes all day long (7:30-2:00), but every other day they both start off with 2nd period at 8:30. There are two long (20/25 min) breaks during the day where everyone goes outside, and two short breaks inside. There doesn't seem to be a cafeteria, although you can buy food at the school - the DaZ teachers strongly advised against it. Apparently everyone eats outside during one of the long breaks. Vicente comes home after 6th period at 1:10 most days and Miguel comes home after 7th (2:00) or 5th (12:00) period. They have math 5 periods a week, but it's 2 periods on 2 days and 1 on another. Physics and geography are only 2 periods a week. There seems to be a lot of rearrangement of the schedule if one teacher or another is out. So some days they come earlier or later than expected. They don't have much homework to turn in as far as I can tell, but that might just be that the teachers are letting them ease into the class. It does take them quite a while to read a page or two of one of their books, which I am "encouraging" (as in they have no alternative!) them to do in order to learn the vocabulary for those classes. I'm very glad that I can help them with this, my college education finally coming in handy, and I'm having fun learning new words myself. If it ever comes up at the dog park or grocery store, I'll be all set to discuss current, volts, amperage and resistance!
Tomorrow is the last day of school before the 2 week fall break!! Poor Pablo will not be taking 2 weeks off, but he'll be taking off at least a week as his parents are coming to visit. We are looking forward to our first visitors in Dresden. And, of course, if anyone else wants to come over for a visit, we have quite a bit of floor space!
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