School Tour

We went back to the school today for Emilie to be tested. I should not have been surprised when she was placed in 1st grade (in the U.S. she would be entering kindergarten) as I had heard that German 1st grade is equivalent to our kindergarten. But I started thinking ahead and asking myself, "Well, what will happen when we move back? Would we drop her back a grade?" I'll try not to worry about that for now. We still have not heard for sure what grades Micaela and James will be in.

Then we got an official tour of the school. ISF teaches from kindergarten (our pre-K) to grade 13. Seventh grade and up is considered secondary and has its own section of the school, so Micaela should still be in the same part of the school with Emilie and James. There is a very nice pool and a good variety of non-academic activities such as music lessons, sports, art, etc. German and English classes are mandatory and the school is constantly testing the kids to be sure everyone is on track. The school is based on the British education system, so we'll have to wait and see how things differ from what we are familiar with.

There are over 50 countries represented at the school; 30% German, 18% Korean and 16% American. Outside of the language classes, all instruction is done in English (to the kids' relief).

One interesting note: We were told that getting caught at the train crossing down the street is no excuse for being late. I'm sure this will all start to mean something once school begins.

At home, David fiddles with the TV satellite and we now receive hundreds of European, African and Asian channels. From what I can see, the only English-speaking ones are CNN International and the British Sky-News channel. Figures.