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A cultural experience
Who would have thought that Thomas and Daniel would learn the Australian National anthem before the Danish (or Canadian) one? While we learn the Danish National anthem during national football games, Thomas and Daniel stand tall and sing the Australian national anthem every Monday at school Parade.
Some of the other differences that stick out are:
- They wear uniforms to school every day, including sunhat, shorts, polo t-shirt and closed shoes (in 30 degree weather). No hat, no play in recess. Apparently, it is only mid-winter (July-August) that the kids have to wear long pants, otherwise they are warm enough in shorts all year round
- School is from 8:45 to 14:45. Very few kids go to after school care, most parents are there to pick up their kids at 2:45 (How do they do it???) - all of them in shorts and thongs
- The school is very focused on social skills and rewards good behaviour. This is done by giving stickers/stamps for every day of good behaviour, and with a certain number of stamps/stickers, you gain the right to a "good boy badge". It really works! Thomas and Daniel are very motivated to keep up with the class mates, and so far they have the max amount of stickers/stamps
- Obviously the school grounds are very different due to the climate. In the school yard there are palm trees, and there is a constant sound of the lorikeets and other parrot-like birds that hang out in the trees. There are water fountains everywhere so that noone has to go thirsty
- The discipline is a lot stricter than what they are used to from Denmark, as Daniel says: "We have to sit still like statues". As sitting still is a strength of neither Thomas or Daniel, this has been hard for them, but taking from the number of stamps/stickers, they seem to be catching on
- At the school there is a "Tuck shop" where you can order "Big lunch" and "Little lunch" (snacks for the morning recess). The boys get to order from the tuck shop twice a week, the rest of the time, they make their own lunch
Making new friends in school has been a little difficult for the boys, as Thomas says: "The short recesses only leave little time to make friendships and find out who you get along with" (while in Denmark they have after school care all afternoon with basically the whole class). We are glad that they have eachother and are quite amazed with how well they get along, considering that they are eachother's only play mates. In order to meet more kids for a longer period of time, we have arranged for them to go to after school care once a week, which they really enjoy.
What did you learn in school today?
While it has not always been easy for the boys, we are very proud of the way they are adapting. They go happy to school every day, and we cannot believe how much they have learned.
Daniel is in grade 1 (at home: kindergarden). He does not even read in Danish yet, and he is already able to read little simple books in English (he brings a new one home every day and is very excited about homework). He easily recognises sounds and is therefore well on his way to start writing too.
Thomas is in grade 4 (at home: grade 2). Every week, he gets a page of mixed homework in math, spelling, general knowledge, hand writing and reading. It is about 4-5 hours work, and he can do it whenever he wants, as long as it is handed in the next week. Very practical as we can adapt it to the family activites - definately an idea to bring home. Thomas is one of the best in his class at math, and the hand writing exercises came just to the right place.
Obviously, in both cases, their spoken English is greatly improving. You can even tell that Thomas is starting to think in English as he will sometimes start sentences in English when he speaks to me in Danish (Det var spændende, because ....), and translate English directly into Danish (Jeg kalder dig, når ....). We enjoy how the Australian accent and words are sneaking into their language. The other day, Daniel was kind enough to translate to me that "Bottom" in Australian means "Bum" in English.
They are today finishing their 6th out of 10 weeks. While they are happy to be more than half way, I don't have a doubt in my mind that they are getting learnings for life that they will appreciate a long time going forward.
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