9th July 2010
This is our neighborhood elementary school: Sydskogen Skole. It is very near our home. The kids often take a little short-cut through the woods to get there (far side of the picture). There's about one class per grade. Kids start school here at 6 years old, and are divided by the year of their birth, not at the September 1st line that we're used to. So, James is in 4.Klasse and Joseph is in 2.
We started the kids at school a couple of weeks after we arrived. The school directer met with us, and the boys' teachers have been very helpful. We did our best to help James and Joseph understand their homework, and to follow the weekly outline, or Ukeplan, that was sent home each week. The end of the school year brought a lot of closing activities and field trips. Each class had a summer avsluttning, or closing party with the families, in the evening at the beach. Now we're out for summer break until August 18! When requested, the government provides a tutor at school for new kids that don't speak the language (one of many cool benefits resulting from insanely high taxes), so James and Joseph will have a little extra help this coming school year. We hope they can pick up Norwegian quickly enough to get along!
