More about school…

More about the schools. As many of you know, my sister Laura lived in London for a few years and experienced real British schools. There, her kids were deemed too young for WE kits and did gym class in their skivvies. Honestly. Here, there is apparently no such thing as too young. Even Anna has a PE kit, which she is supposed to start wearing on Thursdays. Look for a pic next week. No what does PE class for a 2-year-old consist of? Beats the heck out of me.

Anyhow, before we left, Laura and I discussed Brit schools at length. She told me about the gym in undies and the art class where each kid is guided through making the exact same painting and more. So here is her reply to yesterday’s rant:

I was laughing really hard when I was reading your comments about the British School. I was trying to warn you. But just take it w/ a grain of salt. They are full of shit sometimes. As long as you don’t stick around for middle school your kids will be fine. Are they trying to make Jacob memorize his times tables??? Are the re-teaching the alphabet to Eli. AH BA CA??? Does letterland ring a bell??? Annie Apple and Robber Red???

So far the actual schooling has been good. No letterland or memorizing times tables. Both of their teachers are very American and very nice so they are a buffer. Jacob’s teacher is a tall statuesque knockout California blonde and really sunny and nice. Her son Race is in eli’s class actually and her husband Wyatt is a PE teacher. I saw her in the grocery store yesterday and she told me how great Jacob is doing, that he is a real class leader, that he has one of the most effortless transitions she has seen in 10 years of teaching in international schools, that he is the first “power player” in the class, which is a star of the week type thing. so he is really thriving for whatever reason. He has been very matter of fact about this whole thing since the moment we told him and continues to be.

Eli is doing well, too, though he has his moments. This morning, he threw a fit and missed the bus. But mr. dou just drove him along with becky and anna and me, on the way to check out progress on the house – which is done! Truthfully though I think it’s just hard for him to be and moving so early. The bus comes at 7:45, which is cake for jake but torture for eli. He likes to sleep. I think he’d be having the same issues at home. When we move, we’ll be right next to the school. No bus and an extra half hour each morning.

Anna is generally doing great. She did say this morning, “let’s go home. I want to go to carrie’s house.” She says stuff like that every once in a while but gets over it quickly.