Jorgensen 6: First day of school

Monday, August 22 began the first day of school for children throughout Norway, ours included. School for Sam and Katie runs from 8:30 to 2:45. Their international school has one classroom for each grade, starting with preschool and going up through 10th grade.

The kids all ready for their first day. Katie was actually excited, she's just not showing it.

Sam and Katie both have teachers who are originally from the US. Katie also has a student teacher in her class who is from Luther College in Iowa. It's really a small world here. The librarian is from Minnetonka, MN and her husband (Sam and Katie's homeroom teacher) is from Iowa. One of the parents of a child in Grace's class taught chemistry at St. Thomas in St. Paul where I went to college.

Here's Katie in the gym with her class, waiting to be divvied up into their homerooms.

The kids start each day in their homeroom for a half an hour. Each homeroom has a kid from each grade, and families are kept together, so Sam and Katie are in the same homeroom. The grade 10 student in each homeroom leads many of the activities - three days a week they are outside, doing calisthenics in the grassy field between the school and the fort. The kids then go to class awake and ready to work.

In the hallway waiting to pick up the 1st graders. 1st grade is the first year of school for Norwegians kids, so it's akin to the first day of kindergarten for folks from the US. Since Katie already has her kindergarten year under her belt, it was no sweat for her.

Walking home with a happy girl. That's "the fort" in the background.

About 2 minutes after the previous picture was taken, Grace was asleep and snoring in my ear. School wears her out, in a good way.

Grace attended the birthday party of her classmate Alexander that evening. 14 three and four year olds. Grace had a good time, and I enjoyed chatting with the other parents. Though it's pretty common for parents to just drop their kids off at a party, even three year olds.