1st Day of school!!!!!!

I can't ever remember anticipating school as much as we have this year. By anticipating, I don't just mean looking forward to, but all of the logistical necessities needed in order to have a successful first day! Even to get Camden and Bailey into the Gymnasium as guests has been a lot of work and planning, and then there is registering, purchasing, planning, worrying etc (all in German I might add). Thankfully, all went fantastic, and everyone had smiles coming home (I am soooooooo grateful!).

First came Bailey's drop off at 8:00. Camden, Bailey and I rode our bikes, and met her teacher 2 minutes before class started. Because all of the 7th class kids were there last year, she was the only "newbie", and thankfully a huge interest among the other German girls - within minutes she had met a few friends. It will definitely be hard though - she has physics, Latin, German etc...Then came Camden's orientation at 8:30. In the 5th class, all of the kids are new, so it was a little different. After 30 minutes of trying to understand what they were saying, we went to his classroom, and I was able to quickly tell the teacher that he is a "guest" student, and will not understand everything quite yet. The teacher was super nice, and Camden had a great first day! With Mia, there were traditions galore to be followed - first was the "schule tute" that all of the 1st class kids received in the morning and brought to school (and then opened later apon returning home), then came the singing of the upperclass kids to the 1st class kids, presentaion of flowers, a parent coffee and cake time, classs photos, and then came our last trip back to her Kindergarten to share in the tradion of showing the younger kids her schule tute and distributing candy. I am still always amazed at all of the traditions that are so consistent throughout Germany.

Everone was home by 1:00. With the exception of having to dash back out for more school supplies (I will comment on this later...), and translating Bailey's homework from German to English, and then to Latin (which by the way did not go so well) - all was very good on the first day! Now the only problem is that we have to keep doing this EVERY day! :-)

Truly right now, I feel as if it is the calm after the storm. After a year of homeschooling, it will take a few days to back into the swing of such structure :-)I have been nervous about this day for so long, and truly am so relieved that all went well. I know that there will be days when tears come, and days where they wish they could crawl under your desk and hide, but I feel/hope this will add so much to their lives, that it will all be worth it!