School Update

We are only a few weeks into school, but I thought I would take a minute and list a few of the differences that the kids and I have seen so far in school (besides the school supplies :-)) I know that this experience will be something that they always remember, so I wanted to keep track of the little details also...
*All of my kids are home by 1:00 each day (I love this because in the U.S. school, they would not be home until 3:30). Depending on the day, it may be even earlier!
*Responsibility seems to be a primary focus. Mia's teacher tells her the homework, and she is supposed to remember it (no writing it down). Bailey and Camden have had to step it up in the responsibility department - they are pretty much 100% responsible for everything now. All of the kids in the school; walk, ride city busses, or ride bikes to get to school too.
*In Bailey and Camden's school, Homework does not count as part of their grade (only tests). I think that would be quite hard/stressful.
*They often have "Pop Quizzes" here, so it is important that students study each night for each subject (of course we have not gotten to that point yet, because we are still translating stuff at 9:00pm, but you get the point :-)
*Religion is not seperate from State here. Children can go to one of the the following classes (depending on your faith); Catholic, Evangelic, or Atheist (the other interesting point is that there does not seem to be any disregard for any other religion among anyone - people are respectful of others. *a funny story...the other day, Camden had his first Religion class. Most of the kids are Catholic, so only a few kids have to go in seperate directions. By accident, Camden ended up in the wrong class - he of course made a joke of it, but I guess it was a little embarassing :-)
*The classrooms don't have posters or decorations - only plain walls (I guess so that kids don't get distracted?)
*All of the German kids speak EXCELLENT English. I am quite amazed at the expectations. For Bailey's English homework, she had to create a 2 day traveling itinerary for the City of London (figuring out tube/subway stops and everything). That would be pretty hard to do as a 7th grader in a foreign language!
*All of the Gymnasien students (I always thought it was "Gymnasium", but no it is "Gymnasien") in all of Bavaria have the same books - it is not broken down by county or district. From a teaching aspect, I thought that was quite interesting. It would be like every 6th grader in Georgia having all of the same books - no matter where you lived. The books are about half as thick as the books that I was used to as a student, and that my kids have used in the past.
*So far, it does not look like Mia will learn to read German phonetically - like she would have typically learned to read English in the U.S. school. It seems to be more memorization. I am especially anxious to see how this works, because I am told that all the kids are reading by Christmas . They seem to spend little time reviewing letters, and instead simply begin reading the books. Mia has learned to read quite a bit in English, but now she has to learn to read in German!
*In Bailey and Camden's school, the teachers move from Class to Class, and the students stay put (with the exception of a few classes). There is not a lot of wasted time in the day.
*Each Gymnasien in the city has a specialty (science, language, sport, arts etc.) Depending on the child's interest, they can apply to go to the Gymnasien of their choice.
*In Sport (a.k.a. gym class), Camden has to swim - he has to take the bus to get there.
*Camden met the American Exchange Student today at their school - kind of neat (the Gymnasien is 5th through 12th grade, so this is where a highschool exchange student would go also). The boy was asked by the German teacher to help Camden with some translating - I was so grateful to hear this.
*Mia took the bus yesterday with her class to see a play. I had no idea they were doing this (you don't need permission slips or anything) - quite different than what we are used to! I am used to planning weeks ahead, sending in money, permission slips, chaperones etc. - definitely not the case here!