aka "Football"

Christopher has always been the more sports-minded of our kids, and adapted to England quickly enough by joining both his school's soccerfootball team, as well as their cricket club! These are a few short snaps from his first official game:

Shool Shedules

Yes, I have heard some people call pronounce "school" as "shool" or "shole", rather than the American "skool" :-) But pronunciation wasn't the only educational surprise -- not by a long shot!

One of Jonathan's greatest transitions has been adapting to the Desborough academic calendar. Even though he's in his 8th year (what Americans would call 7th grade (Brits count Kindergarten...but note that 6th year has nothing to do with the crucially important 6th form, which doesn't kick-in until his 12th year...you got all that?)...anyway, even though he's only 13, his diary (that's calendar here) looks a lot like a typical day in college:

• Mon: P.E., history, VoTech, English, maths
• Tue: religion, art, English, science, Spanish
• Wed: music, science, maths, VoTech, Spanish
• Thr: computers, geography, Spanish, P.E., English
• Fri: science, Spanish, maths, geography, English

But that's just for week "A"! In week "B", he goes to VoTech on Tuesday, history on Wednesday, German on Thursday, and drama and "social education" on Friday! So that's a total of 15 different subjects (including two foreign languages), in which classes continually change positions from day-to-day both physically and temporally (e.g., science occurs in period 1, 2, 4 or 5 on different days).

Being understandably bewildered by all of this, and often unsure of just where he was to be at any given time, Jonathan took to carrying his materials for all possible subjects with him every day (they don't have lockers or any personal storage areas), adding a 10-kilo rucksack to his worries.

Fortunately, after a month of accommodation, it seems we're gradually adapting to the educational climate, figuring out what needs to be packed when, comprehending their homework, discipline, and reporting policies, etc. It's been quite an adaptation, and probably hardest for Jonathan, whose school seems to have one leg very firmly planted in the "grammar-school" tradition of England's past (versus modern "comprehensive" schools, which are structured very similarly to the American institution).

Walking to Ellington

When Mark's dad Pete was in town last week, he walked Christopher to school at Ellington Primary one morning.  We thought Christopher's classmates back in Narcoossee might like to see how Chris gets to school these days :-)

(Chris writing)

For one, don't do the actions to this song. This is me walking to school, yes walking! It's actually pretty relaxing to walk calmly and without worry along Cookham rd. and it beats  being bored sitting in a hot van.     

Warhammer!

Christopher's 10th birthday was last night, and beneath a small stack of books and manga (Rurouni Kenshin, Return to Labyrinth, and The Pirate King...bonus points if you immediately thought of Kristy McNichol :-) he found a Warhammer starter set!


The boys have been playing AD&D for a couple years now, but we never got into the tabletop stuff. However, there seems to be a pretty active gaming club here in Maidenhead, with lots of kids Christopher and Jonathan's age participating, so I figured it was time to break out the paints and glue!

Starting School (Christopher Edition)

Christopher started school yesterday, at Ellington Primary. (They don't appear to have a website, or I'd link it!) It's a small "council" school (what Americans would call a "public school"), with about 200 students (about the size of Trinity in Kissimmee). It's only about 5min walk from our house, so Chris should be able to make the daily trek by himself with no problem.

Like many English schools, Ellington is arranged into "Houses". Like many Americans, I had assumed that the Houses in J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts were just another fictional convention, like the moving staircases and talking pictures; or at least some artifact drawn out of boarding-school history, like the castle itself and suits of armor adorning its halls.

Not so! Apparently the concept of "Houses" is a very common one in English schools, even in otherwise perfectly unremarkable primary institutions like Ellington. Like Hogwarts, Ellington is divided into four houses, each with an animal mascot and themed colors.

Christopher elected to join Falcon (blue), with the announcement that "Kite, Kestrel, and Eagle are going DOWN!" He was disappointed that, on his first day, his House didn't win any team points, a matter of some urgency as apparently Eagle has amounted a rather strong lead. No worries -- they have a whole term to earn back that ground :-)

Starting School (Jonathan Edition)

Jonathan was supposed to start school today, but apparently some more paperwork cropped up which needs to be sorted before he can begin classes. Laura is trying to work those issues out today, with the hope that he can begin later this week, or in the worst case, early next.

Desborough (desborough.co.uk) is also divided into four houses, apparently named for the various houses of royalty (Windsor, and I assume Stuart, etc...I'm afraid I didn't listen to the British History audiobooks quite as assiduously as Laura in the run-up to this venture!) Like Hogwarts, each has their own House tie, whether red, blue, green, or yellow.

Desborough is a bit further than Ellington, so Jonathan's facing a rather longer walk; but the school is just a bit past the train station, so hopefully I will be able to walk with him some or all of the way many mornings. Jonathan's already met one like-aged boy who lives two doors down from us and makes the same walk each morning, so at least he needn't trudge it alone.

Picture Monday

I guess we end up taking most of our pictures over the weekend, when we're able to do some things as a family (in the daytime!) Plus, until we get internet access at home, I end up uploading them from work on Monday morning. Maybe we should just make a tradition of "Picture Mondays"?

We had a specific reader request for "more shots of the house" (possibly by people trying to decide whether we could comfortably "put them up" for a cheap jaunt through London :-), so here you go:

http://zieg.com/pics/england/2008-12-21/

Eragor and Friend

Part of Jonathan's homeschooling this month included a creative writing assignment in which he was to write a story. He worked very hard on his tale, and is justifiably proud of the result; I know I couldn't write this well in 7th-grade! So if you have a mind, click on through to enter the world of Eragor...

England

In a few months we are going to England. This is what I think: we'll have fun.