more on school

So last night I went through the boys' Schulranzen (massively heavy--and required--Official German School Backpacks--see here). In the midst of all the chaos, I discovered quite a number of tests. Son #1 is doing spectacular in math, and not bad in reading comprehension. A lot of my money has gone to JK Rowling, but quite aside from creating a rip-roaring story, she really has had a lot to do with my kids' reading. Son is a couple hundred pages into Order of the Phoenix in German, after reading all the others, and I can tell he's learned a lot. His religion class, though, seems to be taking a hit from his extra German instruction. He was able to name a church leader for Christianity (we have a prophet in our church, so that's what he wrote), but he said that Islam and Judaism are both led by the Papst. I had to explain that "Papst" is German for "the pope." One of those important words he missed when he was out working on German grammar, I guess. I kinda like the comparative religion thing, but I'm also not too worried about grades in religion. We're personally religious, but that whole American church and state separation thing is part of my brain processes. And like it's going to transfer to a public American school, anyway.

While all of this was going on, son #2 was sitting at the table, writing. Turns out he was writing poetry--in German. He's six. Where is he getting this? He was rather proud of himself, and you know what? It didn't sound half bad. I wonder if they're learning poems in school. It was getting late, and as a mom, I eventually had to send him off to bed. As a writer, though, I could totally sympathize with him wanting to stay up late to write!

All children are well today--and now my stomach is feeling the effects of the other day. Urgh. I generally have an iron stomach, but I'm not sure how well it will hold up in heat and chasing small toddler.