School starts at 8.10, and today we had maths. Given that the Swedish kids don't start formal school until they are 7, they spent some time learning to write the numbers. Today it was 3.
After maths, we should have had music, but the music teacher was off sick, so we walked to the woods in pairs to collect mushrooms. Svamp in Swedish if you were wondering.
It was back to school for fruit and then 30 minutes break. It was at the this point one of Ned's teachers gave me a much needed cup of coffee - she is now my favourite!
Back to school for more maths, this time using an app on the iPads that seemed to be teaching them about fractions.
At 10.50 we stopped for lunch - me included. All the Swedish schools provide a hot meal at lunchtime FREE OF CHARGE! It's a balanced meal, and the kids help themselves.
There is always sweetcorn, grated carrot, and at least one other vegetable, as well as coleslaw. Today we had korv stroganoff med ris - sausage casserole with rice; and it was good! Each child sits with the same kids and the teachers place a 5 minute egg timer on the table, so the kids have to be quiet for 5 minutes whilst they eat. There is only water or milk to drink, and if they eat all their main meal, they are then allowed to have knäckerbröd (crisp bread) with butter for pudding. After they've eaten they take their dirty plates etc and stack them and then one child per table is 'veckans värder' - essentially the person who wipes to table after everyone has finished. It changes weekly, and my 2 are very excited when it's their turn.......but only at school!
After lunch it was back into class for art. I don't mind admitting that I am a control freak, and don't do craft, so I was interested to see what art entailed. Essentially it was 20 minutes of the kids getting new pencil crayons in different colours (they all took great delight in receiving gold and silver pencils) all delivered by me! They then coloured in a bear. As they finished a bit early, it was back outside for another 10 minutes of playtime, before back inside for NO - which I always think is Norwegian, before remembering that no this is Sweden! NO turns out to be nature/geography related, and today it was looking at the mushrooms the kids had picked and then learning all about them, with a picture related quiz at the end, before finishing at 13.30 and then home for pancakes as we were hungry!
Both of the kids have 3 different teachers, plus extra ones for sport and music, so the kids are split into 3 groups and move around the teachers for their lessons, plus one will be their mentor and they will have these teachers for 3 years, which I think is actually pretty cool.
I wish that English schools did this - maybe they do, and I just missed it, but it was really lovely to see Ned interacting with his friends and teachers, and understanding a bit more about how schooling works here.
Whatever they're doing, the kids love it and are thriving.
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