Amidst all the other changes and turmoil going on the kids have returned to school. The Academic Year 2008-2009 began with the usual confusion associated with going to school here.
Jimmy is now in First Standard, comparable to first grade. He is studying Math, Environmental Studies, Reading, Writing and Hindi. So far his Math and English are receiving high marks as is EMS and reading. It is the Hindi that is causing trouble. Not so much trouble with Jimmy as it is with Mom and Dad. You see it seems the Hindi Ma'am has not grasped the concept that Dad is looking after the kids while Mom is earning the bacon. So each night a seething note comes home in the diary telling Mom what Hindi needs to been and each morning Dad goes to school to ask " Where are the homework books?" "Jimmy can not do the homework listed in the diary if the books are not there!" Response: "Please tell Madam that he must do his work without fail" Back and forth ... wash, rinse repeat...Get the picture. Not to mention, Hindi ma'am is now only speaking Hindi in class and the homework (when it does come home with books) is written 1/2 in English, 1/2 in Hindi. Should be a fun year.
Kay has climbed the educational ladder and reached, Nursery, more specifically, Nursery B (in India Nursery is akin to Kindergarten of which they have 2 levels, lower kindergarten-lkg and upper kindergarten-ukg. At Gopalan these are know as Nursery and Prep - totally clear, right?!). She has been excelling in coloring, painting and doing her numbers. Tracy and I were discussing the length of Kay's school uniform (it barely covers her bum) and I was tasked to find out if all the kids uniform was as well revealing as Kay's. It turns out they are not. So as you can see by the photo we will have to "let the hem out" Kay is unaware of this difference and continues to get dirty before she even leaves the house.
Billy has obtained the level of Playgroup II. Which academically as far as we can tell means no more naps & an extra snack. Besides that he continues to color with his hands play with cars and not eat lunch. Developmentally I am more concerned with the no naps vs no lunch. He is now in school from 8:30-2:30 as are his brother and sister. This has been making for some uneventful going to bed evenings but now having said that I may have just cursed us.There are exactly 1,134 school holidays this year along with half that many Teacher appreciation days which as you all know means vacation blogs from the loudamericans.
Respectfully submitted,
Douglas C. Neidermeyer
Thayer '08
