a little C U L T U R E

Crazy, busy week here. Things are movin' and shakin'. We should have some exciting news by next week. No, we're not moving on base but... we might be moving to a different house. Crossing our fingers and trying not to think of how much WORK might be directly in front of us. Feeling a little stressed and overwhelmed, I decided to write a little here since I have so much time on my hands.

Until our big enormous move this year, I never imagined living anywhere but the United States. Ever. While we enjoy traveling, I never had that internal drive to experience life in another country and culture. Now that we are here, I'm seeing the benefits and opportunities that the boys are especially gaining by living in Europe. Education in another culture- even attending American schools.

I just filled out the application to get Coleman into the German Partial Immersion Enrichment Program. It's a slim chance that he'll get in, but I'd be thrilled. Right now {first grade}, they pull them out weekly for Spanish and for German.

In the short time that we have been here, I'm amazed at how much vocabulary he has already learned and retained.
If he gets in the Immersion Program, he will learn Math, Science, Health and Social Studies all in German- 50% of the day. I can't image how much he'll be able to absorb with that much exposure. I get excited just thinking about it.

I'm also so impressed with how much of the German culture he is learning in his classroom. Last month, he went on a Volksmarch. Caden and I were able to join him. In Germany, it's one day each year that they have a walk- typically ten kilometers. For the elementary school, it was two miles. They got a pretzel at the end. Kind of cool.

Last week, he had his first field trip and was able to take the train to the Karlsruhe Zoo. The zoo is about 100 miles from our house, but being able to jump on the train, they were able to make it happen. They also got to go on a gondola ride at the zoo.
Not your typical zoo end-of-the-year field trip. Not a typical childhood for that matter.