Another School Year Done

It was late this year...summer vacation. Not only the weather (we do live in the Netherlands, after all), but school went this year until July 20th. I think that's a good 6 weeks or more after I started seeing all the postings on facebook from my state-side friends.

Little Man really felt it this year, too. Group 3 is full of daily work in all subjects, much less playtime or free time then last year - these are full days, and it took the first couple of months for Little Man to hit his stride and get into the swing of ''real'' school. It only gets more intense from here.....

When I compare it to the US what strikes me about the school systems here is that while the work done at school is pretty intense, there is as yet no concept of home work. Outside of school, kids are free to play, do sports, clubs, etc.....be kids. There are exercises sent home with the kids on the last day of school to keep kids from having the ''dip'' that comes from being out of school for 6 weeks, but it more about encouraging behavior such as writing free association poems, small stories, practicing time tables, etc.....all journal style rather than only doing worksheets.

He's grown so much!

As long as it took this year to roll around, and as short as it can sometimes feel,  I also overall really do like that the breaks here are spread out. It's not 3 months summer vacation (although 6 weeks can really fly by!) - but 6 weeks in Summer, a week in fall, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week between Feb and March, another week at the end of April/May and a week usually in June. I think it works out that roughly for every 6 or 7 weeks of school, there is a week free -  it seems to keep the freedom itch to a minimum, as there is pretty much always a break to look forward to.

The last report card of year was a good one. He's making leaps and bounds in all subjects - he's above the average level in all subjects, but his standout is reading - he's currently reading, at the end of group 3,  at the middle point of group 5, so he's a full year and a half ahead there.

Our nightly bedtime ritual, we read out lound to each other.

He's also done very well on the 2x per year CITO or standardized tests -  that starting from this year help determine which level of school he will go into after group 8. His one big improvement area for next year remains his attention span and listening. On one hand, I think 7 year old boy - what do you expect?! :-) And I think sometimes, alot of the people in his life (teachers and mom included) hold him up to a pretty big yardstick because of his intelligence - this is one area where is ''just'' 7 - and I have to remind myself as grown up as he can be, he really is still 7 and is allowed moments of fruit fly attention span.

Unlike a lot of kids his age, he doesn't talk about what he wants to be when he grows up - the usual firefighter or police officer isn't there, and while he LOVES football (soccer), he's also told me he isn't sure he ever wants to play in a big arena in front of ''all those people''. I love that, for now, each day is it's own adventure, and he's always busy doing, learning, being active.

1st live football match seen in a stadium (Amsterdam Arena)

What has also solidified this year is those parts and characteristics of him that are neither his father nor me, but just - Kevin. Of course, I hope at some point there will be some direction, focus and drive...and that whatever he wants to do will align to his talents and skills, but for, we're both going to take a deep breath, capture these 6 weeks of summer and not yet think about group 4 ..........

Summer of ´11 - Extended Edition

This summer has really flown by! - and I´m using summer in the sense of the normal season plus our stretch October..... Technically, Summer vacation for the kids is already way shorter (6 weeks compared to 3 months stateside) but this summer (from end June to end September) has gone down in the history books for bad weather - like the third worst/wettest summer ever - that´s quite an accomplishment for a country known for it´s rain!

There was no possibility this year for a vacation in the sun (decided lack of both time and money), but towards the end of the school vacation in August, mom finally got a break and decided to book a long weekend and take Kev somewhere new.














Decision criteria:
1) Mom couldn't handle another(!)amusement park
2) Kev loves to travel by train, bus...anything other than the usual car
3) a city that had enough to hold mom's attention and still be interesting for little man

I was leaning towards London at first....right up until the time of the riots. Then it didn't seem like such a good idea. Also, London is always expensive. Even the roach motels go for 5 star prices in other cities. In eastern Europe, there were some good possibilities, but the travel time was sooo long, and the getaway budget didn't stretch to cover flights. We were down to car or train (or slow boat) when I saw an offer for 3 nights in Berlin for the price of 2.

In my years here in The Netherlands, I've been to quite a few cities in Germany, but not yet to Berlin. I was in Junior High when the Wall came down, and I remember the news footage from that time quite vividly. I'd also heard from almost anyone who had ever been how beautiful it was. While the historical significance of the city might be lost on Kev this time around, there is a beautiful zoo and many other sights that I knew he would appreciate after our trip to Paris earlier this year - 6 is NOT too young for culture!

So in the last lazy days of August, before football (soccer) and swimming lessons and school started back up, we headed off to have an adventure........

We went to the famous zoo, toured around the city for 2 days in an open top, hop on hop off bus with 15 stops around the city, ate in the 200 plus meter high tower and watched the sun go down, took our first border crossing 7 plus hour train trip (complete with iPad movies and lots of hands of Uno!), visited the the areas where the wall used to be and the remnants preserved today.....and had a great time!

Summer Vacation Update - Our US visit in photos

As many of you know, this summer has been an interesting one. Firstly, our vacation got off to an early start this year due to Andrea and Eric's wedding. They had a beautiful ceremony at a great location on a wonderful day, and we were very lucky to be a part of it - Kevin as a ring bearer and I as a bridesmaid.

Leaving before the official end of the school year meant behind the scenes manouvering for the last 6 months to get permission from Kevin's School (the easy part) the School Board and the ultimately the city hall/council. Our offical permisson came through at the beginning of May, which might have been after the airlines tickets were already purchased........

Two days before we were due to leave, I got called into the office and was greeted with awful news - I wouldn't have a job when we came back from vacation. It cast a pallor over the final preparations and there was a lot of pressure to get things sorted out for myself in the less than 48 we had before we caught our flight to the US.

We arrived on Wednesday night after almost 24 hours of door to door travel. Once there, the first few days were a whirlwind of pre-wedding activity - final fittings, secuirty tags on the ring bearer suit that were missed in a post christmas clearance sale and now needed to be remomved.....a rehearsal dinner to meet the rest of the wedding party and see the location - which while beautiful, was a little remote and took a lot of back and forth driving......

....and before we knew it it was Saturday, the day of the wedding. I can't wait to have some pictures to share, becuase it really was beautiful in every way. Saturday night we all had the opportunity to stay at the venue and not travel back to Roseburg until Sunday.

The week following the wedding we tried to fill with family excursions....We got to catch up with Holly, there was the Enchanted Forest trip, the visit and small hike to Toketee Falls to see the impressive 120 foot waterfall as well as Crater Lake on the Friday before the 4th of July weekend. We did as much of the rim drive as was open, and even in early July we got hit with a snow/hale/ice storm during our picnic lunch at approx 7,000 feet up.





We wrapped up our visit with fireworks and a small birthday gathering on the 5th before it was time to pack up and hit the road before 7am on Wedensday morning to catch our flight back home out of Portland.

Even though it was two weeks and you think before you leave home you'll have enough time to do all the things you want, and see everyone you want, there will still items left on both the to do and to see list this time. It was such a whirlwind of activity our whole visit - it went by so fast!