Countries of the World

I love learning about other countries, their peoples, their traditions and their cultures, and I think this is why I decided to get my degree in Anthropology with a minor in History...it was interesting! My boys are old enough now that I want to start sharing this with them, so we will take one country a month and learn about it.

We started in November with the true story of Thanksgiving, why the Pilgrims came to the New World, who Squanto was and the beginning of our Thanksgiving traditions. The boys really enjoyed reading about the food. They thought deer, turkey, goose and lobster sounded good, but the eel, oysters and clams would not be to their liking. They both agreed that our tradition of turkey, mashed potato, sweet potato, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie was the best.

For December we are going to immerse ourselves in the wonderful world of Germany! We are going to get advent calenders to open every day, we will read the story of Hansel and Gretl and make Gingerbread houses, we will celebrate St. Nicholas Day on Dec. 6th with shoes outside our door and a traditional German feast (stay tuned for details of our foray into Germany).

Today we started with school life for German kids. We learned that Kindergarten is for kids ages 3-6. Elementary school is for age 6-10 and in some states the kids go to school on Saturdays! (My Oldest did NOT like this!) and school days usually last from 8 AM-1:30 PM. Kids usually eat lunch at home and their summer vacations are only 6 weeks long.

At age 10, children are put into 1 of 4 different secondary schools that focus on preparing for a University or Trade school. Student's do not rotate their classes, but rather stay in one "home room" and their Teachers rotate (something my Oldest found very interesting since he's 12 and in Middle school now). All schools are free, including University if you qualify to attend.

Schools do not have sports or music classes, instead kids join clubs after school in whatever hobby, sport, or music they enjoy. They can also spend time with friends at cafes or discos in order to socialize with other kids.

So far Germany is very interesting!