Dalsi, treti skolni rok v Californii - California XXVI

Sedim na lavicce v Kacine skole a cekam, az zacne dalsi konsultace uvodnich tridnich schuzek. Tradicne to vypada trochu jinak, nez v ceskych skolach. Nejdrive je v aule zprava o stavu skoly, ktera obzvlaste letos poukazuje na kraceni rozpoctu z vyssich mist, a tak je to hlavne o dotacich, doporucuji prispevek na dite od $250 vyse, ale my jsme stejne jako loni dali jen stovku.

Pak nasleduje neformalni setkani s uciteli nad donesenym jidlem a pak uz se chodi do jednotlivych uceben a kazdy profesor rekne neco o svych planech, metodach a pozadavcich. Vsichni ucitele jsou sebevedomi, schopni dobre prezentovat a pusobi nadsene. Kazde dite ma vlastni rozvrh sestaveny z predmetu, ktere si zapsal. Jsou dana zakladni pravidla, jako ze anglictinu a historii musi delat vsichni, matiku minimalne dva roky, alespon dva semestry jazyka za studium a nelze delat algebru 3 bez ukoncene dvojky atd. Kazdy den pak maji to same, prvni hodinu studentuv prvni predmet, druhou hodinu druhy atd az sedmy. Jinak 'znamky' jsou publikovany denne na skolni web a chodi mi to do mailu, takze clovej nemuze rict, ze nevi, jak to s jeho studentem vypada. Letos doufejme si Kaca nenecha utect zacatek jako loni, protoze neni tak zhrzena z navratu z prazdnin zpatky do USA.

Na druhou stranu Davidovi zacala skola uz o mesic driv, protoze ma jiny kalendar, maji pres rok 4 delsi prazdniny, ne jen jedny dlooouhe. Ted jako prvnak (loni to bylo ve velke skole, jmenovalo se to ale kindergarten a koncilo to v pul jedne) ma skolu denne do pul treti, coz je pro me prijemna zmena, hlavne protoze nemusim budit Adamka, ktery spi pres poledne,  abychom mohli dojet vyzzvednout Dejdu. Umi velmi pekne cist, psat (tiskace a ne tak moc pekne, psace se uci az ve treti tride), pocitaji do stovky a proste to uz loni byla normalni skola. Tridni schuzky mame pristi tyden, je to ctvrthodinova konzultace obou rodicu s ucitelem, ktery jim nastini, jak si zak vede - maji je ohodnecene asi v 50 oblastech a vicemene sleduji, jestli dosahuje svych predpokladu, objektivni meritka prijdou na pretres, jen kdyz je dite tragicky zaostale. Ale abych nepredbihala, loni to bylo s jinou ucitelkou, kazdy rok se jim ucitelky meni, stejne jako skladba zaku, promichali cely rocnik a znovu rozdelili do 4 trid.

Tak to by bylo o nasich skolacich. Adamek chodi 3x tydne do 'day care', coz je soukrome zarizeni, kde se tri filipinske tety staraji o 10 prcku, jsou moc hodne a Adamek to tam ma rad. Takze ja muzu pracovat trochu a obstarat veci, ktere se s detmi zarizuji jen obtizne. Jako treba dnes, jsem v LA v sushi baru, musela jsem sem jet vyzvednout Dejduv novy pas, ale to je cele na dalsi vypraveni. Doufam, ze i vam zacal skolni rok uspesne, ahoj J.

New School Year for David

This is how David left the school 5 weeks ago, finishing his Kindergarten year, with his teachers Mrs Putnam and Mrs Volking.

 

And this is how he started again on Wednesday, he's a first grader now and is pretty proud of it. They change teachers every year here in California and they also shuffle the kids in classes so he has been last year in class with just 7-8 of them, the others are from other classes. On one hand it is a good way to get the kids know each other across the whole school, on the flip side one set of kids and one teacher for first five years as in Czech/Europe were kind of a stability in our lives.

Kids and computers - California XXIII

I just had to lend my computer to David because he heard me playing a Red Hot Chili Peppers song to my work and it reminded him of his favorite video to their song Can't Stop and he wanted to see it and listen to it on YouTube once again.

It's nothing new that he is into computers, games and music but lately it is really fun to watch him. Earlier I had to dictate him letters one by one as he was putting them one per minute into the Google search field, later he memorized how to write down his favorites like LEGO and Gormiti. Now when he's starting to write and read he doesn't need my help that often. He is able to write down 'Yo Tub' and Google helps him to find it. At YouTube he writes 'cantstop' or 'wewilrukyo' and what a surprise, YouTube helps him with that too. So he looks up and listens to his 'own' music. He also loves 'Wake me up when September ends' by Green Day (thanks, Tondo), d'Agostini's Blabla, It's gonna be a good night by Black Eyed Peas and Crazy game of poker by OAR etc.

So as you can see he can spend some time at my computer but I just needed to work. I forced him to leave so he went to play with Lego. There remained his 'kidz helmit' search in the Google field. So that's basically all what he is interested in:)

And this all reminds me of a cartoon I've seen lately on The New Yorker store, son's and father's communication 'Go and ask your search engine'. Here it is.

First day at school

So today was David's big day as he has started his school curriculum at George Hall's. We were all quite nervous, he couldn't fall asleep last night and I had tears in my eyes when I saw my little boy going inside the classroom. He is really ready and independent by now. A year ago he would be crying, hiding behind us and insisting on us staying with him inside. Today he just went, playing a comedy with heavy supplies bags and thus diminishing his attention to a bit non-standard situation. But he made it. We made it.

California XIV - Summer in the air

I have to admit that here in US I am much more aware of the threat of going to prison for a traffic offence than back in Czech. In Czech, you always get away with a last warning or a fine at most, if it is not killing obviously. But here I am afraid that I might go to jail just for wrong parking or speedy driving. No that I would like the idea of going to Czech prison, but going to American prison really horrifies me. So cars with signs of Highway Patrol and men/women in them have my absolute respect. (I couldn't resist to publish the mini photo series above to bring a picture of California HP near to you.)

This is something I wanted to share with you for a long time, already in England. Both countries, UK and US offer on the market only cane sugar, in almost 100%. You wouldn't tell it from beet sugar but during those 4 years here I didn't have a single new cavity. I don't want to say strictly that it is a cause and consequence issue but it crossed my mind several times that there could be some causality. But it's definitely not a non-obese sugar, though they say that the main cause of American biggest health problem is connected to a content of a 'high fructose corn syrup' which you can find in many food products, even in bread, hamburgers and ketchup. So put these three things together and you get a sugar bomb.

Both our young sons will pass this month significant milestones in their lives. Adam will start solid food besides my milk (end of babyhood?), and David will start his school curriculum on 29th July (end of childhood?). You can imagine that we are pretty excited.

The weather here in San Mateo is more than fair. Rains ceased in late March and since then temperatures linger around twenties, though evenings can be noticeably cooler. So we practically live outside, the door to the yard is still open and we can whenever just go for a walk, for a bike ride or to play a bit of soccer, or base- and basket- balls. Which we do. On weekends we spend our days either at beaches, or on hikes on many of nearby trek trails in surrounding hills. Moreover, there is a nice pool in our community so we go like every other day to take a dip. I guess I haven't been so active for a long long time.

We also have had visitors last week, both Laku brothers Afolabi and Dele were here for the last weekend. It was great to have them here, David enjoyed them very much and we all had a great time (I hope:). So here they are, all five of A.-A. boys.