The kids love the snow and it’s really not so cold, usually 20s to 30s F. It’s much drier overall than Corvallis, so we are adjusting with hand lotion! It’s also so darn icy outside. They put down gravel on the walking paths nearly every day. Ted said that yesterday he was slipping as he walked home, while some Norwegian guy nearby in pointy dress shoes was striding along without a problem. Some kind of supernatural harmony with the natural environment going on, apparently. I’ve also seen women in some inadvisable shoes, but I’m loving my warm boots. It would be nice to get more snow.
I picked up Nora after school because Anders was sick. Suddenly she burst out: “OH. MY. GOD. We have a zip line!” Yet another perk at Steindal Skolen!
This morning we met with the kids’ teachers for an hour, and they are great. There are kids from 40 countries at their school! So the teachers are used to kids who are getting up to speed in Norwegian, but most of those kids do not also speak English. We agreed that they can push Anders with Norwegian by not using English with him much, so that he will get used to it faster. The other kids his age speak English quite well now, and some of them are not afraid of trying, so they are talking to him in English and not Norwegian. He is doing some extra workbooks from school to learn more Norwegian on his own. The teacher pairs up kids into learning buddies which change periodically (they pick names from a hat, I think). So he will get experience working with different kids.
Tomorrow in Anders’ class, the kids get to pick an activity: arts and crafts, band (rock band!), or gym. For gym, they are going to the nearby ski hill in walking distance for downhill skiing. They think they have equipment in the right size for him to borrow. Some of the kids his age go there after school just for fun, so maybe he will try to pick that up. He is also interested in playing handball, and the teacher told me the place where he might be able to play. They are also having a “ball” for the 7th graders this month (more like a party), and everyone hopes that Anders will go! He has asked about it, so I’m sure that he will be there.
Walking past the school on the way to the grocery store, I saw Nora and friends working together to get back up the icy hill. Then they sat together like a train and went down again!
We also agreed that the teacher could just speak Norwegian to Nora because she is used to that immersion environment at Garfield with Spanish. The kids in fourth grade are not speaking as much English yet so they are forcing her to work on Norwegian too. They paired her with a girl who is really interested in learning English, so that’s sweet.
Nora has been diligent about doing homework, a reasonable amount in each subject throughout the week. They have small textbooks and notebooks to write answers in. As she did homework, she looked up dreamily and said: “I like doing homework from books. I like this…yes, I like this.” Her teacher also said that Nora expressed pleasant surprise at getting to work out of real books. She will also get norsk homework each week that is at their level.
Funny thing happened last night: Our apartment phone rang (I didn’t know that it did that!) Ted picked up the phone and it was kids asking for Nora. They were downstairs calling from the call box–2 boys who asked to be her friends at school, H
enrik and Sharif. They came up and colored with her for awhile, we could hear them chatting, making themselves understood in English and Norwegian. They even got Nora speaking Norwegian some. We told her teacher and she just laughed (“those two!”), and said that she sees that Nora is always with other kids and that they will teach her more quickly than anyone else, which is certainly true for Nora. Next week her class is going to do ice skating for gym all week, and they have extra skates and helmets to borrow. She will love that.
