And so to this weekend…

Now to get bang up to date. This week Dani finished school for the summer. The end of his third year in full time school. Wow! Where did those three years go? Here is a link to a post about his first day back in September 2016. (Click here for that post)

While it is almost impossible to tell what he got up in his final week I do know that his class had a graduation ceremony the previous week. Hilarious I know. They all donned the cap and gown and were presented with graduation certificates.

Sadly I missed all this. If I knew it was going to happen then I would probably have made the effort. It coincided with the day of his school play where he played a snowflake. Just for the record that’s an actual snowflake that falls from the sky rather than the modern meaning of being from the “snowflake generation”.  I realise you cannot be at every single one of your kids’ activities and special days but the odd ones (like this one) are a little different. I feel bad that I missed this one.

I think they were celebrating graduating from the nursery classes (A, B and C). So next September they will be part of the normal school? That is to say primary (primaria) school. In my day we had infants and junior schools. I am really not sure. I know that sounds bad but here’s the thing…

Reading, (W)Riting and (A)Rithmetic

Traditionally (and oddly) referred to in the UK as “the three Rs”. Reading writing and arithmetic were always considered the basic cornerstones of any education. I believe that they still are. While I am still confused by the school system in Spain, I do know that Dani is gaining a good understanding of the Three ‘R’s. And that is all that matters to me right now.

In fact his command of the Three ‘R’s is enough to truly impress me. He even read a book to me last weekend. The Three Billy-goats Gruff. That classic Ladybird book.

Complete with “Trip-trap. Trip-trap”, “Out popped the Troll’s ugly head” and “…to eat the sweet grass” quotes. Fantastic. It should be mentioned in the same conversations as anything by Shakespeare. At least as far as kids are concerned.

What impressed me so much is that English is still very much a second language to him. Add to that the fact that English is a lot more difficult to read (certainly than Spanish) and you have a very proud old dad. His concentration was intense and I loved every second of it.

Still Top Secret?

I can get up to speed with the school system – and his school in particular – as and when he decides to talk to me about it. Maybe his recent graduation means that he is no longer bound by some kind of ‘official secrets act’. I am sure he will speak to me about school when he is good and ready.

When will that be though? Anyone?….

Who Knew?

Doing these blog posts encourages me to do a little research into some weird and wonderful things…. This one is no different. I found out the following:

“Three Billy Goats Gruff” is a Norwegian fairy tale first published around 1841. The first version of the story in English appeared in a translation of Norwegian tales by a George Webbe Dasent’s in 1859 ; He called his bookPopular Tales from the Norse in 1859.

And so here we are at the end of Dani’s third school year. A long hot summer ahead…