(Untitled)

[kupukello]

One thing I still find tedious about travelling with children is to keep them entertained during flights. Game consoles are all nice and dandy, as are books, but drawing still is the easiest way to keep (my) kids occupied. Hence, on the way back from London, I gave them prompts about London, and they then dutifully drew in their respective sketch

Comments

[pinguthegreek]

You know, I can't wait for the girls to speak enough English to get to know them.

I love seeing their perspective on London, Thanks for sharing.

[kupukello]

Katrina will start proper English classes next year, Bramble will have to wait a bit for hers as she will start her first foreign language in 3rd grade and that's not going to be English.

They will both start Swedish on 7th grade, yet another language in the 8th grade, Katrina even has the possibility to join a Latin club later on, and in the upper secondary school (grades 10 to 12) they can take as many new languages as they want, depending on what the school has to offer. Katrina especially should take that path, as she clearly has the head for languages, both her own and foreign, but it will remain to be seen how Bramble can handle even the mandatory language classes ;)

[pinguthegreek]

So....hang on. Bramble is in 1st grade and Katrina is in 3rd ? Time has flown so much and it doesn't seem long since she started school! It's such a different system for us in the US and UK to understand, because your kids start school later than ours and then don't change schools until we ( potentially ) have been through three different schools !

So, Katrina's already probably fluent in German. I'm curious. Over here, the principle foreign language is French because they're the closest foreign country to us. If they don't start English until later, what do Finnish kids take as their first foreign language ?

I know, language geek....

[kupukello]

Bramble is in 1st grade and Katrina in the 4th. The first foreign language starts in the 3rd grade, the second on 4th or 5th. Swedish comes on 7th (mandatory), and the rest is not mandatory but I wish especially Katrina will take as many as she can

[penguin474]

Härolbs. :D
These are just wonderful - thanks for sharing!

[kupukello]

Härolbs, yup :)))) D and B are such difficult letters, especially B as it doesn't come up in any Finnish word, but I'm not sure where the extra L came from. From the Finnish hamburger chain Carrols? The Ä is because the Brits just can't write it properly even when they SAY it as Ä :)))

[amelia_eve]

Bramble's bird is very sophisticated! Good prompts.

[kupukello]

Of all the lovely critters we saw she chose A PIGEON?!! :)))

[solith_]

Awww, sweet! You have such great ideas about how to make kids occupied during journey or what to visit with them! I try to remember it all so when I have my own kids I will have the same brilliant ideas :)

[kupukello]

When one is desperate enough, one comes up with Ideas *head desk* I was just strongly reminded of the time when Katrina was a baby, with colic, and screaming the nights thru. Our bag of tricks included putting her hanging on the side of the sink, with the water running, leaving the vacuum cleaner on and humming next to the bed, or putting her in the kangaroo pouch and walking a dent in the floor (bedroom, living room, hall, kitchen, bedroom) *sigh* Aren't I glad THOSE times are over!

[kupukello]

Yes, it's actually quite amazing: they can run around FOR HOURS in a park or whatever, but whenever they have to WALK two blocks, it's all "I'm tired! Is it long 'til we get there? SO much WALKING!"

(I made sure I didn't take my best walking shoes with me in order to NOT be able to walk as much as I usually do. Not that it matters, at least Katrina could outwalk me any day, IF SHE CHOSE to!)

I was surprised to see just how similar their views were. They weren't sitting next to another so they didn't SEE what the other one was doing. Härolds maybe got the unanimous vote because we visited it in the evening when it was lit up with a million tiny lamps. Beautiful!