Joel and Hannah at School

Having written an update on our progress in language class it seems only right to update you on the kids’ progress at school. I’ve uploaded some videos to our facebook group: Greece Is The Word – Clarks in Athens (see link on the left!). So, here’s a little taster of Hannah and Joel’s school experiences – purple for Hannah and dark blue for Joel.

Joel’s school starts at 8.15. He’s there for 4 hours and the day usually begins with drawing. He never really liked drawing and he still opts out of that activity sometimes. He likes drawing his family and Spongebob Squarepants!

The school is a Νηπιαγωγείον (Nipiagogeion), a compulsory pre-school for 5-6 year olds and optional for 4-5 year olds which is run by the state. Greek school intakes run on calendar years but the academic year is the same as the UK. SO, children start ‘proper’ school the September of the year they turn six. In Joel’s case, then, he’ll start September 2008, just over a month before he turns six. Instead of being one of the oldest in his year (like in the UK), he’ll be one of the youngest as his class will be full of kids born from Jan – Dec 2002.

The school is only 400 (Clarkie) paces from our front door and is at the bottom of an apartment building. There is a yard out the back where the children are able to run around. The two classrooms are small but big enough for the 15 or so kids in each class. It is very close to the primary school, where he will go next year, so we expect that most of his class will go up with him.

He is friends with Emilio, Dimitri, Panagiotis, Maikis and Yezan. His teachers are Kyria Litsa, Kyria Sonia and Kyria Maria (they job-share). Kyria Litsa, who we’ve had most contact with, says that Joel is very clever but he needs to learn to listen more and talk less. (Honestly, even in a Greek context his school reports are the same as his mother’s were back in the late 70s!)

He’s enjoying it and looks forward to going. Jonathan usually drops both kids off on the way to uni and both at the beginning and the end of every school ‘day’ there are plenty of “Γειά σου”s (“Ya sou”s: Hi and bye!) being exchanged! Joel is known as Τζοέλ, Jo-el, at school – sadly, it seems the Bible Greek version of Joel, Ιωήλ, isn’t well-known or used.

He is making some progress in Greek but we’re aware that his lack of language is impeding full involvement in the class. He has learnt to read in English over the past few months (started with Kate, some with me but mostly self-taught) and has been teaching himself (mostly) to read Greek since late September. Slowly, slowly he’ll pick it up, hopefully before he starts ‘proper’ school next September.

Hannah is also enjoying school. She’s definitely found the whole culture-shift very tiring. When we first moved here, 10 months ago, she had dropped her mid-afternoon nap months before. Since we’ve been here she probably naps 4 out of 7 days a week and she’s definitely been more tired since she started school.

Hannah’s school is a Παιδικός Σταθμός (Paidikos Stathmos), literally a Child’s Station. It operates both as a private nursery and as a Νηπιαγωγείον and is run by the Borough Council. If we weren’t students, we would have to pay. It’s up the hill towards the university and is set in its own grounds with two well-equipped playgrounds. It’s open from about 7 til 3ish, so Hannah could go for all that time and take a packed heatable lunch, but she goes from 830ish til 12ish daily.

Hannah also has three teachers: Vaso, Stella and Kyria Stavroula. We THINK that Vaso and Stella are the helpers and KS is the qualified one! Anyway, Vaso is Hannah’s favourite. She also has some friends: Benny (maybe Penny?) and Fay are the girls and a boy called Aphrodite (which is NOT a boy’s name – his REAL name is Evripides: Euripides, but that’s a bit tricky for H). There are about 15 kids in her class too aged 3 and 4.

We’re not really sure how she gets on from her perspective. Kyria Stavroula told Jonathan the other day that Hannah was doing fine and that she’s beginning to learn and will learn quickly. She was very enthusiastic and warm about her.

We know that Hannah is much shyer and more reticent outside of the house, and even more so away from us. We're not quite sure what to do about that, if anything. We pray that she'll be growing in confidence about who she is and be able to find her voice outside of the house!