Kids' turn: School's a real pain in the AAESS

Q. How's school? What's your favourite subject? Meet any cute girls? Made any great new friends?

Christopher: Great besides the Arabic teacher. 2. No, I haven't met any girls. 3. Yes. I met three new friends named Jesse, Sam and Ashley who's a boy not a girl. Played ruggers last week. Believe it or not, this Canadian kid was accused of unnecessary roughness. I din't know two things: a) if you get tackled and then accidentally step on the kid's crotch, people get upset; b) grabbing heads is not allowed. Panzies.

Parents' note: Ashley is a sweet kid. From India. Very polite. We hope some of that rubs off . . . .

Jonah: (While we wait for Riley.) I do school with my mom while the brothers are at their school. We draw, print, play, and swim. We are working on numbers and letters, including letter-sounds. My letters are getting pretty good, and I can recognize most of them no problem. I can also tell the difference between English and Arabic street signs, and sometimes I read things. Here is the alphabet:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Also, today I ripped half of my toenail off throwing one of my patented tantrums. It happened right before church. Ouch.

Riley: School's great. Our mean history teacher quit after a week. I could do without art. Other than that, it's all good. All of my teachers are Brits (except the Arabic teacher), and they say some funny things, like "one, two, free" and "rubbish" and "bee-ography." Favourite subject is lunch break. Kidding. It's science. We've done some cool things, like playing with fire, melting metals at high temps, and putting potassium in water. Girls: plead the fifth. Friends: Talbot Turner from Sihth Ihfricuh, Marvin from Germany (das ist gut!), Jack from Britain, Micah from parts unknown, and Jacob from Holland. Met a few Canucks, too.

Mom's two bits: School's great. I've enjoyed meeting Christopher's friend and hearing stories about their experiences. I think the international flavour of the school is really great for our kids. Jonah and I watch Little Einstein. We've learned about "adagio" and "allegro" and some of the famous composers. Jonah has shown an interest in the piano lately. Riley is signed up for guitar lessons, and Christopher for piano lessons at the school. I'm very happy that they can continue with their musical training. We're still hoping they pick up British accents.

In other news, after hearing about snow in Alberta, I'm REAL glad we're here.