THURSDAY JANUARY 25th

Woke up a little before 7. In case you wanted to know the kWh was up to 78775 we seem to use somewhere between 10-15 kwh a day.Had muesli and yogurt for breakfast. There was an article about what Rasmussen the Prime Minister knew about some prisoners in Iraq and what he should have done about it. Talked with Karen and Ida. Karen's school recently had a problem with people using cocaine. Guess there isn't nearly as much drug/alcohol/smoking education here.
Went to Studenten (my practicum site). Both Elizabeth and I got there early because we weren't quite sure where it was. It is so odd that we got put in the same place. We're the only 2 DIS students there.
Sarah, our contact person, met us and explained the general schedule and policy of the school. There are 3 groups of 3-6 year olds. A group consists of 20 children, 2 main teachers (pedagogues) and 1 assistant pedagogue. Mainly the groups all interact together. One group each week goes to the forest for the entire day everyday for the whole week. Sounds pretty cool. There is a big environmental focus at this daycare. They get organic food and they recycle and compost. TWR a woman (who reminded me vaguely of Rosetta for some reason) cooks lunch for them. Students can get there as early as 7AM and they get food. The children basically come in all morning though and then leave slowly all afternoon. At 5PM the school officially closes.
The school has a very homey feel. By the entrance there is a sheet with what is planned for the day and then they write in what actually happened that day once the day is done. This seems like a great way to communicate a lot of info easily to the parents. There are many rooms and lots of huge windows. One room that I thought was especially cool was one lined with pillows and filled with soft stuff where the children can go to wrestle and rough house.
There were legos, drawing materials, cars, a room with make believe house and cooking type toys in various rooms. Basically the children have complete free rein to do whatever they want. The pedagogues are vaguely around but really not trying to organize any activities. They just sort of go about their own business. The children got along really really well together. The few times when someone did get hurt or upset the other child immediately said Undskilde (I'm sorry/excuse me) and gave them a big hug. This happened quite a lot with three rambunctious boys who obviously were really good friends but got to throwing things at each other and were a bit wild. The teachers didn't stop them but were there to ask what happened and comfort when one of them got hurt.
I pointed on a map to a bunch of the children Jeg kommer far der (I come from there). and pointed to Boston. They didn't quite seem to understand that I didn't know what they were saying.
One girl in particular really liked me. I read a book with her.
There was a meeting time where they read a journal that a child had dictated about what they did with a stuffed animal at home that week. Sounds extremely familiar. They also sang a couple of songs. One had to do with Bob the Builder (oh American influence!) and having one hammer (pound on floor with 1 fist) having 2 hammers (pound with 2 fists) and having 3 hammers (head and 2 fists). Another had to do with a sleeping bear and waking up and growling. The songs were picked based on association with songs associated with objects chosen from a basket.
At lunch they eat out of real bowls, cups, metal silverware etc. etc. There is a pitcher of water that they pour from. I was impressed at how civilized it was. Before eating they said a sort of blessing over the food but it was secular I believe. They had pasta with tomato sauce. I had brought my own lunch. There was one girl who was spacing out a bit and not really eating. I wonder if she might have some sort of learning disability. We'll see.
I helped the children get on all their stuff to go out. They ALL wear full snowsuits (as do all the children around Copenhagen). They really get bundled up even when it is not really that cold. When we went outside after lunch I had four or five children holding onto me for balance while I stood in the middle of a sandbox and they walked around the narrow outside rim. They were having so much fun! They kept saying holder min han (or something like that which obviously meant hold my hand). We were outside for about 1.5 hours. Pretty amazing and they do it no matter what the weather. Elizabeth and I left around 1 so they were still outside when we left.
Overall it was a pretty awesome experience. I cannot wait to go back.
I went back to the house and did some homework. I went for a run around the bottom two of the five lakes. I hadn't quite realized how bad the air is here. It's very very humid and there is quite a bit of car exhaust. Not so bad for a city though.
Did homework for the rest of the afternoon.
Watched the exciting end to the Germany France semi final handball game with Jens and Simon. It went into double overtime but I guess that isn't that uncommon in handball.
We had dinner of tomato soup and bread. Karen brought home a bunch of yummy bread and pastries from the bakery that she works at! We shared some chocolate croissant like pastries and mini muffins for dessert.
Ida had swim practice today and had to do the butterfly. Karen was busy at the bakery covering for someone who wasn't there. I was talkign Karen and she says that people commonly take 6 mths or a year off after high school before going to university. This isnt' that different from the US though because they end HS at 16 or some at 17. You must go to public school from 7-16 but the vast majority go from 6-17.