- halfway house -

Half of the kids in this house are off for their summer holidays, the other half still has a week to go.

Both teenagers got their report-cards yesterday and both were free of bad marks... Amazing, for Max 'cos he managed to do as little work as possible and still get enough points to keep him out of the picture of his mentor - wish i had that knack twenty-five years ago... His social life is pretty well developed, his music keeps on developing and he still gets good grades...
Otto has managed to get to grips with secondary school already, figured out how to deal with the more tedious elements (farmers' sons who only know about tractors and find vegetarian, long haired boys from England just a little too much to cope with, at first) and his dyslexia and find his place there, just like he used to at the Steiner School. Impressive, in my eyes... But then, I'm only just coming to terms with the world and my place in it...

The little ones have one more week of loads of activities, goodbyes (to Year 6) and moving on - Polly will be going to year 1 and it won't be a day too soon. The other day, she and her peers were allowed to try out the chairs and tables, see what it's like to sit there and have some sort of idea of what will be coming in 7 weeks time, when 23 of them will be jumping over the rose-stick into the classroom (Steiner tradition) and real learning shall commence... See how long this enthusiasm carries on... I'm stocking up my tissues for the inevitable sniffing that will happen on Tuesday 8th September..... As soon as the singing starts... You'd think, after 3 of them doing the jump, I'd be used to it, but, as I cried when Max left, and sobbed when Otto did, to the tune of the song 'In the quest of the holy grail', I will when it's Felix turn, and there will be no letting off when Polly does her final jump, in 6 years time... It goes with life in a school like theirs...

And i do envy them in that sense... Having that kind of meaningful schooling, which does get a little hard going sometimes, but on the whole it's so much more pleasant and helpful, especially when the rest of our lives are lived trying to move away from meaningless junk and empty gestures... We can but try... Spent all morning painting one of the classrooms in a specific fashion, layering thin, watery blue paint, and learning about Steiner's colour theories, which proved very enjoyable and educational. Also it was a great deal of simple fun... Their school is proving my school as well...

Nice...

'In the quest of the holy grail
we wander from land to land
in our duty we shall not fail
'cos in gods light we stand...'