The school day starts at 8am. The first class runs for 40 minutes, then the kids get a 10 minute break in which they are allowed to play in the corridoor outside their classrooms. During this break the kids tend to separate into two groups - the first group (mainly boys) plays loud, rough games such as running down the corridoor, then sliding along the floor into a wall, while the second group (mostly girls) crowd around someone's desk and worship whatever new toy the desk's owner has brought with them to school that day. Both groups eat snacks (chips, lollies, pretzels, biscuits, etc) while they are playing.
After the break there is another 40-minute class, followed by the morning snack break (20 minutes). During the morning snack break, the kids produce a plastic placemat and plate (or bowl) from their desk and line up in the corridoor to receive their snack. The snack is typically a large pastry or sandwich. They then bring the snack back to their desk and eat it in the classroom. Many of the kids also eat other snacks that they have in their lunchboxes.
After the morning snack break, the kids have two more classes. The first one goes for 40 minutes, but the second one is a little more flexible depending on when the kids are scheduled to have their lunch break (the time varies each day). The earliest lunch break is at 11:40am and the latest is at 1:30pm. When the time arrives for the lunch break the teacher walks the kids next door to the cafeteria in the aged care home. The kids line up and they each receive a tray loaded with a massive two or three course meal. Generally there is soup, followed by some kind of pasta or rice dish with meat, and either a bowl of accompanying vegetables (such as gherkins) or a dessert (such as preserved fruit).
For the last two weeks Daniel and I have also been getting our lunch from the cafeteria and I am not kidding when I say that they are huge. Here is a picture of one of our meals from last week:
After their 30-minute lunch break the teacher walks the kids back to school and they go straight into three more back-to-back classes. These classes go through until 3pm when the kids have a 20 minute afternoon snack break. The kids whip out their placemats and plates again and one of the serving ladies brings a tray of snacks into the classroom. The snack is generally a large sandwich filled with cream cheese and capsicum. One of the kids (or the teacher) also collects a jug of warm tea and pours a cup for each student who wants one. Most of the kids also have their own cup for this purpose. The tea is really nice - very much like the honey lemon tea that my dad makes - and I often end up drinking half the jug by myself! Luckily there is a massive urn and the tea jug can be refilled many times for each classroom. During this break many of the kids also eat other snacks from their lunchboxes - including even more sandwiches!
After the afternoon snack break there is one more class and then the kids pack up and go home at 4pm. It's a very long school day, but the numerous breaks do help to keep things moving.
One thing that really surprises me about the school schedule is the absence of a long break where the kids can just run around and play outside. Apart from the 10-minute break in the morning, the kids don't have any dedicated time allocated just for play. Although they do have some classes set aside as "freetime". Daniel and I have been given a number of different explanations as to what freetime actually is, but it seems to be an extra class that the teacher can use to do whatever they like. Many teachers seem to use these freetime classes to take the kids outside where they can run around for a while. At first this seemed like a wasted class to me, but once I realised that the kids didn't get any other outside breaks, I could see the value in spending freetime outside. This is especially true for the really young kids who are pretty rowdy by the end of the day if they haven't had a chance to expend some energy during freetime.
The other thing that really surprises me is just how much food these kids eat. My god! They seem to be eating alllllllllllll the time. Where does it all go? Our friend Christie told us that if you mug any random Hungarian on the street you are almost certain to find a sandwich. If these kids are anything to go by, I'd say she is right!
Another interesting observation is that these kids are not fussy eaters at all. They eat whatever they are given. And none of them have any food allergies. In fact, Daniel was told during his orientation program that not even peanuts are a problem over here. I think that's pretty amazing.
Anyway, I'd better finish off here - I have a class with Daniel in 30 minutes and we're planning to show the kids how to make compasses out of pins, paper, cups, water and magnets...so I need to see if I can find some pins, paper, cups, water and magnets before then!
Finally, this is a photo I took in our garden the other day of some mushrooms:
Wow, what a great entry. Loved the mushroom pic!
ReplyDelete- Daniel.
Wow love the meal, I think I might come over and get some! I suppose eating meals like that means you don't cook at night!!
ReplyDeleteIt may be that Hungarians are so fed up with people making 'hungry' puns they are ensuring they are never so.
ReplyDeleteHehehe, I used the word 'fed'.
-Rohan
Yeah, we still seem to be cooking at night. We want to practice our Hungarian recipes! Last night we cooked stuff cabbage, which was actually really nice.
ReplyDeleteHehe... fed.