Oscar starts Kindergarten

We had hoped to enroll Oscar in the local German school in our town but the school was already full when we went to register in July.  They could have found him a spot in a different school but we didn't want to have to travel far for school so we enrolled him at the local Department of Defense school instead.  Most of his classmates have at least one parent in the military.  Maybe next year we will explore the German school again.  But for now he will remain at the DoD school.

Oscar was excited to start school.

We drove Oscar to school on the first day.  Some days he rides the bus but we are trying to minimize that (more on this in a moment).  Calvin also liked coming to Oscar's school (with his favorite hand blanket, of course).

A picture with dad.

And one with mom.

Waiting for the bell to ring.

 Oscar likes his Orioles backpack from the Junior Orioles Dugout Club.  We got a bunch of 50th anniversary pins in 2008 and I added a few of them to his backpack.

 

 
Oscar is really excited about riding the bus to school but we are less enthusiastic about this.  To understand our hesitation, you need some context.  The elementary school, middle school, and high school are all right next to each other.  Also, the high school students generally do not drive because a requirement to get a driver's license issued by the Army is an existing license from the United States (the Army license is respected by the German government; getting a license from the Germans is possible but it requires passing a much more difficult test and it is also quite expensive).  Because the high school students generally do not drive, there is no on-site student parking at the high school.  The result of all of this is that all of the students from all three schools ride the school bus if they don't have somebody driving them to school.  And since the schools are all co-located, there is only one bus for all three schools.  So Oscar (age 5) rides the bus with middle school and high school students.  Because the language on the bus leaves a lot to be desired, we have been trying to drive him to school and/or pick him up in the afternoon.