Sportferien

Sportferien passes, seeing us in Austria for a week with friends, which is fantastic. Almost too much snow – if that’s possible. The transition between last year, when the boys were terrified of ski school and were dragged there almost kicking and screaming every day (very relaxing, I must say) because “we don’t understand German” and this year, when they leap out of bed and can’t wait to get started every day, is remarkable. Of course it helps that we are on holiday with their best chums, but they are not in the same ski school groups together. They are no longer frightened of an “all German” situation. And in any case, all the ski instructors speak English. In fact at one point J lapses into Schweizerdeutsch, to his Austrian ski instructor’s utter confusion.

The second week of sportferien sees an argument with J about his German homework for the holidays. He’s convinced it’s a huge piece of work. However, we break it down into small steps and all of a sudden, it’s finished, and he is no longer in an argumentative mood about it. Funny, that.