First day of school

I should really let the girls write this post.  But I do want to comment on their schedules.  S goes to school from 8:10 until 3:20 most days.  Except for Wednesday which is a half day that starts an hour early and Thursday when she goes to the local pool at 8:10 for swimming and comes home an hour late.  They do not learn math every day, but they have time for three hours of home ec/shop every Monday morning.  Also, she comes home every day for lunch for an hour and a half.  That's kind of nice for us, but not for parents of little kids who have to walk their kids to and from school four times a day.  For someone who lives 20 minutes away that would be more than two and a half hours a day walking, and in such a way going to work would be impossible.

R's schedule is crazier.  First, she had to skip into eighth grade in order to find a place in a school.  In eighth grade here the kids do not move from class to class.  Rather, the class stays together and different teachers come in for different subjects.  R is not required to take Latin or English so there are gaps in her day in addition to the usual weird gaps her class has.  I hope she can use them to focus on languages (she is three years behind in French in addition to not speaking German) and keep up with her math class at home.  R starts school at 7:35 everyday, except for Friday which is later.  She has to leave the house at 6:45 to catch the train to Zurich.  School ends at 4:40 on Monday, 3:45 on Tuesday, 11:15 on Wednesday, and 5:30 on Thursdays and Fridays.  She will get out earlier on Thursdays and/or Fridays if she does not sign up for FF classes which have described to her as extra curriculars and sports.  In that case she could get out at 2:50 and 1:05 on those days. If she does Friday FF she would have a 3 hour lunch/study break before FF.  So it seems like aside from the optional FF classes, her class gets 2 half days a week.  How do they learn enough in that amount of time?  In summary, R gets 3 full days and 2 half days of instruction during which she has a 1 or 2 hour open campus lunch break and doesn't take 2 of the scheduled classes.  It's hard to understand and accept. It's just as well she will be in eighth grade again next year.