In this fun back to school Parent Busters BUSTING BACK episode, Jackie and Ella tackle what first day of school is like all over the world (including what back to homeschool is like!).
Ever wonder why Japanese students start their school year in April or what's the history behind the hard-sided randoseru backpack?
Curious about the schultute tradition in Germany or the unique cargo bikes used in Holland?
Did you know that back to school in Russia includes The Day of Knowledge, which is their unique back-to-school ritual.
We cover this and more like the school traditions of Italy, India, and Vietnam — including Italian smocks, the Indian admission day, and the exciting Vietnamese celebrations marking the start of school, the importance of school uniforms in India and the delightful tiffin lunch box tradition.
From the American shopping frenzy for new clothes and shoes to the homeschoolers' unique first-day experiences, we have so many interesting ways kids celebrate first day of school in countries all over the globe!
Grab your free Buster Deduction sheet for kids!
Check out how your can support our LISTEN FOR CAUSE to help us give back to others!
*All resources and references used in researching this podcast episode are found on the corresponding episode post on ParentBusters.com.
In this fun back to school Parent Busters BUSTING BACK episode, Jackie and Ella tackle what first day of school is like all over the world (including what back to homeschool is like!).
Ever wonder why Japanese students start their school year in April or what's the history behind the hard-sided randoseru backpack?
Curious about the schultute tradition in Germany or the unique cargo bikes used in Holland?
Did you know that back to school in Russia includes The Day of Knowledge, which is their unique back-to-school ritual.
We cover this and more like the school traditions of Italy, India, and Vietnam — including Italian smocks, the Indian admission day, and the exciting Vietnamese celebrations marking the start of school, the importance of school uniforms in India and the delightful tiffin lunch box tradition.
From the American shopping frenzy for new clothes and shoes to the homeschoolers' unique first-day experiences, we have so many interesting ways kids celebrate first day of school in countries all over the globe!
Grab your free Buster Deduction sheet for kids!
Check out how your can support our LISTEN FOR CAUSE to help us give back to others!
*All resources and references used in researching this podcast episode are found on the corresponding episode post on ParentBusters.com.
Hey guys, welcome to Parent Pusters, a fun podcast where parents and kids can learn together. I'm Ella, I'm here with my mom, jackie, and you know what time of year it is it's back to school time, yay, okay, I'm just pretending to be sad because I know most people don't like back school, but I like learning. So, yeah, but you know what's even more fun than getting back to learning? What Learning about back to school traditions from around the world.
Speaker 2:I feel like you're really passive, aggressive today, like it's back to school, but it's really back to school, yeah. I feel like there's some I don't know something going on today.
Speaker 1:Should we talk about it? Two truths and a lie, yeah let's do that.
Speaker 2:Okay, you ready? Yes Phase hold for a very important message. In Japan, bringing lunch to school on the first day is considered bad luck. In Holland, most kids are taken to their first day of school on bikes. In Germany, the first day of school is a Saturday. What, what Are you crazy? That's the truth. Hey, you know what I thought we would do before we got into, like, what goes on in other countries. Do you want to cover? We do have people from other countries that listen to our podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening. Yeah, cool, I thought that it would be interesting just to kind of talk about what first day of school is like in the United States. So in the United States the first day of school is a big deal, and before school starts you get a school supply list from your school.
Speaker 1:We Home School, so we just buy what we want, but if you go to yes, I'm just going to start here and nod when we go to public or private school.
Speaker 2:here you get a back to school list from the school or the classroom and it tells you what you need. You have to buy specific things specific kinds of pencils, specific kind of folders that are on that list and then you often also have to buy additional school supplies for the classroom. Sadly, in the United States and I don't know if it's like this in other countries, but we don't pay our teachers very well, which is sad, and they have to buy all of their own classroom supplies. So often they'll put extra things like tissues, hand sanitizer, extra pencils, things like that on the classroom school supply list that parents also purchase for the teacher in the classroom.
Speaker 2:Another thing that people do for back to school in the United States is getting new clothes and new shoes is a big deal. So every year you take your kids back to school shopping. You get them new clothes, you get them new shoes. They get generally they get a new backpack. They might even get a new lunch bag, although not everyone takes their lunch to school here. So along with getting school supplies, it's kind of a big back to school shopping is a huge deal here. Another thing that they do we do in the United States. That probably isn't just in the United States, but we do back to school signs where you can just print one off from the internet and it tells what grade the kid is in and you do a first day of school picture holding the sign that says I'm in, I'm a freshman.
Speaker 1:First day of seventh grade.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then some First day of kindergarten.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it'll list out like on there you'll have the kid say what their favorite color is or their favorite thing, and then you take the same picture on the last day of school holding another one, and it tells you know, you can see if their favorites have changed, you can see how they've changed and it's kind of a cool thing because it's shocking how much your kid grows in a one-year time period. Yeah, you don't see it because you're always with them. What is your first day of back to school as a homeschooler like?
Speaker 1:I wake up, Wow, I-. We usually do some pretty chill stuff. We take our little back to school picture and then we also and we're going to talk about this later have a back to school cone that. I open and I will tell you more about what that is later in the episode. Okay, so I definitely keep listening. Yep, I usually my first day pretty chill.
Speaker 2:The first week really, we do kind of a chill back to school first week.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we start in our homeschool. We start later because, we kind of do year-round homeschool really, yeah, but our official start of the next grade is after Labor Day, which is the beginning of September, and that's late for compared to like public schools.
Speaker 1:Yeah and then haha.
Speaker 2:Public schools in our area that have gone back to school at the end of July and the beginning of August. Yeah, and then I'm over here like, haha, right, right. So then we do we usually do like a recap of the summer you put together like some scrapbook or story page or pictures.
Speaker 1:I still have my first day of eighth grade little fill out thing up in the classroom. I guess we're going to have to take that down soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we just do and kind of get organized and that's how our first day of back to school, yeah, hey, do you want to talk about the first day of school in Japan? Yes, in Japan the first day of school is in April. Huh, what that's crazy. I know, that was kind of interesting to me because, I don't know, I just always think of the back to back to school in our fall Right, our fall which but in Japan it's in April. Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, in Japan kids carry their school supplies books, origami, paper and a pencil case known as a food abaco. Wow, and a special hard-sided backpack called a rendocero.
Speaker 2:Very good and you know what I have. You're going to be super impressed. What I have the correct pronunciation of some of the things we're going to talk about. No, so you did very good with rendocero. Rendocero here's how it's said in Japan. So the rendocero is a hard-sided backpack. Okay, and they're really cool. I'll try to link remember to link to a picture of them. They're awesome. Yeah, I kind of want one. Like as a person, you're super cute. Yeah, they're really cool, and you have the hard-sided backpack and how you say it in Japanese.
Speaker 3:Andocero, andocero, andocero. So how would you rate how you said rendocero?
Speaker 1:I think that is pretty good. That is a little bit of a nightmare fuel. There you go.
Speaker 2:That's how you say the hard-seiro, the hard backpack in Japan.
Speaker 1:Wow, so the word rendocero I have where it comes from Andocero. Andocero, it comes from the old Dutch word for backpack, which is rancel or rancel.
Speaker 2:Oh, huh, that's interesting that that would be the Japanese word for it. Then, yeah, on the first day of school in Japan, they bringing your lunch is considered good luck, and they bring a good luck lunch of rice, seaweed sauce and quail eggs. Wow, that's kind of awesome. Yeah, and it's considered bad Good luck. But you know what is considered bad luck? What? Wearing your shoes inside.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:You cannot wear your shoes inside. So when kids come to school their first any day of school, they can't wear their outdoor shoes. So you have to bring slippers in Japan that they wear just inside of the school.
Speaker 1:Imagine you have like your bunny slippers. I don't think that would be amazing.
Speaker 2:That would be you in Japan, because it's You're bringing germs inside and that's considered to be bad luck. Oh, and bringing that bad luck in with you. So also no, no on going barefoot yeah, so it's pretty unusual. So they have to bring slippers or they bring rubber, these rubber sandals, at home, whereas we give you our kids in the United States like Lots of clothes and not lots, but like we do, back-to-school clothes and back-to-school shoes. Yeah, the parents in Japan might gift their kid with a new desk. Yeah, you would like that more than back-to-school clothes.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, honestly, back to school. Shopping is kind of annoying, is it?
Speaker 2:shopping in general.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I find annoying now I have a little bit of Rando seru history. Oh, so the the hard backpack, the hard, hardshelled, hard-sided backpack that is very popular with school kids now and while it's been very popular for kids backpacks since the 60s, the, the Rando seru, wasn't always thought of for kids, for school kids.
Speaker 2:This is gonna be me the whole time, isn't it?
Speaker 1:I feel like I don't know what's worse, if I gave you an air horn or that We'll see next week. No, okay, continuing on what I was. Sorry, it's okay.
Speaker 2:Is it?
Speaker 1:No, it's not All right. The first round is that. Oh, I will take that fun. The first Rando set. Oh, bags were actually.
Speaker 2:Spice okay, I'm done. Oh yeah, I'm just like the third time you said you've done. I know, but I lied them this other time. I know I noticed that. Hey, start over. I'm really interested in them.
Speaker 1:Sure, okay. The first friend is said oh, bags were actually used by soldiers during the Edo period, which was 1603 to 1868, and around 1885 they started to be marketed as good school bags. And but it wasn't a few, until a few years later, when the then elementary age future emperor say what Tisha right Was gifted one, and then it started to get widespread popularity. Wow and then by the 60s, rando said, oh, bags were considered a normal school bag and Now, it's just like the standard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just a normal thing for kids to have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, let's move on to what about Holland? Do you know anything about Holland? I didn't fail in Holland. I don't have a lot, but One of the things I that I did found huh, that I did find interesting.
Speaker 1:I did found is.
Speaker 2:The parents. So there are these cargo by bikes, and in Dutch they are called, I think. I mean, can you just be impressed that I prepared ahead of time this job in Holland? The back feet in their cargo bikes, and they are. So imagine a bicycle. And then in front of the handlebars, imagine like a big kind of like a triangle, almost oh Huh, seat basket, and then the the one wheel is on the Point of that basket and it's a seat for the kids to. Yeah, so that's almost how everyone brings their kids to school. That sounds awesome, I. That sounds way better than the back to school lines that I see my friends post about when Taking their kids and sitting, and not those really long back to school lines benefit
Speaker 1:of homeschooling and Welcome to Ellen. Jackie. Talk about homeschooling. It's cool.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just saying a benefit of homeschooling. No, bad nose, drop-off school lines, that's true because I, my cousin, just posted one a few days ago and I was terrified. I was like I yeah, you could, you could write a back back fee.
Speaker 1:I forgot. I think you need to play the recording. Okay pizza oh.
Speaker 2:Back feet, back feet so look pizza, yes, we got it. So that's, that's the cargo bike. Yeah, look what now today we're gonna be like a Quatraling wool. Oh, maybe more.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Oh, so that's what I have for a quarter for Holland. I know that you have something For back to school in Germany and I didn't get to ask our friends who live in Germany, but I do know one thing that they have in Germany is we mentioned earlier the back to school cone, which has been used for over 200 years, and the actual word for it is Sure to the show, to the show, to the show to the Means a back to school cone, and it's also known as so car to te.
Speaker 1:Wow, I'm correct. I don't know which is sugar bag.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, I like that so much better than back to school cone.
Speaker 1:I know, but show today which one do you like better?
Speaker 2:I like sugar bag, sugar bag, but I like shul tutae.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:So it's this Cardboard cone, like, imagine, an ice cream cone, but very large, like as big as your body, like as tall as a, like a little first grader, kindergartners and they are brightly decorated most of the times and filled with little gifts or candy or Whatever.
Speaker 1:Mine usually has books in it, because I'm that kind of person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, traditionally. My friend who lives in dirt, who is German and they live back in Germany now she told me that it's generally only done, done for like the little kids, so like the first day of school, for like kindergarten or first graders, and it's school supplies and like some chocolates and that's generally it. Well, we have a dog. We adopted the this tradition after our friends told us about it and We've done it for years now for Ella, and I'll put in our post over on parentbusterscom I'll put some pictures of the ones we made for Ella. So every every year I make a different one and she doesn't know what the theme is gonna be. No, one year it was a big ice cream cone, because she loves ice cream one year it was like pink and zebra.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one year it was minecraft, minecraft. One year it was urban art and Jazz, your favorites like. So my, that was last year.
Speaker 2:Right, that was last year's, which, yeah, I, I struggled to throw that one away, but inside of ours we just put I just put a bunch of different things that Ella likes. So not only is it just is it school supplies and snacks that she likes, but they're books. They're books that she's wanted.
Speaker 1:She's done games before. Yeah which was awesome.
Speaker 2:It's just like a. She usually gets like t-shirt in there for the school year. What's last?
Speaker 1:year. The cat with the. I don't want to do anything. You know I have black shirt with a cat like oh yeah it's like, yeah, today, that's it.
Speaker 2:So that's one of our back-to-school traditions here in our house is that Ella gets her shultut and she opens it up, and then there are things, there are cool things, and there she always wants to, you know, like maybe stuff for drawing. So we let her spend some of her first day doing that also.
Speaker 1:Wow, and the back-to-school cone actually started as a paper bag filled with dried fruit oh, I'd still take that right and and Just kind of evolved into a cone. And during wartime, sometimes the cones were filled with potatoes, oh, and sometimes they weren't filled with anything and the cone was the cone was the gift, oh, huh, the decorated cone, yeah. And so you might wonder, because he's sound pretty important, right, as part of the tradition, yeah, tradition. Why are these so important? I don't know well. Um, the back-to-school cone represent entering a new phase of life by starting school. And Also, in post-war times, the nicer the school cone you got represent that your parents were investing in your future.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh. So if you have a parent who was to like I look, I just really don't like to do crafts, it has nothing to do with you, then, well, good for you, because you can buy them. Yes, now you can buy them, but I think most people still make them, but I know yeah. I've seen them on Etsy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people manufacture them. Some have like lights or sounds and I don't know how that's going on.
Speaker 2:Wow, you're not getting that, by the way, cuz that's okay with me.
Speaker 1:I like I'll take my bank. See cone yes, and Historically, different parts of Germany actually had different shaped cone.
Speaker 2:Well, a cone is a cone. How can it be a different shaped cone? Wow, oh See, did they call them something different.
Speaker 1:Now, they had different shapes that were also cones, so a square cone, I mean, okay, that's just a square, okay.
Speaker 2:After.
Speaker 1:World War two, that's a bag. After World War two, west Germany's cones were more round and East Germany's were more angular. Huh, what's that all about? I have zero idea. Yeah, there was no explanation.
Speaker 2:I'll see if I can find a little bit more on that.
Speaker 1:That is interesting though right, like how cool is that? Well, it's unusual. I also read a Story that a woman, I think, said that was going in the college her grandma figured out how to fit a school comb perfectly in her suitcase. Oh, measurements.
Speaker 2:Or she gave her grandma and it was the cutest thing and I was like I know I feel like if you go away to college I'm gonna still been sending you like a school comb.
Speaker 1:It's so cute.
Speaker 2:I like that idea. What's the best? What about Russia?
Speaker 1:Oh Well, I have a little bit on Russia. Okay, let's hear it. Well, the first day back to school, september 1st, is called the day of knowledge.
Speaker 2:I love it and from here on out the first day of back to school here is called day of knowledge. Yes, I like it's. It's only one day of knowledge. The rest is a knowledge.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, you don't learn anything after you, like the first day you know. But yeah, whatever. On the day of knowledge, kids give large bouquets of flowers to their teachers and in return they get balloons. I mean, worth it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I read that that only happens with the first year students, so like their sense. Yeah, coming in the first year, you give your teachers big bouquets of flowers.
Speaker 1:I'm all about that right, and the most popular flower is actually the red sword Lily, which looks really pretty, oh.
Speaker 2:I don't know what that looks like, but I'll look it up and then I'll also link to it on our Website post page or our episode page from.
Speaker 1:I remember it's like you know how high biscuits flowers Are she?
Speaker 2:yeah, it looks like that, but in like a bunch of them in a cone, If I'm remembering correctly that's how I have to add a link in Russia they also get the parents and Kids all form a crowd outside and take School photos back to school photos, oh, cool. And then one of the things that I thought was really cool was that they use Huh as it. Sorry, since I have my recordings. My Terminology recordings on my phone is on, so you're getting all of my alerts.
Speaker 1:Oh, sorry about that.
Speaker 2:Oh, one of the things I thought was cool is for back to school they decorate with white ribbon and it's tradition to braid White ribbon into the young girls hair, or you know. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, put them in their hair. Yes, I love that. I do too.
Speaker 2:What about Schools in Indonesia. Lay it on me schools in Indonesia. I Love this idea. In the US you usually go to school the first day at like a public or private school and you start getting right into your lessons on the first day. We don't do that for homeschooling, we ease into it, ha ha. But like it's not unusual for us students to come home on their first day and have some homework.
Speaker 1:I'm exhausted yeah.
Speaker 2:In Indonesia and I love this idea is they split the students into groups the first day and they do Back to school get to know your classmates activities. So before they even do any kind of learning they spend time kind of creating like a team atmosphere and getting to know each other.
Speaker 1:That sounds awesome.
Speaker 2:It also happens in Saudi Arabia. They have they're back to school isn't just one day. They have a few days of celebrations and they it's Huge. So they're huge celebrations, days of huge celebrations with food, and they're made for the kids to get to know each other. Yes, isn't this a great idea?
Speaker 1:like why do this?
Speaker 2:Why hasn't the US picked up on that? Even just to like to get your note, to know your teacher more in a casual environment. What the heck? That's awesome. You're your classmates more in a casual environment. I love that idea. What about Italy? Oh, do you know anything about Italy? Oh, no, no, italian Kids wouldn't what would be our elementary school go to. So instead of shopping for the back-to-school clothes that we would shop for in the US which, yeah, are usually like trendy clothes that you would wear, yeah, teens- and I'm just like give me a few shirts, I'm all right.
Speaker 2:They Italian kids go shopping for something called a back-to-school smock or a work smock. Oh, and it is called.
Speaker 1:Get him, do they?
Speaker 2:yeah, that sounds like it they are worn by the kids over there Um clothes in primary school. So think, think of it a bit more like have you ever worn like an art smock? Yeah or like an apron for art class. Oh yeah, it's kind of like that.
Speaker 1:So Pockets huh.
Speaker 2:I hope so.
Speaker 2:I'll be all right I suck if it didn't yeah, I will try to link to pictures of all these things over on our website, so make sure you seek out the episode post over on our website. Um, so in Italy they they wear these in primary school, which is like our elementary school, and the boys In kindergarten. The boys wear blue and white checked smocks and the girls wear pink and red check Wow. And then after first grade there they all wear deep blue. Oh, you can purchase them in stores. They're a back-to-school thing and it's become popular now that you you get them personalized or they're like some crazy prints, so they're all wearing the same smock. So how do you know what? What kids go where, like what, what grade they're in, where they wear a specific color of ribbon To indicate what grade there? Yeah, color coded grading so that they know up you're in first grade, you're in second grade.
Speaker 1:What about down the rainbow?
Speaker 2:what about in Italy? I mean in India.
Speaker 1:We just Italy once again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what about in India?
Speaker 1:Oh, I have things, and I have something that I couldn't find the pronunciation for the admission day, which is in Hindi. Provision of Subam.
Speaker 2:I feel like we need to listen it out. Pravesh notes seven. Prevision out some of them, and that's how you say it in Hindi, apparently.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I Am so sorry.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're sorry if you live in India and you speak Hindi, we suck. What can we say? The mid, the admission day.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's also called the admission day, which is what I'm gonna go by Starts the school year around May or June. Oh yeah, which is worse? April or May slash.
Speaker 2:April.
Speaker 1:April. Yes and on this day, gifts are exchanged and a common one is an umbrella. Do you know why? I do why, they're, during that time, select may, june, july is their monsoon season which the summer monsoon season causes a lot of heavy rainfall in India.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that would make sense, that you would get a fun back to school umbrella. I kind of one, and I'm back to school umbrella and I'm not a student, nor do I live in India.
Speaker 1:Isn't there the one that's like green and has little frog eyes?
Speaker 2:I know they have an animal crossing to have that umbrella.
Speaker 1:Oh, I had a ladybug one right, it was right and like a black front and little eyes, and also cute.
Speaker 2:In. In Vietnam, the first day of school is September 5th and it's a national celebration, and they have all these colorful ceremonies. And I feel like you would love to be back to school in Vietnam, because not only are the ceremonies really colorful, they have all of these artistic performances by the students and the teachers. Oh, it's, it's a national day of celebration.
Speaker 1:I actually have more stuff on India.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sorry it's okay, I'm school. Uniforms are pretty important in India, and boys uniforms are usually made out of light colored shirt, dark colored pants, and then the girls are like shirt and skirt. Many schools also require kids to wear ties or T ID cards or keep their hair either short or an a braid. Huh huh. And then I have another round of said like A tangent have you heard of a tiffin box? Say what. Well, kids often use tiffin boxes, a special type of sectioned, tiered metal lunchbox to carry their lunches in.
Speaker 2:I want one of those.
Speaker 1:I know they look really cool. You should look them up. Is it section like a bento box? No, they're stacked on top of each other so it's like each one is a bowl, and they're also used for food delivery. But typically dry foods go in the bottom, then curries go in the middle, then dry curries and other kinds of food go in the top and they kind of clamp together. Wow, and they're metal. They keep warm and they're bowls too. Like you can use them as bowls, do you eat?
Speaker 2:out, right out of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I have a quote here from the S S C M P dot com.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Many believe the first tiffin boxes were invented to carry food from the temples without spilling. They were probably also inspired by the food servers and train stations who carried stacked food boxes. Oh, and, something interesting about tiffin is it also refers to a light snack typically eaten between lunch and dinner in South India and any portable snack you can have from a box in North India. Huh Huh, tiffin came from the English term tiffing. What mean? To take a sip of diluted liquor.
Speaker 2:Say what I'm not. I'm dead serious. That was unexpected right.
Speaker 1:When the English came to India they had to kind of just and they ended up stopping having big lunches and said, moved towards smaller lunches, snacks and tea. Huh, between lunch and dinner and soon the term tiffin was used for that light snack, tea time Wow.
Speaker 2:Wow, I've never heard of it.
Speaker 1:Right when I was researching, I was like, what is this thing? I can go down a rabbit hole for, yay, okay, that's it, I'm out of here. Bye, see you later.
Speaker 2:Do you know why students don't like a librarian? I'm back. What Do you know why students don't like a librarian? Why, because she's very dishonest. Failed. Why, why, why, why, why, why? Do you know why people love math teachers? Um, why? Because they solve problems.
Speaker 1:I'd really like to subtract that pun from this hey.
Speaker 2:I have something about France. Um, in France, the word for back to school. You'll be shocked to know that I Now you say La Rentre. La Rentre.
Speaker 1:La Rentre? Yeah, that means back to school. No, it doesn't even attempt.
Speaker 2:The end of the school year is in June, and then the very prepared French teachers give the children's, the parents, the child's next school year list of items required for the following year. Yay, so you already know. At the end of the school year in June, we're going to need seven new pencils.
Speaker 1:Don't ask me why.
Speaker 2:So then, toward the end of July and August, the local stores start to get stocked up with standard school stationery and bags and required things for back to school kind of like here, and the local book shops also stock all the school supplies, what, yes, and there is a special diary that they get to write down what all their homework is.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like you're. You could be French, for you want to be, you want to buy your book supplies from the bookstore and have a special diary, and then I also feel like you would love to be in Vietnam with all the celebrations go.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:They're colorful Cerebronies and all their artistic performances and things like that.
Speaker 1:Heck yeah. What else do you have? I have facts that are either things I didn't I forgot to say, or things that didn't fit into a specific category All right so let's do that. Let's hear them. I don't think I said this out. I don't remember if I did so. Correct me if I did. Oh, I will. Okay. Wow, yeah, the first day in Germany, the first day or the enrollment day, and I'm going to try this. Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm sure our German friend will be sending me a message. She'll come after me.
Speaker 1:She'll come after me. Happens on a Saturday. Yeah, you said that one. I did. I know we'd send the teachers some lies, so I knew I had to get it in.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, maybe you did it. I don't think I said it. Okay, so in Germany the first day of school is a Saturday, yep.
Speaker 1:That is that Moving on. Wow, in Russia homework isn't graded from like an A to F scale like it is in the US. Huh, their homework is graded from a one to five.
Speaker 2:One being the worst.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, five is the highest and technically, two is the worst, huh.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:And I don't know exactly what this means. I couldn't figure out.
Speaker 2:Like if you get a one, just don't come back to school.
Speaker 1:I put it in as a quote because I wasn't sure I might need help deciphering what this means. Uh-huh, and a quote from understandrushacom. One is used more to express his or her emotions. The teacher, huh.
Speaker 2:What does that mean? I don't know. I'll have to ask someone in Russia. If you are Russian and you know what this means, let us know. Yeah, Seriously let us know, because I had no idea what that meant. No, I don't know either?
Speaker 1:Did I just not like the student?
Speaker 2:If you get a one like, do you just like skulk back to your seat with your head down, like you, charlie Brown, back?
Speaker 1:No, kindergarten originated in Germany the concept of kindergarten and the word and the first US kindergarten were opened by German immigrants. Oh, do you know when? Uh, no, it was not specified. Also, the back to school cones are a German thing and an Austrian thing. Uh, and then I have some things about US school provided lunches. Oh okay, Because you know that's not always been a thing In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Boston, Massachusetts. They were the first major US cities to try and include a school lunch program.
Speaker 2:And it surprised me about Massachusetts because that was the first state for compulsory education were in the United States.
Speaker 1:So I did not know that, wow. And then the official national school lunch program got approved in 1946. So before that they would do like penny lunches or you'd have to bring your own. Um, but there's also another thing they did. What.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. In the early 20th century a lunch program became popular in Wisconsin called the pint jar method. What's that the pint jar method is where students would bring jars of pint jars of heatable foods in the school and then on the stove they would use to heat the classroom. Uh, they had a bucket of water heating up and you would put your jar in there.
Speaker 2:This is genius.
Speaker 1:And then by the time lunch came around it would be hot and ready to eat and comfy, and better than like cold sandwiches or whatever they had. Wow, right, how cool is that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 1:And I think that's all I have.
Speaker 2:Hey, what's a which is favorite subject in school?
Speaker 1:For some reason I try to do like arithmetic, but with witches, like a witch matic, and it didn't work.
Speaker 2:Not a witch matic, no, but that's pretty funny.
Speaker 1:It's bad but it's funny, like me.
Speaker 2:Wow, a witch's favorite subject in school is spelling. Hey, let's do our two truths in a line. You want to? I'm explaining myself. Yeah, in Japan, bringing your lunch to school on the first day is bad luck that is the lie. That's the lie. Wow. In Holland most kids are taken to their first day of school on bikes.
Speaker 1:That's true, and I don't think we can. We still can't say what the bike is called. No, but I can tell you, but she can play it.
Speaker 2:I can play it. Wow, because in Dutch it is pronounced Akfiezen. Akfiezen.
Speaker 1:So kind of yourself.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 1:This is what you're doing with your life.
Speaker 2:This is my life. Wow. In Germany, the first day of school is a Saturday.
Speaker 1:Which is true, and I barely got that one in Got that one in under the wire Anything? Else you want to add for back to school? I don't think so. Everyone, good luck if you're going back to school soon, which or if you've already started.
Speaker 2:If you have a great back to school picture, tag us on Instagram or let us know on Facebook, or you know wherever.
Speaker 1:Or if you have any interesting back to school stories.
Speaker 2:Yes, that'd be fun to hear, or if you have something weird or unusual or funny on your back to school supplies list. We want to hear about that too.
Speaker 1:Or if you just want to say, hi.
Speaker 2:We'd love it if you say hi, definitely. We'd like to know that we're not just talking to the void.
Speaker 1:Yep, okay, happy back to school. Have a good day, see ya. Have a good back to school, bye.
Speaker 2:Hey, thanks for listening. If you like what we're doing here, we'd love your five star review to help us reach more families and also to let Ellen know that her homeschool research isn't going to waste.
Speaker 1:Seriously, it takes forever. But hey, if you want to check out more of our stuff, we're going to have a new episode every Tuesday and if you want to see some of the older episodes, they'll always be there. You'll just have to scroll down a little bit.
Speaker 2:Also you might not know this, but we have a free Buster deduction sheet over on our website, parentbusterscom, and actually it's an entire downloadable fun pack and it's all free and you can download it. And on the Buster deduction sheet you can follow along with every episode, write down your facts and there's a place to do two treats and a lie on it. And we also have a companion learning post called Learning After Listening For every single podcast episode we do. You can continue your learning over on parentbusterscom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so just head over there and check it out. Okay, bye Thanks.