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Denmark: 10 Tips for Living in Denmark:
Tip number one: have someone explain the social etiquette in Denmark and listen very carefully. Once you know the social codes, and accept them, life is a lot easier to navigate. Otherwise just keep quiet and smile and nod a lot.
Number 2: On parenting: If you are a parent, get used to the fact that 'stranger danger' is an unknown concept in Denmark. Not because it is any safer than anywhere else, but just that it is not something the children are taught. If you are overheard coaching your kids about stranger safety you will be looked at like you are utterly insane.
Number 3: when you see a very small child strapped into a baby carriage in the middle of winter screaming it's head off while the parents sit inside a cafe - this is no reason to call child protection, this is how a child 'gets a proper airing' in denmark. The habit of airing kids in prams is quite normal here, as is letting them scream to sleep.
Number 4: Whatever your stance on alcohol is, forget it, drinking is part of life here, and children are put on the booze around the age of 13, it's tradition, and you will be seen as a misfit if you don't drink.
Number 5: Do not mistake the cycle paths for sidewalk, the cyclists will not stop and will prefer to plough into you to make a point.
Number 6: Buy a lot of small 'tealight' candles. A Dane considers a home derelict without at least twelve of these flickering away and placed at strategic and artistic points, AT ALL TIMES it's cosy, and never mind the fumes.
Number 7: Alter your shopping expectations. For starters, everything here is unreasonably and greedily priced. EXTORTIONATE! Plus they have weird opening hours: weekdays it is common for most shops to open only after 10am. On Saturdays, forget about it, they are shut by 1-2pm.
Number 8: On the positive side: gift wrap everything. Most little Danish shops have a free giftwrap service at the counter. And anything can be giftwrapped. Sales assistants will cheerfully gift wrap anything sold in their boutiques (and finish with dramatic furls of ribbon in most cases), nothing too big or two small. i have had items gift wrapped that are just part of my normal shopping list, just to relieve the frustration of having to spend 10 dollars on a tube of cheap brand shampoo.
Number 9: Ship your jello ('jelly') in, they don't have it here. Actually, unless you like subsisting on a diet of cheaply produced pig meat and dairy products, ship everything.
Number 10: Get wise about the beer festivals/'holy days...as these dictate. The Danes are attached to their nordic festivals and the year is evenly punctuated with them and they flow one to the other and have nationally celebrated customs that go with them. You can't ignore them, they are the backbone of the culture. EVERYBODY, even the homeless, celebrates them in order. It's the law here. Otherwise you won't only be like a fish out of water, you will be like someone lost at sea! Knowing the dates of all the major festivals and drinking days here (like Easter and Jul, and about a score of others) will be like a liferaft.
Extra tip: when you pay a deposit on a rented property - do not, I repeat, DO NOT expect to get one kroner of it back. Even if you do not damage any part of your rented place, when you leave, the landlords will keep it all. It's the law here. If you have only lived in the place for three months, they will still take it all. You can try to take them to court for their corruption but any lawyer here will tell you that there is no point. There is a long queue of people trying to get their deposits back and rarely do they win.
Extra tip: head for the beaches and the forests - very pretty and clean.
Denmark: International School Help !:
The problem with putting an english speaking child in a state school here is that it is almost unheard of for said child to receive English tuition at the right level.
Any child who is seen as 'different' and sitting in the state school system is pretty much singled out and put in the place the local authorities deem fit. Most 'trouble kids' struggling within the Danish state school system are from multi cultural/international backgrounds. It's not a good fit.
What is normal in the state schools (and some private schools) is that such kids (with extra requirements) are 'dumbed' down and expected to attend the English classes at the level the Danish kids are at, keep their mouths shut and wait while the others learn their alphabet. It's a huge let down.
Our children were told to wait until the others caught up having been put into elementary English lessons when they were light years 'ahead'. This was not good enough for us.
So we made alternative arrangements, but not before exhausting every possibility within the normal schooling routes.
I am not surprised the International schools are booked up, especially the CIS. If cutting edge international schooled education is what you require, these schools rock! The Danish public school system is a poor second.
However, if you are intent on the daycare then you might want to look into the wide range of 'friskoler' that exist in Denmark. These are often designed for parents who have unusual tastes and wish for their children to recieve an education that is above and beyond the normal state offerings.
If you would prefer your international kids to retain something of their own culture and personalities, then the friskole system is not a bad place to put them.
Bottom line is that the only way the state school (folkeskole) system caters for international students is to 'integrate' them, and this system of integration tends not to encourage great talent or for students to advance ahead of time in English. The state school system does not have the teachers or resources to cope with kids who fall either behind or ahead, and only seems to cater for the norm..whatever that may be.
Pah!
Good luck to you.
Denmark: Homeschoolers in Denmark.:
Are there any international families reading this forum and presently homeschooling in Denmark?
Denmark: Homeschooling...last resort:
Homeschooling is legal in Denmark. It is written into the ground law ('grund løv') that parents can homeschool.
The law states that it is the parents responsibility to ensure that their children recieve a suitable education, but nowhere in the law is there any law that says the kids have to recieve this education within the four walls of a school.
There are a few families homeschooling and scattered about in Denmark, but it isn't as popular here as it is in other places (like the US or the UK) because both parents in the family here tend to work, to maintain the high standard of living so usual...plus there is a very big stigma attached to being a 'stay at home mum'.
Plenty of international families passing through Denmark choose to homeschool because the standard of education here is very different to that they may be used to, or because they were homeschooling already.
I can understand your disapointment at the international schools being full, as a family here on a short term, an international school would be quite the best choice for your kids.
If you have any other questions about homeschooling, you can ask me here, on this forum.
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