Generally speaking, Swedish kids spend far fewer hours in the classroom than their American counterparts. While all-day kindergarten is the norm these days in the States (or so I hear), kindergarteners here are in school for only 18 hours per week. Different schools use different schedules, but here in our little town, Petra and her classmates have school Monday through Thursday, from 8:30 to 1:00. In first and second grades the schedule is pretty much the same, except that Friday is added to the school week and they finish at 1:10 instead of on the hour.

It’s not until third grade — the grade Tage is in now — that the kids have what I would call a “full day” at school, and that’s only two days per week. On Monday and Tuesday, he has school from 8:30 to 2:50, and let me tell you, we feel every one of those extra one hundred minutes; I think it’s as much an adjustment for me as it is for my boy. It just feels like such a long, long time for him to be gone and he comes home worn out and ravenous and anything but eager to go back again tomorrow. I know he’ll get used to it, eventually, and I know I will, too, but for now I’m not really a fan.