It’s certainly common. It’s funny really, the comparison. Everywhere else in the world, languages are valued and in many cases, including Germany, it’s mandated that they learn other languages. My x-wife spoke 5 fluent languages including Russian, French, German, English and Spanish. And here in the US…Americans have problems with JUST English!
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In the Netherlands English is mandatory in all levels of high school (there are three different levels) and depending on the level you have to learn one or two additional languages (often German and/or French).
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I also loved how, at least in my x-wife’s case, she was in “class” with her same group of people from kindergarten all the way through her graduation (12 or 13 years). They don’t switch classes like we do here in the US…each class with different people. They do all classes together as a group all the way up…so they really do have life-long friends (and potentially enemies) after spending so much time together!
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I would absolutely hate that 
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I would have loved it. I’ve never been one (believe it or not) to like big groups. I much prefer small settings and knowing fewer people. I’ve found the fewer people I know, the fewer problems I have (that includes family, too).
@Michel, Ich habe in der Schule russisch gelernt. Heute kann ich selbst das kyrillische Alphabet nicht mehr lesen.
Für die lange Zeit sprichst du wieder sehr gut deutsch!
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Dutch elementary school do that too. At age 4 they put you in a group of 20-30 pupils and often you stay with that group till the end of elementary school. Not always though, larger school sometimes reshuffle the groups during the first years. Small schools usually have only one age group, so they can’t change anything.
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seeing all the people I went to elementary school with on Facebook makes me very glad that we switch things up a bit more in the US.
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Believe it or not, I actually have an x-sister-in-law who still goes to her “Kindergarden reunion”…apparently that’s a thing. Most of them went on and didn’t ever interact with each other during elementary, middle or high school but she goes to this thing faithfully for some reason…I don’t get it. I don’t remember anyone from K-11 except those gf’s that really stood out.
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Hi everyone! I’m the mom of a T1. Just invited to join your forum by my long time friend @Irish. Oddly enough were friends for years before D entered either of our lives.
I live in North Carolina with my husband, five sons, one large ever-shedding black Labrador and three gerbils, since we seem to be accounting for all household creatures here. Yes, in case you were wondering, my house IS a mess! My oldest was diagnosed with T1 2.5 years ago at age 11 after several months of symptoms and an ICU admission for DKA – will put a fuller story on the story thread at some point. We are on an omnipod and a dexcom 5, and are navigating sports and puberty with a kiddo who alternates between playing soccer, running track (wow, those are SO not the same from a metabolic standpoint!), being crazy active and lying in bed for 12 hours imitating a slug. So a typical teenage boy, haha! We’re committed to making sure that D forms, but doesn’t define us, and I think we do ok most days. Looking forward to learning from all the smart and adventurous people I see here.
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Welcome Katie, and we are excited to learn from you as well. My son was diagnosed at 12 almost 2 years ago and also does some sports that are really different metabolically speaking (baseball and cross country). Those 5k’s really drive up the bg. Also @Michel has a son @Kaelan who does a bunch of sports and is in the same age range.
Thanks for joining!
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Hi @katiereeder! I was in the process of replying to your other post when I saw this one It is great to see the parent of another teen join – since we are all already outnumbered at home (one teen will do that!), our only way to fight back is to work together
We have a large ever-shedding Hovawart and three cats (plus whatever the cats bring home…)
We are all sharing the same issues: my son swims, plays volleyball and soccer, and runs (less than @Chris’s son). We are also aware of the slug pattern.
You are so lucky. @Irish is THE BEST!
So glad you joined us: I am really looking forward to your posts!
So was mine, 1.5 years ago. I am very glad to see you join us, welcome!
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Welcome @katiereeder! Quite a few parents here with teen T1 children so there is a wealth of information to go around! And, for those of us with T1 toddlers (my son is 3, diagnosed 1.5 years ago), we are learning from you guys as well so that we’re armed when we reach that stage!
Very nice to have you and I look forward to interacting with you in the years to come!
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I am so excited to see you on the forum, @katiereeder! What she didn’t mention is that she’s one of the most brilliant minds I know! She will be a welcome addition to us. So glad to see you here, especially since I can’t “see” you regularly back east! Katie helped me survive my gestational pregnancy, so there’s also that. I could not have made it without her wisdom throughout.
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That is really interesting, so a 5k drives his BG up? My son only runs sprint events 100m-400m so he tends to go somewhat high during meets, adrenaline etc, but soccer requires a temp basal or uncovered carbs during, and gives late lows that can go several hours post. I would have guessed distance running was more aerobic like soccer but maybe not huh? Practice vs meets/games gives us different results also.
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Yes, you are exactly right. Believe it or not a 5k is like a sprint. In a meet they are running very hard for 16 - 25 minutes. So they use the glycogen and spike. My son has now started (thanks to @Eric) taking insulin right before the race starts, and his last race (yesterday) he kept the spike to 130, where a few races prior he hit 350.
For soccer, we would reduce his basal, and feed him when needed.
For cross country most of the training runs are aerobic, so for those we just use a lower temp basal. Then when they do speed workouts, he gives insulin before the workout.
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That is so awesome! Post on that when you can! Would love to hear about it.
Nice job, Cody!
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