Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark visit New York

Prince Frederik, 39, and Princess Mary of Denmark, 35, took their daughter, Princess Isabella, 5 months, with them on a official visit to New York. While visiting the Big Apple, Mary took time out to visit with a group of nursery schoolers and delighted them with a story-telling session.

During her visit Mary was asked by reporters whether she wants more children of her own. Answering in Danish, she replied that she did, but did not state exactly how many.

Prince Christian, 23 months, remained behind at home to keep up his studies at nursery school.

Source: Hello Magazine

Comments

What “studies” could a 23 month old possibly have?

- aimee on September 19th, 2007

ITA,aimee!! I mean I know things are different from here in the States but still…

- Deb on September 19th, 2007

LOL I was going to say the same thing Aimee, 23 month olds really don’t have the attention span to ‘study’ anything for longer than 5-10 mins ! It’s basically childcare at that age, unless they are toilet training him LOL

- Kim on September 19th, 2007

From what I’ve heard, children from Europe and other foreign countries such as Denmark (embarassingly enough, I can’t remember whether Denmark is techincally part of Europe or not) tend to begin Preschool quite a bit earlier than most American kids.

- Annoyomus on September 19th, 2007

Denmark is a part of Europe And Prince Christian is just in daycare, playing with other kids, learning social skills and such. We don’t really have “preschool” in Denmark, there’s daycare for kids until age 5-7, then they start school where the first year is an easy transition into going to school, the second year is first grade, and so on. Only a few private schools in Denmark have precschool, I think they accept kids as young as 3 years old.

- Marie on September 19th, 2007

by the way neither parents said the reason was so christian could keep up with his studies. It has been said he would be more omfortable at home in his house and is being babysat by his grandparents and they thought the jetlag would be too much for such a short strip.

- ashleigh on September 20th, 2007

Actually, kids start in school earlier in USA than in Denmark, about a year earlier.

Like Marie said, Christian is just in day care. When he’s 4 he will start in kindergarden and when he’s 6 he will start in what we call kindergarden class, a mixture of kindergarden and school, but mostly kindergarden, but it’s usually part of the school building, so they get used to the school. He then starts 1st grade when he’s 7, about a year later than American kids.

Some parents do decide that their kids should either skip the kindergarden class or that they should start it when they are 5, so they are only 6 when they start 1st grade. It may not always be a good idea, especially with boys, but I guess the parents can’t see that. They won’t be as mature as their peers.

Christian’s cousin Nikolai started in 1st grade a year early when he was 6, which several child psycologists critized.

The ages mentioned here are just generel, it of course depends on when the child is born in the year. Here the cutoff between grades is New Year and not during the Summer as in most places in USA. As an example, all kids born in 1998 go in the same grade, whereas it’s kids born in fall 1998/sping 1999 that go in the same grade in most of USA.

- Majbritt on September 20th, 2007

In Sweden most children start preschool when they are 1 year old. And yes Denmark is in Europe

- Marie on September 20th, 2007

Actually Majbritt, the children in the US are typically divided by calendar year as well. A few states may cut off in September, but my son born in February 2000 is in a class with other children born in 2000. There may be a couple late year 1999 stragglers, but that is parental choice in our state.

I’m sure Christian is much happier at home in nursery school, rather than trekking to NY for a few days. Getting both our kids to Denmmark and back (from NY!) is always a production.

But speaking of Mary, I think it’s sweet that she responded in Danish to questions – it’s also a good way to stave off pushy interviewers .

- kate on September 20th, 2007

Kate, okay, I can imagine it’s different from state to state and area to area. It was devided in the summer in the part of NJ where I once lived and worked as a nanny.

I’m sure they just wanted to spare him the plane trip or maybe he had a fun day trip to the zoo they didn’t want him to miss.

- Majbritt on September 20th, 2007

In Australia a lot of kids go to preschool/daycare (pretty much the same thing) but its not really something expected of them. Some preschools/daycare only accept 2 year old +, no babies as its a specialist area. And you can go to kindergarten (first year of ‘big’ school’) if you turn 5 by the August (I think) of that year. I was 4 in the January when I started kindy then turned 5 in the April. But it’s definitely not a thing you need to do, most send kids to daycare/preschool because they work and need childcare and some send them the year before kindy to get kids used to some routine/learning/socialisation.

- Kim on September 20th, 2007