Today, Jay and Ben started kindergarten! "In Germany, kindergarten is preschool. The elementary schools start in first grade and go through fourth. Kindergarten is not academic in terms of learning to read or write. Jay will be going to German first grade in the fall of 2015 so kindergarten is essential for him to learn German before he starts school. Ben will attend first grade when he is 6 as well and in the meantime, he'll be learning German at kindergarten, too! Because Jay is going to the Grundschule next year, he has a practice day once per week on Wednesdays (with all of the other 5-6 year olds) in order to prepare him."
"We can ride our bikes to school if we want to. Today it's rainy so we're gonna walk," reported Ben.
"We ate breakfast at kindergarten!" said Ben. In the mornings between 7 and 8:45, the children have brotzeit, or bread time. Jay and Ben both wanted to eat at school with the other children instead of eating at home.
"Here [in Germany], the mother is usually asked to stay with the children at kindergarten for a week or maybe two, depending on how old the child is. At the krippe, where the children are very young, it is sometimes 4 weeks of staying there with the child. I think the teachers at the kindergarten will be okay with you only staying for 3 or 4 days since your boys are older. You can talk with them about your goals and they will work with you. Jay and Ben will do fine, I'm sure," said Ms. Mia*, the Cronins' German tutor. Karen was at the kindergarten with all 3 boys for about two and a half hours today. Tomorrow, she plans to arrive earlier so that they will have more time to play with other children before Kreiszeit, circle time.
Jay struggled because he really wanted to be with Ben and he wanted to play legos but didn't have time before Kreiszeit. Jay and Ben can play in any room together or apart for the first part of the day, but the children split up by age for Kreiszeit. "I'm just glad he was upset about something that's easy to fix - we'll arrive earlier than we did today (and we'll know what we're doing) and they'll have much more time to play together and apart," said Karen. "Ms. Lisa* sat by him and helped him calm down while I was with Ben. The teachers here are really caring, of course, and I felt very encouraged to see her taking care of Jay," said Karen with a tear in her eye. It was obviously not the easiest day for her, either!
Great to hear the boys are doing good on the big day. So how is Zan ( and Mom and Dad) doing?
ReplyDeleteYou all are brave to start a new school. New stuff is hard and I can see how strong and brave the Cronin kids (and Mom) are being. God will continue to give you what you need!
ReplyDelete