Jasper is starting first grade next week and in Germany they do a couple things differently around this process.
On the Tuesday beforehand, Jay and I attended a parents' info session where we got to meet the teachers. He'll have three teachers - one who's focus is German, one who's focus is English and an "educator" who's focus is social, cultural interactions. She can speak both languages fluently, but does most of her work in German. She will be with the kids on the playground and has time with them each day to play games to work on character building and whatnot. I'm very excited about this balance of academic and social development opportunity.
The German teacher has been at this school for a few years. The English speaking teacher is new. She grew up in South Africa then moved to the UK and Hong Kong before moving to Berlin this summer.
I don't yet know where all the kids are from though at least one is 1/2 Japanese and one little girl is German but has been living in Bahrain!
On Saturday beforehand, (Today), they have the Einschulung. This is a big ceremony where the incoming first graders all dress up and are "welcomed" into the school by the second grade class. Afterwards there is the traditional coffee and cake onsite and then many repair to a nearby park to celebrate with friends and family. It is a big deal. Also included is the Zuckertutte, a large cone that parents fill up with candy, toys and school supplies for the child. Finally there is the Schulerranze, the big backpack that will carry the pencils, books, snacks, soccer clothes and likely small woodland creatures before long.
We put this out in the library and entered the room to great fanfare after french toast breakfast.
We biked across to Wilmersdorf (15 or so minutes) on a beautiful Berlin Indian Summer day.
The ceremony was held in the auditorium of the Nelson Mandela School, and all the kids went up on stage individually when their name was called. People clapped. It was a bit like graduation in reverse. A hand-picked buddy then met each kid and accompanied them later up to a classroom when all the kids took off and left the parents to chat amongst themselves for a half hour or so. We met a couple from South Africa and connected with various others from the Elternabend session a few days ago. Overall, English is more prevalent among this group than we had at the German Kita program, which has already made us feel better about things. Here it will be much easier to get the gist of what on earth is going on, which we never really had a clue about at the Kita.
At 2pm we went upstairs to collect our kid. We then went out to Monheim, one of Berlin's oldest ice cream parlours for some sweets. "Auntie" Sylvia came over from Friederichshain on the S-Bahn, which is a long trip to Wilmersdorf. Here Jasper opened up his Zuckertutte and we read him the letters from the grandparents. He seemed quite excited and proud with all the proceedings!
Back at home, we let Cody open his Zuckertutte (you cannot give one child a Zuckertutte and withhold it for the other) then we had a quick dinner and went out to play fussball at one of the local parks that line the U-Bahn tracks leading up to the main station at Yorkstrasse.
School begins at 8am, with a 15 minute check-in with friends time beforehand. This will knock forward our morning schedule by a good hour, so this will be quite the adjustment. It is possible of course, but just requires going to be earlier for everyone. We can't really go to be early so this is where the fun will begin! Jay will take Jasper and Cassandra will take Cody to Kita. Family travels are now officially bound by the school year schedule - this feels like some big milestone in our lives for some reason. Jasper is quite excited about everything and we're sure he will do just fine on this grand new adventure!
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| Afterwards, there was abundant face painting! |
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