First thing Monday morning, the sunshine was already intense. By 9am we were at the dealership, where I was informed we were approved for our car, provided Eric brings his paperwork they requested on Friday. Wow, that was quick! While at the dealership, I got a call from Emmie's kindergarten asking if we would like to spend Tuesday morning in a session with them. Yes of course, we'll be there! We still had time to make into Aldi's and home before our next appointment.
Yippee, it is American week at Aldi's! Not sure how scones, blueberry juice, or ketchup and mayo combination bottles are American, but we will enjoy the bagels, over priced pre-made pancakes (spotted immediately by the girls), and numerous other American items on sale this week. A quick shopping trip and back home I biked in the hot sun to unload and have a snack before we visited the other kindergarten.
The other kindergarten is in a brand new facility close to our house. They are operating it like a montessori school and a daycare which means the cost is almost triple, so unfortunately it will not work out for us. I am glad I took the time to look it at because I was now informed about it. The temperature seemed to increase by 10 degrees since we arrived at the kindergarten. We were very close to a discount store, so we went to the store. This store trip was to buy a little pool for the girls as I had a feeling it was going to be needed this week as 2 bike trips already have worn me out.
In the late afternoon, Melanie came over and Hanna enjoyed playing in the bucket of water while the girls splashed in their pool as it was 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Lots of giggles and happy screams could be heard in our backyard. Melanie, Marie, and I were comfortable in the shade of the umbrella. We then journeyed to a new playground with Zoe as our guide. The girls had fun playing. Adeline indirectly made a new friend who wanted to play with her as she heard us speak English and told my neighbor she is learning English, but she never said anything to Adeline. She just played with her on the swings and gave her cherries from the cherry tree in the park as she was bigger and could climb it.
Monday evening I attended a parents meeting at Adeline's school. Melanie asked me if I needed some paper for note taking as I was dropping off the girls and I told her I have learned if it is that important, the Germans will give me the paperwork. I was correct, as I arrived in the foyer area, the entire front of the banquet table had numerous stacks of paper. I listened to the teachers, a school board member, and a class project representative speak. After they spoke, papers were handed out and we then went to the classroom.
There appeared to be much discussion about the class size being now 25. Some parents felt this was too large and wanted to know at what point would it be split into two smaller classes. I am not sure how it got so big from the time we registered Adeline, but it is what is. The teacher than went over more more information about the class and materials the students need. Wow-- not sure exactly the items, but I did take notes of what the other parents are writing in German to translate later. To conclude the evening, the parents went around the room, introducing themselves, talking about their child, and had some other stuff to add about cooking -- still trying to understand those comments. I followed for the most part about everyone's family. I was number 19 to go. I should note here too, that in Germany, many parents are older because they start their families later in life, so I think Eric and I maybe the youngest one by at least 5 years looking around the room. With butterflies in my stomach, I announced my name and stated our family was from USA and we came in May all in German and then informed them I speak no German. One of the fathers immediately spoke up and said it is okay, we can switch to English (what a relief!) . I continued on informing them about Adeline and stating how she was going to teach the other students English-- that got a few smiles. By coincidence, my seat was next to a mom who is from England and married a German man. After I got done she asked me if I thought this was all overwhelming because it is different than what we know for school!
It appears Adeline will be one of almost 15 girls in the class now and she is not the youngest anymore as there will be a child 2 months younger than her, but there will also be some children turning 7. I now understood why her class got so big as 1st class here is not mandatory at 5 as kindergarten (preschool in US) is from ages 3-5 or 6, so parents can choose when to start their children and apparently, some kids are being held back to repeat 1st class again in addition to those that are starting early like Adeline.
Afterwards, I spoke with the teacher who commented she is going to brush up on her English over the summer break, but otherwise I needed to know they needed one more pen that was not listed on the school material list. I have come to conclusion, I will be the parent that will forget to send something with Adeline and have to take it to the school an hour later. Eric will have a lot of school material to read when he gets home every weekend unless he buys me a scanner for translating purposes and/or or hires a German nanny to get ME through the school year. Right now, he already has homework waiting for him as I could not turn in the paper after the meeting since I did not know how to write it in German for her.
Hopefully Tuesday and the rest of the week will be tolerable-- mentally and physically!!!
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