Ready for 1st Class

Friday morning, I took Adeline to the Kreishaus (clinic)in Marxheim. Marxheim is Hofheim's sister city directly on the side of the train tracks, but it is all uphill. The school requested she have an appointment with a doctor to make sure she is ready for 1st class. I gave them all of my health papers from the USA indicating she was ready for kindergarten, but they wanted to conduct their own tests. Adeline performed great on the hearing and vision test. It was more of a cooperative test though as the secretary spoke some English and I instructed Adeline what to do from what I could see her trying to achieve at each station. We then visited the doctor who initially questioned our requests since Adeline spoke no German, but I told her she was playing with German friends and would quickly adapt. The doctor also ordered me to take a language course too! She performed some basic tests of following instructions, matching, and writing to see Adeline's cognitive ability. She then did a health check-up and finished the visit by having Adeline play hopscotch on her rug. We left with the doctor saying she would write a letter to the school indicating Adeline was ready for 1st class even though she was underage for when the children attend. 

Perfect timing as we came home and had a letter in the mail from Adeline's school! It had upcoming important dates of a parent's meeting and school starting on Tuesday, August 17 for her. Melanie tells me too that is tradition to host a party for her starting 1st class as it is a big ordeal here! Yippe!! We also got a school material list. Not just pencils and crayons, this list is very detailed to the color of crayons, size of pencil, etc.. those Germans and their details.. We are going to ask our neighbor, Atishe, who is in school to go school supply shopping with us. I think it would take me a whole week just to find the specific items in the stores. (It took me 3 separate tries and the help of Melanie to find nail polish remover! -- the little bottle even said nail polish remover in English, but it was on the floor and in a different looking bottle than I am used to.)

We spent part of the afternoon watching the German soccer game and the rest of it at Adeline's new school. Steinburg Schule was hosting their year end school  party. Teresa, Ines, and Matthias came with us. The girls clicked right away as we were walking to the school. At the school, the girls had a great time playing together, eating the various cakes and goodies and exploring the school. Emmie enjoyed riding the Bobby car which is a toy all of the toddlers here have to ride on. All of the father's joined in the festivities when the German's lost as they had been in the hallway glued to the TV. We also entered a lottery and won a soccerball!