Field Trip

This week's highlight was Adeline's class taking a field trip on Thursday. The class went to Weilbacher kiesgruben. It is a nearby nature park. They took a bus to get there, but it was more like a chauffer bus and not a big school bus or a city bus. 

Adeline said the class first went into a little house and they sat in a room to discuss their nature walk to the house. They played a few games using nature items as their objects and then went outside. Outdoors, they also played a few more nature related games and had their snack. They completed their field trip with a walk around the grounds searching for small animals in the trees and ponds. 

My highlight this week was attending Emmie's class parents meeting on Tuesday evening. We were informed about the class size and how the class is functioning with the new kids coming into class. They reiterated it is a social play class which brought about frustration from the parents whose children will be attending school next year due to lack of any organized concentration learning time. They expressed the class only does activities when the children are functioning as a group. So, until the new little ones stop crying during class time, the class does not do any activities outside of the school yard until they are a "group". Interesting teaching concept in my mind, since the teachers do not try to engage them either with songs and games to want the little ones to come, stay, and participate in class. Emmie is singing Ring around the Rosie in English with a few of her friends plus a new little girl and they are having fun with it.

The teacher also showed us the couple of crafts the children are working on and the book about a small ghost they are reading to the children during their circle time. The teacher selected a chapter book about a small ghost, so I do not think many of the children ages three to five are interested in it as there are very few pictures, but the kids can draw pictures if there is a section that is read they find interesting. We did receive plumsauce to bring home as the children made it one day in school. Fortunately, nothing surprised me during this meeting as I learned last year about the kindergarten operations and how they are different than what Adeline experienced when she attended preschool.

Wednesday afternoon, my oldest daughter went to a friend's house for the afternoon, but I gained two younger girls. Marie stayed with us while Melanie and Hanna had a few appointments. Then Emmie asked for her friend Lena to come over. It worked out great for all of us to go to the park in the warm and sunny  afternoon. The girls had fun "mommying" Marie, so my part was really easy. I did see a few of my classmates at the park, so they were a little confused as to how I had three girls till I explained which two did not belong to me.

Friday morning, I attended an English speaking women's breakfast. I had an enjoyable time as there were a few ladies who attended I already converse with occasionally, plus I always learn something new from listening to everyone's experiences with raising children here in Germany. It was a good way to start my weekend.