...wie es früher einmal war...

...wie es früher einmal war... (as it once was) is the week long project theme for Emmie and the other children who will be attending school next year. Each day the children will do an activity related to this topic and take trips to learn more about it. The teachers created an old city map and displayed numerous old  pictures of the lifestyle as it used to be.

On Monday, the children learned about the layout of a walled city. They then created their house to be placed on the map. They discussed the types of clothing and houses people lived in over 100 years ago. Emmie informed me the dresses the girls wore then are not as pretty as the dresses today.

On Tuesday, the children walked downtown Hofheim. Emmie was excited to share with us that the police used to work where the current bakery is at and that she can show us where a 100 year old house is in our town. She also found it fun to pass by fellow classmates as each group took a different way.

Wednesday the children did a craft. Emmie chose to make a little bag from leather and string. When she showed me her craft, she explained what people used it for.

Thursday, the children went on a fieldtrip to Hessenpark. They took a bus to the open air museum. They rode a train and walked through buildings replicating life from over 300 years ago. In addition, they saw a play and had a picnic. Even though it was a cold and windy day, Emmie had a great time and was super excited to share with everything she had seen and done at this interactive museum.

On the last day, the children took another walk to downtown Hofheim to explore more historic areas of the city.

Look what we can do!

Being it is the last week before Easter vacation, the girls' activities are focused on including the parents.

Monday afternoon, the girls had their dance programs. The girls enjoyed showing off for their special guest, Uschi, who also came and accompanied me to their performances.

Emmie was very excited about showing us what she has learned these past nine weeks. She fully participated in every music selection with lots of enthusiasm. She would glance over every once in a while to us with a huge smile.

Adeline was very poised and concentrated throughout her program. She did a fantastic job performing her routine and executing her dance moves. She commented how she really enjoys doing the different ballet exercises while at the barre.

Tuesday afternoon, I attended music school with Emmie. The teacher first led us in a few songs and then a movement exercise associated with music tones. She then demonstrated different types of tones with various sized items by shaking them inside a tambourine. To conclude the class, Emmie and I made a paper mache maraca using items from around the house. 

Thursday afternoon, Adeline brought home her gardening project. Last week, she painted the pot and then planted Easter grass in it. This week, she made flowers to accompany it and the teacher gave them some candy to fill it. It will be a nice decoration for the upcoming holiday.

Zuckertüte

Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed Hofheim's spring festival. The warm sunshine was nice for strolling around town. Unfortunately, the loud live music scared Bandit, so we listened quickly from a distance. The lines to get ice cream were some of the longest I have seen since we have been here. 

We also discovered a new candy store called Zuckertüte (bag of sugar). It is a neat store containing candy jars filled with various gummy candies in them. When we stepped in side, it reminded of a penny candy store the way it is set up. Each piece of candy costs no more than 10 cents, so this is cheaper than getting a pretzel. Eric and the girls each picked out a few pieces of candy to enjoy while strolling around Hofheim. I have a feeling this will become a favorite store of the girls. We ended the afternoon with an ice cream treat as well.

Tea Party

Sarah joined us for our church's ladies social event, Daughters of the King Tea Party. It was a wonderful afternoon.

Below is review of the tea party courtesy of our coordinator, Tara, plus more pictures. This is also posted on ICF's website.

Over 60 ladies and little girls drank tea, ate pretty food, and enjoyed spending time with one another at the Daughters of the King Tea Party on Saturday, March 24, 2012. The bright spring day matched the mood of the party and the bright smiles on the participants.

Each table had a hostess attending to the guests – filling tea cups or glasses of lemonade and encouraging conversation that allowed the ladies to relate to and encourage the little girls.

Jan and Fiona Brown shared a positive message of what God thinks of each of his children.    Fiona opened up with a funny skit where she gave away two free name changes.  In contrast, she talked seriously about how the orphan children she worked with in Malawi were given tragic names by their birth mother: names such as Disappointment and Wish You Were Dead.  She told about the joy of renaming children with names that had positive, hopeful messages or biblical names.

Jan unpacked balloons from a backpack and grocery bags she had been carrying around.  The balloons had hateful, negative words written on them – words that any of us could have heard said of us at one time in our lives.   One by one, she asked a little girl to read the negative words and then help her to pop the balloon.  Inside the balloon, was a slip of paper.  “Let’s see what God’s word says…” she said and read a wonderful truth from the scripture that reflected God’s thoughts toward each of us.

Jan and Fiona also led us all in a children’s song about being a daughter of the King.  They ended the program by singing a beautiful and moving duet.

After the program, Adrienne offered a craft project: a bookmark that used colored threads as symbols of important people and events in everyone’s life.  The various colored threads were wrapped around a red cord that represented Jesus’ blood.  The bookmark is a reminder that Jesus is the center of all of lives and that we are made stronger through our experiences.   Our lives are a part of his plan.

Kennenlerntag

Today was Kennenlerntag. Kennenlerntag is for the children who are planning on attending school next year. The children spend a few hours in the elementary's school classroom doing various activities, while a teacher from the elementary school and kindergarten evaluate them. When Adeline's short school day of two and half hours was over with is when Emmie attended school for about two hours during her kindergarten time. 

Emmie shared with me how she got to be in sissy's school for a little bit with her own school supplies. At first, she was upset because they spelled her name wrong.  She told the teacher her name, Emmeline, was spelled wrong when she arrived. According to Emmie, they forgot an m and put a j in place of an l because it had a hook on it. When the teacher asked Emmie to spell it for a new name tag, Emmie spelled it in English, but the teacher wrote it based on the German pronunciation. Once again she said it was wrong as she now saw something like Immileni. The teacher then wrote out a new nametag like the first one and Emmie stated again it was wrong, but the teacher insisted it was correct. Emmie was not happy, but wore her name tag as the teacher asked her to do. As Emmie was telling me, I noticed she was playing with the crumbled name tag. I was able to salvage it and see the missing m, plus explain to her it how the little l was not a j and tell her the Germans write their small ls with a hook. I just wonder why the teacher did not ask Emmie to write her name? 

Emmie informed me she was in the same class with Zoe, our neighbor upstairs, and sat next to her. She was very happy about this. Emmie told me she was in a class with four girls and five boys. The teacher asked Emmie in English to count the girls so she did and correctly replied in English. She then asked Emmie in German how many girls and Emmie replied correctly in German. They played a few games and then read a story. One of the teachers told the story to Emmie in English before reading the story in German to the group. In German, the teacher said to ask questions if the children did not understand something. Emmie said she raised her hand on one word because she did not understand it. It was a long German word that was new to her and the teacher answered her question. Afterwards, they could pick out a picture to color or play a game. She picked out a princess fairy and did a nice job coloring it and carefully cutting it out. The teacher than asked her to write her name on the back side, so she wrote "EMMIE" and spelled it correctly. She also shared with me how one of the boys did not want to sit and color, so he went and played a game. They concluded their time in the classroom ny singing songs.

I was very happy to hear Emmie had a fun time in class. The school staff knows we have been here for almost two years now, so I am not sure why they first spoke English during the activities to her since she is in the German kindergarten. I am unsure how this will factor in for evaluating her if is she is ready for school, or if it even will at all. I am just glad she had a good overall experience of being in the classroom environment.

Adding some color

We spent the warm afternoon planting flowers in our backyard. After Adeline came home from her gardening class, she instructed Henrik and Emmie how to prepare the flower beds, remove the flowers from the containers, and plant the flowers. Henrik and Emmie worked together planting flowers and Adeline worked alone, although at times she got some help from Bandit with shuffling dirt around. Bandit ended up with a black nose by the time the activity was over with. I think the best part for the kids was watering the flowers as I think there was more water on them than on the flowers. It was a fun afternoon.

Kindergarten Meeting

Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting with the kindergarten. Uschi accompanied me for translation help and support since Eric was out of town. The girls played on the school's playground while we met with the teachers. The teachers did not inform me what it was about, so I had no idea what to expect. 

Apparently this was the teacher and parent meeting to inform me about how Emmie is developing, but it turned into how they feel she is not ready for school next year based on their observations. After they shared their page and a half of information about Emmie, I interrupted and started in German with my questions about what they discussed and how her development got to this point under their care, but switched to English and had Uschi translate. I felt majority of their observations were negative and they have created these developmental characteristics seen in Emmie since she started in their class. Plus, I informed them of the the situation they neglected at the beginning which is seen now and am upset they are currently not correcting any of things they mentioned. They did not appreciate any of this from me based on their facial expressions and rebuttal tone. Plus, it was disappointing they would not have any learning plan next year for Emmie even though they said she is advanced for a four year old as they feel a child learns through playing. They were surprised by my response when they asked if Emmie had already seen the doctor and I told them the doctor approved her to attend school next year.  Her current teachers said they could speak with the possible teacher next year, but Uschi immediately jumped in with her business German tone and informed them not too. She told them firmly how that conversation was to be between the school and the parents, not them. As the meeting concluded, I was surprised they still asked me if they should still be treating Emmie as if she was going to school in the fall. Instantly I replied with a yes, especially now as I see her teachers do not understand how I feel this age is capable of more than just playing all week and they have yet to demonstrate a controlled learning environment.

Leaving the meeting, I was filled with numerous negative emotions. Uschi quickly reassured me the meeting was a typical German meeting where there is little positive information given and for me not to get upset over it. It is now obvious they are babysitters, which frustrates me even more because I know how much fun children have learning through songs, games, and activities at this stage. I am happy Emmie has made a few good girlfriends and is learning German while attending kindergarten. I am thankful Uschi accompanied me because she was able to support my thoughts and share with me that Emmie is a precious girl who is better than the the individual her teachers observe and commented about this afternoon.

On our walk back home, we asked Emmie about a few of the things the teachers discussed. She happily told us about about how she does participate when asked and the fun she is having in kindergarten with the girls.  She also informed us how the boys disrupt the circle time and told us particularly those who are not good listeners when it is time to be quiet. After this, I think Emmie will be okay with the school plan God has for her. We still have to meet with the elementary school with regards to Emmie attending, but we think that will occur after she attends Kennenlerntage- a few hours in the classroom for those who will be attending school next year.

Bandit provided much needed laughter after the meeting for us. His bird gift from Uschi had him jumping and frolicking all around the backyard. It was hilarious watching him throw the vulture style bird up in the air by its long throat and catch it again over and over.

Warming Up

This week the temperatures have warmed up. We finally have some sunshine and warmer temperatures to enjoy. We are indulging in ice cream downtown after our activities. The trick is getting to the cafe before the line wraps around the corner.

The trees have blossomed and downtown Hofheim and the surrounding parks are beautiful to walk through.

March Madness

We all filled out our basketball brackets for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. All of our brackets each have a different winner, so it should be interesting to see who wins. It was established the winner would get to select the restaurant outing.  Eric finagled the computer to the tv, so we were all set for the first weekend of watching basketball.

On Saturday evening, Eric and I attended a company outing at the Wirtshaus Reichenbachtal. The event was held at very neat alpine-styled building in the forest, so we had to walk to it. They first offered hot appetizers outside on the terrace overlooking the forest. When it got dark, an artist who works with live fire entertained us. We then proceeded into the building for our meal. The quaint interior represented  alpine huts similar to those in the mountains. The salad and meat fondue were delicious. We did not stay for dessert because it was getting too late. It was a nice evening out for us. We learned the place can only be rented out which is a shame as it would be a nice afternoon outing with family and friends.

We watched a few more basketball games on Sunday evening to conclude the weekend. A few friends came over to enjoy the games as well. Adeline and Emmie are tracking our win/losses on the brackets, then Adeline and Eric tally up the points. Ending the first weekend, I am in the lead, but only a few points separate us, so next weekend it could change.

Happy Spring

We are very happy it is officially Spring! The weather has warmed up and we are enjoying being outdoors in the sunshine.

Bandit has been superb in staying in the yard while the doors are open. He even hopped up on the girl's picnic table to sun himself one afternoon. The girls found this funny. The girls had fun playing bubbles with Bandit, too. He would jump around and try to bite them as they kept blowing bubbles all around him.

Adeline is very proud of herself that she has taught Bandit to sit while waiting for his food. Initially, he would crowd the bowl waiting for the food as soon as he heard the food container rustle, but now he sits patiently while she fills the bowl and for her to give him the okay to eat it.

In addition to the spring cleaning, I managed to get the winter tires switched with the summer ones at the tire shop. Plus, I took Bandit to the neighborhood animal clinic to get him some heart worm pills. Unfortunately, I learned it is more like an animal hospital after our visit, but it was still a positive visit for me incase we ever did need to use them. I now have to find a regular veterinarian office for Bandit.

Garten AG

Adeline started her gardening class on Thursday afternoon a few weeks ago. The first week, they planted little pots of Kresse. It has been exciting for her and Emmie to watch the little plant grow at home. On Saturday we added the herb to our salad for some extra flavor. She was very excited to contribute this to our meal.

Her class has also made a flower bed in the school yard. She first learned how to prepare a flower bed for planting flowers as they cleaned the weeds out of it. Then teacher showed them how to dig the hole and handle the flowers with care. The kids are enjoying freshening up the school yard with the bright flowers.

Emmie and I took Bandit to the market for the first time. The vegetable lady adored Bandit, so she gave Emmie two pieces of carrot- one for her and one for her to share with her friend. Bandit loved the treat and the two of them munched on carrots while I continued my shopping.

Bandit goes to school

Adeline's class is finishing up their housepet series with dog and cats. This morning, Bandit participated in the classroom discussion about dogs. The children sat in a circle while Adeline explained all of the various dog items I had brought with me. The kids thought it was cool to see his baby teeth as she passed them around the room.  Bandit chewed on a little bone as he laid by me, while Adeline talked about what he ate, showed his toys, and discussed how she cares for him. The teacher added more detail on some topics and asked questions to see if the class understood why Bandit and dogs required certain items to be taken care. The class found it interesting that Bandit has a passport, too.  Bandit started to get a little rowdy around the boys, but he calmed down and everyone took a turn petting him.  Adeline did a fantastic job presenting Bandit to her class.

Signs of Spring

It is beginning to feel like Spring is coming as our temperatures are starting to warm up and the flowers are starting to bloom. The fresh air is bringing fresh energy to everyone; unfortunately, it also means new bumps and bruises, too.

On Tuesday morning, the sidewalk did not give when Emmie fell as she was skipping to school. What made her fall even worse was she was skipping downhill, so her downward momentum increased the severity of the injury. I am thankful it was just scrapping to her skin and she did not break her nose or any teeth on the brick sidewalk. Fortunately, a few pretty band-aids helped to relieve the pain.

At school, Adeline's teacher had the kids run around the school yard to get some fresh air. Somehow, she tripped and her upper chest landed on the edge of the wood bench she was approaching. Luckily, it was just minor cut near her armpit and we could treat it at home.

Family outings

Saturday afternoon, we participated in our church's family game time. It was fun to gather with other families for fellowship and play games the kids enjoy. Everyone had fun participating in the group games and when the candy prizes were being handed out when a win occurred the competition increased.

Sunday afternoon, we watched the local women's basketball team, Rhein Main Baskets, play. Adeline is part of Hofheim's children's basketball program, so all of the kids made a line for the team to run through and slap their hands at the beginning of the game.

It was a close game and exciting to watch. I asked Emmie during one play if she saw the player steal the ball from the opponent and her reply was- that was not nice of her to do. I think we will have to teach Emmie a few things about competing in sports before she starts playing. The Rhein Main Baskets are ranked number 2 in the league and added another victory to their stats.

Back to Work

With Eric home last month, we did have a few afternoons which felt like mini-vacations; however, now we are all back to work full-time this month. 

Wednesday evening I attended a city meeting with regards to the kindergarten situation. It appears word is spreading about this issue because the mayor has had numerous media contact her about the situation, how  it happened, and how it is being handled. The positive aspect was they shared the new building plans and timeline and allowed us parents to give input before it is finalized. The downside part was they gave us a history timeline and there are gaps in it that could not be explained from the city staff who was present.

Since no one is home to puppy sit, I have taken Bandit with me on errands and to my class. He minded his manners in the drugstore. He laid down while we were standing in line because it was a long wait even though there was another dog two customers in front of us. At class it took him a little while to settle down, but he eventually fell asleep under my chair during the lecture.

Bandit has now lost two baby teeth and caught up with Adeline. We are waiting to see if Adeline will lose her top two front teeth first or if Bandit will lose more teeth first. 

Friday afternoon, Adeline started her new instrument lessons on the violin. She is eager to learn how to play it, but instead of practicing it at home, the teacher gave them a poem to learn about the chords. Afterwards, the girls got haircuts. Adeline picked her short bob length, while Emmie just had a trim.

This week, Eric attended new hire orientation. He also had information to share with me about the new health care system we are now covered under. This will be a new learning curve for me since we are now part of the German health care system.