Kids

Okay, far too much in the way WWII ramblings. Here's a cute photo of Nicholas with a daycare update--and some stuff on Arlette below (together with a pic of her you may have seen before). Nicholas' Kinderladen is rather different from most daycares in the states, largely because parents are expected to chip in by cooking, cleaning up, or taking care of the kids during a few hours each month. This sort of private childcare (though it is subsidized by the state) is something relatively new here. There are also public daycares, which operate more like those in the states. We didn't quite understand the system when we signed Nicholas up (Janet not having any kids when she lived in Germany), but so far so good. We attended our first Elternabend the other night (Parents' night), and the other parents seem very nice, as we (or rather Janet and the others, my German not being up to it) discussed various plans, including a 'summer festival' for a weekend coming up soon. When one arrives each morning, a few parents are usually lingering up front, and you can help yourself to a cup of coffee. They seem to encourage parents to hang around for a few minutes (rather than trying to get us out of the way, as happens stateside). There are just 15 kids, and two teachers, a rather good ratio for kids this age (they take kids from 2 and a half years old till they start school at 6). My hasty research online shows that the Kinderladen movement, as it is sometimes called, is considered both anti-authoritarian (parents rather than the state in charge, I suppose) and communitarian (as it fosters bonds between parents, thus building community).

Settling in hasn't been terribly easy for Nicholas, who not only has to get to know new kids and new teachers but a new language (though both of his teachers speak enough English to communicate the important stuff with him). But he's doing pretty well, all told. This is his second week, and we've basically got him up to half-time. He's picking up bits and pieces of German already. We'll hope to get him up to, say, 9-3:00 by next week. The picture above now hangs at his school on a piece of construction paper with his birthday on it. On birthdays, by the way, the birthday child stays at home during the morning and then his classmates come to visit him at home for a party during the afternoon--another rather big difference from the traditional daycare. Janet has joked that she understands now why the German economy is in such bad shape--two-career parents, and especially single parents, would find this set-up hard to handle. But the flipside is that most Germans spend more time with their kids, and that is obviously a plus. We can certainly afford the time this year, though I'm hoping to put off my service time until my German improves a bit, so I'll be more an aid than a translation burden.


Speaking of updates, as I write Arlette is back from Bombay (a vist with Grossmutter and Grossvater), where she was neither (very) sick nor (very) flooded. She had a great time, it would seem, but we are glad to have her back. Her school, the John F. Kennedy School, starts rather late, not for almost two weeks (most German kids went back to school Monday). That gives us a bit more time to spend with her, and for her to get ready. Most of her classwork will be in English (all except for learning German), so she'll have it a bit easier than Nicholas in that regard. But we're expecting that the school will be quite challenging, rather more so than her school back in Carbondale (though the Carbondale public schools are just fine, they hardly attract the international studend body Arlette will find here).