Skip to main content

School updates

I think we have finally figured out our school situation for next year.  It still has some kinks but the overall plan is in motion.  All 3 boys are finishing the school year in their current school since it's the easiest and they are used to it by now.  (School year ends on July 24, by the way, with first day of school on September 7.)  However, all will go to different places next year.  Our current school was a good transition school - we didn't know where we were going to live, we don't speak any German and the administrations here does, and finally it was a bit of an easier transition for the boys to still have English in their lives, and not just drop them into an all German school.  Also, Ilya was a bit too young to attend regular school so it was a good compromise.  The negatives, however, outweigh the positives.  The boys haven't learned much German, having them in the same class hasn't been ideal and the school is Montessori-type school which means that it's self-paced learning.  That hasn't been ideal either.

Next year Anton will go to a regular local German kindergarten (kindergarten starts at 3 y.o. here and the kids go there until they start school at 6).  He will most likely go 7:30AM to between 3 and 5PM.  Potential problem is that there is no nap, but none of the school we saw have a nap for 3 year olds.  A bit upsetting but not much we can do about that.  Andrei will to go to a local German school.  Public German schools usually have short days - they start around 8AM and are done by 12PM (give or take about 30 minutes on both ends).  He might go to extended day a couple of days a week but that's still undecided.  Ilya will go to Russian-German school which starts at 8AM and pick up is between 4 and 6PM.  Classes are done at 1PM, then lunch and extracurricular activities.  They include dance, art, swimming pool, logic, etc.  and are all part of their extended day as well as homework help.  Ilya spend a day at that school and really like it despite not being able to say much.  We still plan on having the boys do swimming and possible track and field (or some other sport) at the English speaking sports complex.  It sounds a bit complicated, but we feel like at this point it's the right decision for all the kids. 

I am enclosing some pictures from our first week of Easter vacation where we did LOTS of arts and crafts since it rained through most of it as well as some pictures from the Russian school egg coloring project.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

School update

It's been almost exactly 2 months since the last time I wrote here.  Our summer has come and gone as well as 3 weeks of school have passed.  The life has been busy but I knew that since all the kids are in new schools and our schedules are completely different from last year.  We are still trying to figure stuff out but anyway ... Our house looked like that most of the summer  Night before school Anton has started 1st grade.  He goes to school for kids with hearing issues and from what I understood the kids in his class are all over the spectrum regarding their issues.  Anton does not have a problem with hearing but his brain does not process what he hears at normal rate and Anton's teacher knows how to work with him which has been good so far.  The school is a little bit further away but he gets picked up and dropped off right in front of our house and it's going good.  He leaves the house at 7:15 and comes home at 15:40 3 times a week and earlier on 2 other d

Random notes

Wrote this last week but never published :( My plan was to write about Anton and his school a bit. Or about how German language acquisition is (after being in Germany for 4 years).  However ... life!   Last week Andrei was home Tuesday and Wednesday because the teachers held parent-teacher conferences for those 2 days and kids had no school.  First time it's happening this way because in other schools meetings were always held either before or after classes.  After having him home for 2 days and meeting his classroom teacher, I learned pretty much nothing new - his grades are good but he needs to talk more in class.  That's what I got out of a 30 minute meeting.   Friday Anton was home because his school starts Carnival celebrations early.  Monday and Tuesday all the kids were home because again Carnival - Rose Monday and for no reason for Tuesday.  Anton's extended celebrations continued into Wednesday.  I am not a fan of Carnival and neither are the kids. All of

Grocery shopping

After living in Germany for 4 years and having German fridge and freezer for 3 of those years, I feel like my grocery shopping habits have changed and sometimes I have to wonder what would happen if we were to move back to the States.  Because German fridges and freezers are pretty small it was pretty necessary to go to the store at least once a week and often times more than once because one week worth of food for 5 people wouldn't fit.  Moreover, the freezer would not fit more than a box of pizza, fish sticks and 1 container of ice cream - freezing meats/chickens/... was not an option.    About a year ago we upgraded our kitchen and bought a new fridge and it comes with water and ice! Did I mention that nobody in Germany uses ice except my husband but he was and is super happy?!?   Anyway, there are 4 stores in our town - they are all pretty much next to each other.  One is a bio Whole Foods type of market (Tegut), we have two discount stores (Lidl and Aldi), and one re