Skip to main content

Big changes

The last 2 weeks have been INSANE!  The school year is coming to end.

Last Friday we had Abschlussfest which is basically a good bye party for Andrei which started at 5PM, Anton and I left around 9PM while Chris, Andrei and Ilya came home around 11PM.  The kids put on a concert which included recorder playing, singing, English theater, dinner, slide show presentation, a gift for the teacher, and lots of running around.  Andrei had his  It was a great way to end the 3 year adventure at his current school.  We have honestly love his teacher and his school.  I adore the idea that he had the same teacher who saw him mature, grow and learn instead of getting used to the new teacher every year.  


Last one on the right



Anton had a party on the same day at his kindergarten but it was just a general kindergarten party with lots of people bringing random foods so partially because of his nut allergy and the love of Germans to their nuts and partially because we had to get ready for Andrei's party, we only stayed for 30 minutes.  Anton will also have his Rauskehren this Friday.  Rauskehren is a sweeping out/graduation party so tune in next week to see how that will go.  My baby is going to 1st grade :(  He is ready and excited.


On Tuesday Ilya had concert and sleepover at school.  Apparently he slept from 1AM to 5AM.  Let's just say Wednesday he was one cranky kid.  The video is a little too big to post here but  here is the link https://youtu.be/DBkC6HkiLYI - make sure to watch until the end!  

Biggest news is that on Monday we decided to pull Ilya out of his school.  For the last 3 years he went to a tiny private Russian-German school where his class was averaging 6 kids.  He was really catered to (all the kids were), he participated in extra curricular art classes for all 3 years, at different times he did dance and theater, his Russian has gotten SO MUCH better (he is still extremely shy about using it though).  Because the school is so small, all the parents know each other and it's honestly been a great experience overall.  However, there was always a small glitch within the school - administration.  At this point the school rent contract is coming to an end on October 31 and as of right now there is no new location for the school to move to.  The current location of the school works for us - it's in town but barely and we don't usually have to deal with too much traffic, it takes us about 20 minutes to get there by car.  The most likely scenario is that school will move further into the city and we would have to deal with driving to school for an hour (or more) and that means that I would have to spend nearly 3-4 hours in the car each day.  Not realistic, not fun, and not good for our family either.  After a lot of thought and consideration, I finally told the director that we were done.  I already went to our local school and applied there.  Secretary was a little puzzled by the request to change schools with only 4 days to figure out the details but did compliment me on my German!

So next year all 3 kids will be in 3 new schools.  Yes, I am a little terrified but hoping for good outcomes.  

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