Kindergarten!

In Bavaria, you must be enrolled in first grade by age 6.  Before that, most kids attend 3 years of Kindergarten.  Declan has 24 kids in his class which is made up of 3, 4 and 5 year olds. The expectation is that the younger kids learn from the older.  There are 2 Erzieherinnen (teachers) and a student teacher who assists with Kinderturnen (basically gym) twice a week.

Daily Routine – Arrive around 8.  There is one Garderobe or coat room for the whole school – yes, it’s that loud.  There’s also just one big unisex bathroom (Every time I walk past, I think...Ally McBeal!).  Shoes off, Hausschuhe (slippers) on.  These Hausschuhe in addition to a pair of rain pants were the only things on his supply list for the year! After shaking your teachers’ hands, it’s free play.  Then during circle time, a candle-lit Laterne is placed in the middle on the floor, and kids pull a card which determines the exercises and jumps they do around/over it!   

Notice the fingers pointing up?

Singing and finger games and then one kid passes out cups printed with each kid’s name.  You can choose tea (usually peppermint or fruit) or mineral water.  If I hadn’t been volunteering and seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed Declan would choose tea!  Then they all go into an adjacent room for snack time.  

Recycling bins right by the snack area

For 40 minutes the group eats up the rolls, giant pretzels or apples brought from home and they hold their little snack box on their laps.  As they finish, the kids return to the room (unsupervised) for more play - the teachers stay with the stragglers who aren’t finished yet.

A handful of kids are then pulled each day to do a craft and the Vorschulkinder (kids who will enter first grade next year) meet 2-3 times a week for 15 minutes of numbers/letters/patterns.  The philosophy is that children need kindergarten to hone their social skills, academics happens in first grade.  After his first week, Declan came home grumbling, “Mama, all we do is play all day.  Where are the desks? When are we going to learn?” The atmosphere is very Waldorfish and there is no pressure to join in any certain activity.  Kids decide for themselves.  As a parent, I was wondering what he was doing all morning because no onslaught of papers and crafts was coming home.  Occasionally I’d see new things up in the hall and Declan would point out his.  Apparently, the teachers gather it all up and at the end of the year, you get a binder full of your child’s projects.

Some days they have recess (at the teacher’s discretion), then shake hands again and then I pick him up at 12:30.  Thanks to MGIS, our girls were prepared German-wise, but Declan struggled with communication the first few weeks. I’ll admit, I had to come up with some incentives to get us through that rocky patch. 

Now, he loves it--especially the independence the kids enjoy – one of the games they can choose during free time involves hammering little nails through geometric wooden shapes onto a cork board! So far they’ve had one field trip when they walked to a nearby farm and learned about the potato harvest.

The big highlight of the fall is of course the Laternenacht.  Traditionally, the classes meet in the village Catholic church (No one objects to the overlap with the church), there’s a short play and some of the kids nearly say their lines, then St. Martin comes on horseback and as the legend says, splits his soldier’s cloak to share with the beggar.  Then the parade around town (30 minutes!) is accompanied by all the familiar Laterne songs.  The evening wraps up with a bonfire and huge buffet back at church.  Just like at MGIS, it is a magical night!