Monday – J got a very good mark for a maths test. More bouncing off the ceiling (from me, anyway), but with less energy, since I’m now rather tired… but no less elated. A friend has written to advise me that they are going through the same experience in another gemeinde in Kanton Zurich, with a daughter in Grade 4, and they have been told that her daughter’s marks are for “children like her” rather than marking her as if she is a Swiss child. I’m not sure of the situation with our two, but I still think that J's is a good mark. I need to remember to discuss all this with J’s teacher in January at our scheduled parent – teacher meeting. But in the meantime, I’m smiling. He could be floundering, but he isn’t – I’m not sure whether that says more about him or the system.
As the week progresses, they both get less and less homework – just as well, since they are now on their uppers.
There is some kind of playground spat involving C and J and some friends at some point in the week (I can’t quite work out what happened) and I am surprised and delighted with how J’s teacher deals with the situation: J comes home with two home made cards from his friends saying sorry and let’s make up or something like that. He’s very happy with how it’s been resolved.
More snow. Buckets of snow. In fact we could probably ski down the street if it wasn’t flat ;) C has a morning of iceskating planned with his extra German class but unfortunately it has to be abandoned as the bus can’t get up the hill to the neighbouring village to the ice rink. Shock, horror, unprecedented traffic chaos !!!!!! Hmm, maybe for 45 minutes ;) For those from the UK what this means is: one foot of snow - which would, literally, bring the UK to a halt and cause all manner of chaos, power failure and several old people dead from hyperthermia. Here, all the roads are cleared during the night but unfortunately the remains freeze under the ensuing blizzard so that the morning rush hour traffic is held up, and vehicles are sliding all over the place on the black ice under the fresh snow. People miss bus-train connections – for maybe 30 minutes. But then the next connection works and people get to their work place – up to an hour late (rather than after a day, or abandoning their journey and making their way on foot for 30 miles). By mid-morning the roads and pavements are all clear despite the continuing blizzard. It seems to me that in Switzerland extreme weather is expected, people know what to do and everyone just gets on with it rather than having a big drama just because snow fell. In Zurich the entire train network is running more or less as usual, with maybe up to a 4 minute delay (how dreadful !) on some lines. The problem – if there is one – is on the bus lines, where roads are full of slush and continually freezing, but the local authorities are dealing with it continuously. I doubt that the Swiss would let anything as minor as the geographical environment get in the way of industrious behaviour. How do you think they got to be one of the richest nations on earth, with one of the smallest populations and in one of the most physically difficult and vulnerable locations in Europe ? Swiss belligerence and a will to make their environment work for them and not against them, at any cost – otherwise known as Swiss engineering. Sermon over.
Other detatils from this week:
Tick jabs
Friday we have the bill for the boys’ jabs – approx CHF143 each for the first 2 jabs, which I expect to be reimbursed in full.
C sentence construction
My mother arrives and after 24 hours comments on C’s sentence construction, which had completely gone over my head. She’s not at all critical, just observant: he’s now using German sentence construction in English – “I also am hungry” – instead of “I’m hungry too”. Gosh – hadn’t noticed that at all. Must try harder.
And finally…..
Schulsilvester.
In a completely diva-like way, I was dreading this, and dreading the boys being late to school and paraded round the village like idiots. I don’t do mornings, so we had agreed that OH would take the boys to school and go straight to work from there. In the depths of my slumber I was dimly aware of OH getting up, then J getting up and showering and disappearing downstairs. Then silence (all this by 05.30).
At 07.15 light began to peep through the curtains and I became vaguely aware of some sort of commotion (kids laughing, banging drums, blowing whistles etc) on the main road, but nothing in the immediate vicinity of our house.
Hauled myself out of bed and got downstairs at 9.00am just at J arrived home – on his 10th birthday. C arrived 20 minutes later, having walked with a friend (yesssssssssssssss).
They had had a fantastic time. No-one had to wear the night cap or get walked round the village. All they seem to have done is played pool and other games, J got his hair dyed and C did lots of “turnen” – ie gym. They weren’t even in their classrooms, just the main school buildlings, and they appear to have had a well thought out and organised riot – and loved it. So – drama over.
Thanks for reading this far, and I’ll continue our blog in the new year. I hope you have a peaceful and happy Christmas.
Saturday 20 December 2008
Monday 15 December 2008
Week 15 - Wednesday - Friday
OH takes the boys to school and speaks to the hauswart at both schools. Unfortunately they seem to only speak Schweizer Deutsch (rather than Hoch Deutsch) but apparently are very pleasant and try to be helpful. But there’s no sign of the scooter.
Thursday C arrives home at lunchtime absolutely yellow and having been sick on the way to his final lesson of the morning. It’s not his week really, poor darling. So after shovelling some calpol into him I pack him off straight to bed with some peppermint tea. He wants to help with the birthday baking, but something tells me that's not such a good idea....
J has had a German test and got 4-5. He looks a bit fed up about it but I am absolutely bouncing off the ceiling with joy – I have never seen him work as hard as he is working here, and I do think his teachers are realising that and encouraging him.
Friday J comes home with a school-made diploma certificate congratulating him on his “excellent” improvement in the Kopfrechnen (mental arithmetic) – he has reduced his time very significantly. Fantastic. I’m really thrilled for him and with him.
Friday also sees C’s 8th birthday, and he manages to end the week happy despite the upset and sickness. His main present ? A desk, with all the trimmings - there is room for him to have one in their new bedroom. Yes, I know I'm beginning to sound like the over-anxious and over- achieving mother from John O'Farrell's brilliant satirical novel May Contain Nuts, but bear with me. C wanted a desk, so he could be just like his big brother, working in his own space and not at the kitchen table. I've not checked his maths homework for at least 2 weeks, as I'm honestly now confident that if he has learning issues then they will be detected and dealt with appropriately. And the boys do also thump each other, scrap, wrestle and fight regularly with the time honoured tradition of brotherly love, so they're not really both complete swotty angels. Honest.
Thursday C arrives home at lunchtime absolutely yellow and having been sick on the way to his final lesson of the morning. It’s not his week really, poor darling. So after shovelling some calpol into him I pack him off straight to bed with some peppermint tea. He wants to help with the birthday baking, but something tells me that's not such a good idea....
J has had a German test and got 4-5. He looks a bit fed up about it but I am absolutely bouncing off the ceiling with joy – I have never seen him work as hard as he is working here, and I do think his teachers are realising that and encouraging him.
Friday J comes home with a school-made diploma certificate congratulating him on his “excellent” improvement in the Kopfrechnen (mental arithmetic) – he has reduced his time very significantly. Fantastic. I’m really thrilled for him and with him.
Friday also sees C’s 8th birthday, and he manages to end the week happy despite the upset and sickness. His main present ? A desk, with all the trimmings - there is room for him to have one in their new bedroom. Yes, I know I'm beginning to sound like the over-anxious and over- achieving mother from John O'Farrell's brilliant satirical novel May Contain Nuts, but bear with me. C wanted a desk, so he could be just like his big brother, working in his own space and not at the kitchen table. I've not checked his maths homework for at least 2 weeks, as I'm honestly now confident that if he has learning issues then they will be detected and dealt with appropriately. And the boys do also thump each other, scrap, wrestle and fight regularly with the time honoured tradition of brotherly love, so they're not really both complete swotty angels. Honest.
Week 15 - petty thieving in the Swiss bubble
The Tuesday C arrives home late for lunch utterly distraught.
His last morning lesson on a Tuesday is music, at the school next door, and he had taken his hat, gloves and scooter with him so he could come straight home for lunch rather than have to go back to his classroom to collect them. So, having retrieved his hat and gloves from the bin where one of his classmates had dumped them (I’ll be keeping a close eye on this) his scooter had been stolen. Hell hath no fury like me when one of my babies has been wronged, so after trying to mop him up and make him eat lunch, we head back to school to try to find it. Of course it’s complicated by the fact that the incident took place at the other school rather than the one that the boys are at. And the boys are reluctant to ask for the Hauswart (Caretaker).
I feel like banging my head on the wall again. No sign of the scooter anywhere. I’m bloody furious - this added to J’s watch never reappearing from a couple of weeks ago. I see C’s teacher, who, to be honest, doesn’t seem terribly bothered about it. I am now trying very hard to stay calm in front of everyone. She tells us we just have to ask the caretaker next door, and I ask her to tell the class that we want to know who has taken it or we will be reporting it to the police. Think she understands that bit despite my awful German.
The bell goes, and C runs off to his lesson. So we’re no further forward with this, to my complete irritation. J runs off to his class, to join them for a field trip that is happening today. 2 minutes later he runs back to me again : they’ve left without him, he was supposed to be there at 1.15pm not 1.25pm. Bloody hell. He was there at 1.15pm – helping me, and I had my mobile phone with me, why didn’t his teacher ring me on that ?
We get home as quickly as we can and I check the letter from school. His class are visiting the water treatment works at the next but one gemeinde. J’s teacher has left a message on the landline ansaphone asking where he is. She has also left her mobile number, but it doesn’t connect at all. OH has the car, and it’s too far, too cold and too icy to cycle. So I take a deep breath and phone for a taxi, managing to order one in German. Luckily I have enough cash to get us there, and we get J to the field trip 45 minutes late. His teacher is extremely kind though, and has obviously rung back to school in the meantime, as she knows all about the scooter by the time we catch up with them. She thanks me for making the effort to get J to the trip and is very sympathetic, telling me that the petty thieving is an increasing problem. Well, at least we know that from a teacher. But I am now stranded in the next but one gemeinde, with no transport and C arriving home in 45 minutes. And his scooter’s been nicked. Marvellous.
I walk to the train station (narrowly missing a bus that would have taken me there) and get the connecting bus back to our village. I finally get home 5 minutes before C, who arrives back home a lot more cheerful, but there’s no sign of the scooter. What a fantastically constructive use of an afternoon, in the busiest, most stressful month of the year. Grrrrr.
Later that evening OH pops next door to ask our neighbours for advice on what to do. Obviously it’s an annoying situation, but there’s no point going over the top and we don’t want to be labelled the histrionic auslanders, even if that’s the truth… Apparently the next door school to the boys' school does have quite a problem with petty thieving: scooters, designer trainers etc. OK. But that doesn’t get ours back, and we can’t decide if we should report it to the police – is that only going to increase our insurance premiums ?
The bottle of Gordons is no longer winking at me, it’s actively beckoning.
His last morning lesson on a Tuesday is music, at the school next door, and he had taken his hat, gloves and scooter with him so he could come straight home for lunch rather than have to go back to his classroom to collect them. So, having retrieved his hat and gloves from the bin where one of his classmates had dumped them (I’ll be keeping a close eye on this) his scooter had been stolen. Hell hath no fury like me when one of my babies has been wronged, so after trying to mop him up and make him eat lunch, we head back to school to try to find it. Of course it’s complicated by the fact that the incident took place at the other school rather than the one that the boys are at. And the boys are reluctant to ask for the Hauswart (Caretaker).
I feel like banging my head on the wall again. No sign of the scooter anywhere. I’m bloody furious - this added to J’s watch never reappearing from a couple of weeks ago. I see C’s teacher, who, to be honest, doesn’t seem terribly bothered about it. I am now trying very hard to stay calm in front of everyone. She tells us we just have to ask the caretaker next door, and I ask her to tell the class that we want to know who has taken it or we will be reporting it to the police. Think she understands that bit despite my awful German.
The bell goes, and C runs off to his lesson. So we’re no further forward with this, to my complete irritation. J runs off to his class, to join them for a field trip that is happening today. 2 minutes later he runs back to me again : they’ve left without him, he was supposed to be there at 1.15pm not 1.25pm. Bloody hell. He was there at 1.15pm – helping me, and I had my mobile phone with me, why didn’t his teacher ring me on that ?
We get home as quickly as we can and I check the letter from school. His class are visiting the water treatment works at the next but one gemeinde. J’s teacher has left a message on the landline ansaphone asking where he is. She has also left her mobile number, but it doesn’t connect at all. OH has the car, and it’s too far, too cold and too icy to cycle. So I take a deep breath and phone for a taxi, managing to order one in German. Luckily I have enough cash to get us there, and we get J to the field trip 45 minutes late. His teacher is extremely kind though, and has obviously rung back to school in the meantime, as she knows all about the scooter by the time we catch up with them. She thanks me for making the effort to get J to the trip and is very sympathetic, telling me that the petty thieving is an increasing problem. Well, at least we know that from a teacher. But I am now stranded in the next but one gemeinde, with no transport and C arriving home in 45 minutes. And his scooter’s been nicked. Marvellous.
I walk to the train station (narrowly missing a bus that would have taken me there) and get the connecting bus back to our village. I finally get home 5 minutes before C, who arrives back home a lot more cheerful, but there’s no sign of the scooter. What a fantastically constructive use of an afternoon, in the busiest, most stressful month of the year. Grrrrr.
Later that evening OH pops next door to ask our neighbours for advice on what to do. Obviously it’s an annoying situation, but there’s no point going over the top and we don’t want to be labelled the histrionic auslanders, even if that’s the truth… Apparently the next door school to the boys' school does have quite a problem with petty thieving: scooters, designer trainers etc. OK. But that doesn’t get ours back, and we can’t decide if we should report it to the police – is that only going to increase our insurance premiums ?
The bottle of Gordons is no longer winking at me, it’s actively beckoning.
Week 15 - Monday
Week 15 begins with C bringing home a really lovely piece of handarbeit that he has made: a hand made Advent Calendar, with biscuits and wood work. Only he drops part of it on the way home at lunchtime, not realising until he reaches the house, and is very distressed. I leave the two of them eating lunch and retrace his steps, finding the two missing pieces half way back to school – and luckily, they hadn’t been been run over by a car.
C’s German homework is beginning to appear difficult to me – he can’t manage it without help but I can’t help him. Luckily J works it out and between us we manage to muddle through it.
I bump into one of the neighbours and ask about Schulsilvester, as I’m still trying to figure out what it’s all about. She explains but it still sounds bizarre. So I look it up on t’internet, and this is the translated page:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulsilvester&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dschulsilvester%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2004-40,RNWE:en
It loses a lot in translation (!) but I think the basis is that it’s a specific Zurcher tradition for the final school day of the year, and the last one to arrive at school that morning gets paraded round the village in a night cap. Wonderful – ritual humiliation, Swiss style. That will be why the letter (the one that freaked me out last week) was making some reference to not getting to school earlier than 5am. Both people I have asked about it have made reference to all the door bells in the village being rung by school children.
So it looks as if we batten down the hatches and disconnect the doorbell on that Thursday night. Bizarre.
C’s German homework is beginning to appear difficult to me – he can’t manage it without help but I can’t help him. Luckily J works it out and between us we manage to muddle through it.
I bump into one of the neighbours and ask about Schulsilvester, as I’m still trying to figure out what it’s all about. She explains but it still sounds bizarre. So I look it up on t’internet, and this is the translated page:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulsilvester&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dschulsilvester%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2004-40,RNWE:en
It loses a lot in translation (!) but I think the basis is that it’s a specific Zurcher tradition for the final school day of the year, and the last one to arrive at school that morning gets paraded round the village in a night cap. Wonderful – ritual humiliation, Swiss style. That will be why the letter (the one that freaked me out last week) was making some reference to not getting to school earlier than 5am. Both people I have asked about it have made reference to all the door bells in the village being rung by school children.
So it looks as if we batten down the hatches and disconnect the doorbell on that Thursday night. Bizarre.
Monday 8 December 2008
Week 14. December.
So, we are now into December, and it’s That Time of Year again. I’ve frightened myself stupid by looking at the diary and what I need to achieve in the next 3 weeks; right now hibernating until after Christmas is looking very appealing – it’s that or gin. Hibernating isn’t an option, and the bottle of Gordons is winking at me.
However, we have just had a letter from an old friend whose husband is in the British army and two years ago spent Christmas in Afghanistan: needless to say it’s a reality check. Added to this, we have several friends both here and in the UK whose jobs are on the line, and one of the Italian manufacturing plants within OH’s firm is shutting down for a whole month from mid-December.
So – enough whingeing about December and diaries. We live a lucky and blessed life here.
On the Friday of “Ustermart” I had been surprised to receive a phone call from J’s teacher, late in the afternoon. Oh no, I thought, what’s he done ? Absolutely nothing of course, he was in the house watching TV – I had forgotten that the teachers had been working for those two days. She wanted to know if we had a book of children’s Christmas poems in English that we could share with the class. Apparently there is a Swiss tradition of children reciting poems at Christmas and she wanted to do the same in the English lessons. Luckily we do have such a book in English so I send it in with J on the Monday.
They go back to school sufficiently reinvigorated after Ustermart for the final 3 weeks of term – 16 weeks in total. J comes home on the Monday with some songs to learn in German. At last – homework I can help him with. Some of the tunes aren’t very easy, and it makes me wonder how children whose parents can’t read music can learn the melodies at home. Perhaps, unlike in the UK, the Swiss educate everyone to read music ? We shall find out in due course, but if they do, good for them. It’s a useful skill to have – a bit like speaking 3 languages.
J has an English test and scores 3-4. He is understandably disappointed, and so am I, but I’m not cross with him – how could I be when he is working so hard ? Apparently it was some sort of listening comprehension and he thought it was American English. I hope this isn’t the norm: I hope that in Europe the default is British English rather than American, but we shall have to see. The test result is disappointing though because he is understandably tired now, and I don’t want issues like this to start to undermine his confidence.
On Wednesday C comes home with the news that his class had been granted “Keine Hausaufgabe” (no homework). For the previous few weeks his teacher had been awarding them a single letter from one of the two words in response to good behaviour as a class – and the two words had finally been completed. On the Thursday he brings home maths as usual, and I’m increasingly impressed by how neat and tidy his work has become compared with previously. He is also now able to complete maths worksheets independently, with a very high level of accuracy and confidence – this is a huge relief after our concerns earlier in the year.
For the whole week, J brings home increasingly difficult German homework, and I am back to banging my head on a wall in frustration, as I can’t help him with it and he appears unable to help himself. One of the pieces of work is a comprehension from his field trip – and it turns out that he had got the gist but not the detail : apparently the guide at the waterworks had spoken Schweizer Deutsch. He is quite down about it, as he had thought he had understood more than he had been marked as understanding – we shall see how the follow-on piece of work is marked. I could contact his teacher to ask her to cut him a bit of slack, but we have a routine appointment scheduled with her in the new year anyway, and I don’t want to appear pushy or difficult – I reckon they are the trained professionals and that they know what they are doing.
By the end of the week, however, I am at my wit’s end with the German: OH has been away on long business trips for most of the last 6 weeks and not back until late Friday night. Unfortunately for everyone around me, I go into meltdown on the Thursday night when both boys bring home a letter about “Schulsilvester”, which I can make neither head nor tail of. It seems to be about a school party at 6am (yes, really) on the last day of term – which happens to be the morning after my Mother is due to arrive from the UK, and also the day of J’s 10th birthday. I know the Swiss are early risers, but this is ridiculous. Who on earth has a party starting at 6am ? There are all sorts of things in the letter that I simply can’t understand about not getting to school earlier than 5am (as if that’s going to be a problem, I struggle to get out of bed at before 7am), not sending in eggs – or am I supposed to send them in with eggs ? And what’s with the sentence about door bells and fireworks ? Do they have an end of term party and then have to do a full school day ? If so, what kind of state will they be in by the time they get home ? What on earth is this all about ? I am now sobbing my head off in frustration. Why did we think Swiss schooling was a good idea ? Reality check completely forgotten, I am several galaxies out of my comfort zone and heading for gin induced oblivion.
However, we have just had a letter from an old friend whose husband is in the British army and two years ago spent Christmas in Afghanistan: needless to say it’s a reality check. Added to this, we have several friends both here and in the UK whose jobs are on the line, and one of the Italian manufacturing plants within OH’s firm is shutting down for a whole month from mid-December.
So – enough whingeing about December and diaries. We live a lucky and blessed life here.
On the Friday of “Ustermart” I had been surprised to receive a phone call from J’s teacher, late in the afternoon. Oh no, I thought, what’s he done ? Absolutely nothing of course, he was in the house watching TV – I had forgotten that the teachers had been working for those two days. She wanted to know if we had a book of children’s Christmas poems in English that we could share with the class. Apparently there is a Swiss tradition of children reciting poems at Christmas and she wanted to do the same in the English lessons. Luckily we do have such a book in English so I send it in with J on the Monday.
They go back to school sufficiently reinvigorated after Ustermart for the final 3 weeks of term – 16 weeks in total. J comes home on the Monday with some songs to learn in German. At last – homework I can help him with. Some of the tunes aren’t very easy, and it makes me wonder how children whose parents can’t read music can learn the melodies at home. Perhaps, unlike in the UK, the Swiss educate everyone to read music ? We shall find out in due course, but if they do, good for them. It’s a useful skill to have – a bit like speaking 3 languages.
J has an English test and scores 3-4. He is understandably disappointed, and so am I, but I’m not cross with him – how could I be when he is working so hard ? Apparently it was some sort of listening comprehension and he thought it was American English. I hope this isn’t the norm: I hope that in Europe the default is British English rather than American, but we shall have to see. The test result is disappointing though because he is understandably tired now, and I don’t want issues like this to start to undermine his confidence.
On Wednesday C comes home with the news that his class had been granted “Keine Hausaufgabe” (no homework). For the previous few weeks his teacher had been awarding them a single letter from one of the two words in response to good behaviour as a class – and the two words had finally been completed. On the Thursday he brings home maths as usual, and I’m increasingly impressed by how neat and tidy his work has become compared with previously. He is also now able to complete maths worksheets independently, with a very high level of accuracy and confidence – this is a huge relief after our concerns earlier in the year.
For the whole week, J brings home increasingly difficult German homework, and I am back to banging my head on a wall in frustration, as I can’t help him with it and he appears unable to help himself. One of the pieces of work is a comprehension from his field trip – and it turns out that he had got the gist but not the detail : apparently the guide at the waterworks had spoken Schweizer Deutsch. He is quite down about it, as he had thought he had understood more than he had been marked as understanding – we shall see how the follow-on piece of work is marked. I could contact his teacher to ask her to cut him a bit of slack, but we have a routine appointment scheduled with her in the new year anyway, and I don’t want to appear pushy or difficult – I reckon they are the trained professionals and that they know what they are doing.
By the end of the week, however, I am at my wit’s end with the German: OH has been away on long business trips for most of the last 6 weeks and not back until late Friday night. Unfortunately for everyone around me, I go into meltdown on the Thursday night when both boys bring home a letter about “Schulsilvester”, which I can make neither head nor tail of. It seems to be about a school party at 6am (yes, really) on the last day of term – which happens to be the morning after my Mother is due to arrive from the UK, and also the day of J’s 10th birthday. I know the Swiss are early risers, but this is ridiculous. Who on earth has a party starting at 6am ? There are all sorts of things in the letter that I simply can’t understand about not getting to school earlier than 5am (as if that’s going to be a problem, I struggle to get out of bed at before 7am), not sending in eggs – or am I supposed to send them in with eggs ? And what’s with the sentence about door bells and fireworks ? Do they have an end of term party and then have to do a full school day ? If so, what kind of state will they be in by the time they get home ? What on earth is this all about ? I am now sobbing my head off in frustration. Why did we think Swiss schooling was a good idea ? Reality check completely forgotten, I am several galaxies out of my comfort zone and heading for gin induced oblivion.
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