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.