Friday 30 January 2009

Week 20 - first playdate

First playdate

J comes home on the Monday from school bouncing with joy because he has been invited to a friends’ house to play. This is a major breakthrough. OH and I likewise bounce with joy. J is a very sociable child and has tried very hard to make friends. He seems to have a lot of “mates” and frequently mentions the friend who has issued the invite and another lad, but this is the first time he’s been invited to anyone’s house in his class. So off he goes. We are thrilled – let’s hope this is the sign of him really settling down now.

1/18 for a German test….

Unfortunately on the Wednesday he has an unexpected German test in oral comprehension and scores only 1 out of 18. This is a shame but I’m not worried about it – he clearly worked as hard as he could at the time. They weren’t given any notice of the test, and he said that the teacher spoke very fast. He’s OK about it by the time he goes to bed. I remind him that his teacher told us only two weeks ago how pleased she is with him – and after all, we all have our off days.

Postponed ice skating finally happens

C finally gets to go ice skating with his extra German class on the Wednesday, and announces that he wants to go ice skating at the weekends now, not skiing. Hurrumph. No chance, sonny Jim. The slopes beckon.

Ponies revisited

He also comes home with the news (I’m relieved to share) that the jugendchor are now pronouncing pony as Bonnie. Phew. I will be able to enjoy the concert without being forced to sit in the back row for fear of a teenage-style giggling fit.

More extra German

C has been scheduled one more extra German class, in his “free period” on a Friday morning: what this means is that his late start no longer exists. This is great - I’ll grab any extra free German tuition I can for them.

Times-tables

The icing on the cake is that C’s class start working on times-tables. I have been dreading this, and start checking his first piece of times-tables homework with a heavy heart, fearing the moment of having to re-explain it all and the inevitable frustration that will follow. Will he have grasped any of the concept at all ?

Yes.

It’s about 90% correct.

He is completely unfazed by it – in stark contrast to his reactions in previous years when a new concept has been introduced to him.

The very pedantic method of maths teaching here is paying massive dividends for him. I daresay to some children it’s too slow and dull, but, from what I can work out, they take a single, simple concept and gradually build it up.

Whooppee !

Saturday 24 January 2009

Week 19: Oh bring back my pony to me

“Mum, we’re doing a new song at jugendchor and it’s from England.”

“How lovely darling, you’ll be able to help them with that then won’t you. What’s it called ?”

“My pony lies over the ocean.”

(sounds of tea being spat all over the computer followed by choked laughter)

“I think they may have got muddled up with how you pronounce Bonnie, darling. Perhaps you could help them with that ? It’s a very well known song, but the name of it is My Bonnie lies over the ocean”.

“No, no, it’s definitely pony, Mum”.

“No, it’s not, trust me, it’s definitely Bonnie.”

(this continues for a while and then I give up)

Nothing exciting, interesting or tedious to report this week. A normal week: well, as normal as it gets in our household, anyway.

Saturday 17 January 2009

School "brother" system

I mention this because I realise I haven’t until now and I’m reminded on Friday when J says hello to his “school brother” when he passes him in the street.

The school run a mentor system, whereby new children are allocated a “school brother / sister”, ie one of the Grade 6 children who has been in the school for a long time. It’s only J who has the “school brother” so I assume that the individual is assigned our family rather than just J. But it’s encouraging that they do this to help children settle, and I’m aware once more that whilst the school might not wear its pastoral care on its sleeve, it’s definitely there in the heart of the place.

Parent - teacher meetings.

Tuesday sees the first of our individual parent – teacher meetings with J’s teacher. She is very very pleased with him and his progress so far – and so are we. In fact J comes with us and that adds an extra dimension to it. In the UK our parent – teacher meetings were just the adults, discussing the children without them being in the room. This time, it is a 3-way discussion. J is very happy to hear all the complimentary things his teacher is saying, and is very encouraged by them. He also can hear for himself what she said rather than relying on our interpretation, so he knows what he still needs to work on.

Thursday sees the first of our parent-teacher meetings with C’s teacher. He doesn’t want to come with us, but that’s OK. She is also very pleased with him, and confirms the things that he still needs to continue to work on. The difference in level of expectation between Grade 4 and Grade 2 is noticeable – and I am again reminded that the level of strictness, punctuality, difficulty and presentation of work etc is an intentional leap between Grades 3 and 4, so we are relieved to have more time to get C adjusted to the system. That said, he’s doing very well, considering his “problems” last year, and we are really very thrilled with how they are both progressing.

Week 18. Bullying ....... ?

C comes home on the Tuesday with news that some lad or other tried to block his path and pushed him into a bush on the way home. This is not the first time it’s happened.

My hackles rise. Is he being singled out because he’s small, sometimes he walks on his own, he’s English ? Memories surface of my own walk home from primary school, straight into the path of (what felt like) hundreds of oncoming secondary school children who walked up the lane past the road where I lived as a child. I felt frightened, self conscious, vulnerable. I think it comes under the British heading of “good character- building stuff”, though it doesn’t feel like it at the time.

Anyway, I give the boys the stiff talk about what to do with people who behave like that: ignore them, walk round them, and if they lay a hand on you, you damn well push them back: defend yourself. But don’t push them into the road or any where near traffic. And in the meantime always try to walk home with either the little friend round the corner or each other.

It’s hard, this bit. We try so hard to turn the other cheek, to ignore other peoples’ bad behaviour, to walk away from bullying and intimidation, but when push comes to shove then that’s just what you have to do. Literally.

Week 18: C homework struggle

C is struggling to get back into the homework routine despite his shiny new beautiful desk. So we spend the week working together to teach him to concentrate for 15 minutes at a time and by Friday we’ve more or less cracked it. He’s certainly not got stuck straight back in this term, though he’s very happy so I’m not complaining.

Week 18. Handarbeit - any takers for crocheting a rabbit ?

Monday lunchtime C arrives home with the (hilarious, in my view) news that he has won a prize for being the first child in his class to finish the crochet homework. He assures me that he didn’t tell his teacher that a portion of the prize should be mine…… however he’s now been set the task of crocheting a rabbit.

A rabbit. Any ideas on how to crochet a rabbit ?

I’m completely flummoxed. I’m not getting involved in this. He can do the stitch himself now. I’m not crocheting a rabbit for him. (And Ma, if you’re reading this, you might be in Warwickshire, but I can hear you laughing all the way to Zurich.)

Sunday 11 January 2009

Week 17. January. To crochet or not to crochet ? That is the question

The boys go back to school, happy to see their friends. First day of homework is a real struggle to get back into the routine. J then comes down with the symptoms of his allergy and I realise that he has had a reaction to a particular brand of sunscreen used on him on the Sunday whilst they were skiing. So he spends 2 days in bed, with a face like a balloon, fever and rash. Poor child. We’re now on the case and working out the next steps with the kinderartz, who we manage to see on the Friday.

J’s teacher rings on the Wednesday to see how he is – which was very kind of her. She is concerned that he might fall behind with his work, but I assure her that he had already done all the homework from Monday. I explain that he doesn’t want to come in to school until his face has gone back to its normal shape and size because he’s worried that he will be teased. She understands completely, but is concerned for him not to miss a particular lesson on the Thursday – the start of their new project, on electricity. So she says that she will explain to the class that they must be kind to him if he still looks a bit strange and says that he need only come in for that lesson if he's still rough.

Thursday dawns, and, whilst his face is still quite red, the swelling has reduced significantly so he goes to school, thrilled to be able to do so after 2 boring days at home with me. Hurrah for both of us. He finally remembers to take in the third of the “Secret Santa” presents for the girl who he sits next to. Not very secret, but it must be a bit hard to keep it quiet when you’ve been allocated your desk-mate.

All week C goes to school as usual, and on the Monday comes home at lunchtime declaring that that he understood his class teacher. Hurrah ! But I’m not convinced : at teatime he comes home with what seems like a crazy volume of handarbeit homework – 20 lengths of 25cm of simple crochet to be done by next Monday. Now, whilst I was a keen dressmaker in my misspent youth and still enjoy making things with my trusty sewing machine, I never took to either knitting or crochet – to my mother’s despair, naturally. So my heart sinks at the thought of struggling through all this wretched needlework. I have no idea where to start, and no idea where my needlework bible is. It must be here somewhere, I know I’ve seen it….. but C is struggling to get back into a routine with any homework at all this week, and spends most of the time having a fit of the sillies. It must be the moon. Or the wind. Or the gin.

By Thursday he still hasn’t started this damned crochet and I am losing patience – partly with myself as I’m struggling to understand the instructions I’ve found on t’internet. However, after a few tears of frustration from both him and me we finally have a breakthrough and he’s off. By Saturday night he’s managed just 11 lengths, so I – very naughtily – turn into the crochet fairy and knock up a further 7 lengths for him so he’s only got 2 to do on Sunday. I wouldn’t normally do his homework for him but I’m not convinced he’s right about 20 lengths of it. We’ll find out next Monday. I just hope we did the right stitch.

Anyone know where the devil fits into the Christmas story ?!

In the pre-Christmas chaos I had forgotten to mention that J had brought home a piece of handarbeit that he had been working on for a few weeks: a wooden devil and sheep, which he claimed were Christmas decorations. In fact he had brought home some knitting a few weeks prior to this, saying it was part of a handarbeit project, but I had forgotten to ask him about the rest of it (and when asked what his homework was on one particular day he had replied: “nothing - just me knitting” – which I had met with gales of laughter).

Now, I understand where the sheep fits into the Christmas story, but I’m struggling to understand the wooden devil. No matter……. J had really enjoyed making them and they are obviously encouraged to work to their best ability. He’s never really been pushed in terms of arts & crafts at his previous schools, and his enjoyment of the creativity is clear. I’m beginning to understand why the school place so much emphasis on it – it’s enjoyable, it’s good for their motor skills, they can be sociable whilst they are learning, it’s creative, they finish with something physical which they have made in their hands, and they learn real skills while they are at it – measuring, cutting, making decisions, giving them responsibility, using power tools. J loves it: a wicked little glint comes into his eyes on Wednesday mornings in anticipation of using the power tools (at which point I get on the floor and pray he returns home intact at lunchtime), and of course, for the non-Swiss families, whilst it’s still a lesson in German, it’s time away from the super-intensive Deutsch-immersion-in-the-classroom.

And as far as I’m concerned if I have sons who leave school able to create and then put up a shelf then I think that’s pretty useful.

Adventssingen

On the Sunday after term ended the Gemeinde music school gave an Advent concert, in the local catholic church.

The childrens’ choir led the audience in singing about 12 carols from different countries, and the instrumentalists played some really lovely arrangements of some early/Baroque style pieces – effectively arranged for light wind instruments and including one wind instrument I’ve never seen in my life. It was situated in the recorder section and looked like something off Dr Who. And there I shall stop my description for fear of revealing myself as a complete ignoramus, it’s probably a well known instrument over here. The musical standard was very impressive, and it made a charming end to the term and start of Christmas week.