Kutzberg Kindergarten

Josef started going to the German Kindergarten in Kutzberg this past week. I thought he might have a difficult time in going to a school where all of the kids speak German, but he surprised me and has no problems at all! It helps that the teachers can speak pretty good English too, but they know we want him to learn some German. Hopefully at this time next year he will be able to talk a little bit of German. He enjoys playing outside in the garden or what we would call the playground. The German Kindergartens are not very rigid or academic - they emphasize play. But they do some learning things too. I am just glad Josef is able to have this experience.

Here is Josef arriving at his school. I like how they painted the fence to look like colored pencils.

Josef is standing in front of his classroom door. His Kindergarten decorates with ravens. I don't know what it means or if is like the school mascot. For all of the new students they put a raven on the door with the student's picture and then later on the raven flies into the classroom to join the others.

They start out each day with "circle time." They sing songs and do other various activities. The teacher in this picture is the head teacher, Claudia.

On this day when I picked up Josef the kids were eating lunch. You can either bring a little lunch or you can purchase a hot lunch. Josef is a very picky eater so he hasn't tried the hot lunch yet, but I am hoping he will try it when he gets more used to being there. The little girl on the front left side with the dark black hair has really taken to Josef. She always wants him to sit next to her and she pats him on the arm and she likes to show me what Josef has done during the day. I think it is so cute!!

On his first day one of the teachers made him this crown to wear. He kept it on all day! He felt so special. Josef is my flower picker - he loves to pick me flowers. When they went outside in the garden (playground) he picked me all of the flowers he could find. How sweet.

He is having fun and we look forward to all of the adventures the Kutzberg Kindergarten will give us throughout the year.