First day of kindergarten

Wednesday was Hazel's first day of kindergarten. She's attending a public charter school that is a German immersion program. It's all day, and part of the time is spent in an English speaking classroom and part in a German-only classroom, with a separate teacher for each. She's such a little smarty-pants, and I'm hoping the additional language will keep her busy in school. I also hope my five years of German long ago are still hidden away in my brain somewhere, and I'm looking forward to re-learning with her. She was not impressed with her assessment tests with her teachers - way too easy.

She's been looking forward to school all summer - well, actually, since February. She was disappointed to learn she would not start kindergarten the day she turned five. Anyhoo... on with the details.

Since I've never discouraged Hazel from being a late riser, we took three weeks to ease her into having to wake up 2-3 hours earlier than usual - just before 7 am. She doesn't complain too much about having to get up, but she still takes an hour to fall asleep, even though I know she's tired. Hazel's quite proud of her lunch sack and backpack. She says the backpack is heavy, although it only carries her water bottle (required) and some spare clothes.

It was very important that I take a side shot as well.

Daddy will drop Hazel off most mornings on his way to work (helps him get out the door in a more timely manner too), but we both joined her on the first day. I hadn't noticed how reflective her straps were - just shows her shiny potential.

 

They sit five to a table, and she shares a table with different kids in English vs. German. It's nice to get to know several table mates. She told me that she met her first friend today, however, during recess. She didn't ask her name, but she remembered she had two cute blond pigtails. I suggested they exchange names tomorrow.

In Germany, kindergartners receive schultuten (cones) on their first day of school, which contain gifts of school supplies and a few sweets (Hazel was disappointed there weren't more sweets). There was a special assembly to present them all, and when Hazel's class entered the gym, she was jumping up and down and waving to the crowd with both hands. Perhaps she learned this entrance from watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The other children were a tad more subdued. While my camera was not focusing well, I think you can tell she's jumping.

 

Hazel was very patient to wait until we got home to open her gift (those were her instructions from the principle).

These are Hazel's Playmobil characters with their schultuten. Maybe Playmobil is a German company?

Hazel's other impressions from the first day or two are as follows. She says she is the best behaved student, always sitting still and being quiet. Her teachers say "pretzels and bubbles" to have the children cross their arms and puff out their cheeks so they stop talking and playing. Cute idea.

She said the English part of the day is easy, peasy, as they are going over letters and sounds when Hazel is already reading anything and everything. She says German is a little harder, and she was disappointed that she wasn't already fluent on the first day. My little over achiever...  Overall, she had a great time on both days and is looking forward to school tomorrow. She says she has plans to teach German classes to her dolls on Saturdays and to us on Sundays. Sehr gut, meine kleine madchen. Hmm... I'll have to find the keystrokes for vowels with umlauts on my keyboard...