First parent day

Kindergarten was closed on Wednesday for Parents Day. Z had finally succombed to the tonsillitis that all the rest of us had had, so he got to stay home with the girls while I went to work and then, after leaving work early, to our appointment with their preschool/kindergarten teachers.

All in all it was a very positive meeting, they are very pleased with how the girls were intergrating in the group. Apparently our girls are very popular with the older girls (the curosity factor because they are twins? or because they are smaller?) who sometimes have to be reminded that Ciara and Enya are not babies and must learn to do things for themselves.

They are mostly speaking german at Kindergarten although they play "repeat in english, repeat in german" with their teachers too now (the teachers are enjoying the challenge of brushing up on their english!). They have definitely realisied that there are two different languages and not everybody understands both. Ciara in particular delights in confounding one of the teachers (Susannah) with new english words that Susannah doesn't know. If Enya notices the teacher doesn't understand an english word/phrase, she will try to find the german translation. Both girls are apparently quick to absorb new words and try to use them as soon as they are learnt.

Surprisingly the teachers feel Enya is further than Ciara developmentally. They feel she has generally better coordination and her fine motor control in particular is better (she uses a tripod grip when drawing and is going to be a lefty like her mom). She is also able to concentrate during activities longer than Ciara can and will seek out her own activities (in paritcular enjoys investigating how things work-this is a long standing interest). Z and I find this very interesting as at home we feel the opposite is true regarding concentration and coordination. We feel Ciara is more coordinated but is also a bit more cautious and therefore slower, where Enya moves so quickly so that the fine control of the movements is not necessary and is also almost reckless- she trusts herself to do EVERYTHING! Ciara is going to be a righty like her dad and she has a peculiar way of holding a pencil, uses all her fingers with the pencil threading up between her ring and middle finger.

Ciara is more social, going and joining the other kindergarten groups and joining in to play with the older kids without waiting for an invitation (they were a bit surprisied at how self confident she is socially). Enya tends to stay in her kindergarten group and is happy finding her own activities, she tends to wait for an invitation before she joins in playing with the other kids. C and E don't tend to play with each other although they do check to see where the other is periodically during the day. We have not as yet had to send one without the other yet and it will be interesting to see how they react when it does finally become necessary.

The best part of the meeting though was when I mentioned that it had been suggested that Enya would be better off with an intergration helper in kindergarten, I was told that Ciara and Enya were doing better than some of the older boys and were more than appropriate for their age. The teachers do not feel it is at all necessary for either girl to have any special assistance!

Fairy Tale Evening

Last week we had a fairytale evening at Kindergarten (fund raising for the Kindergarten). The kids have been hearing and learning about fairytales for the last month so it was the logical progression to have the autumn fund raising evening with the same theme.

The kids all came dressed up as their favorite characters (or in our case what we had in the closet!)as did many of the adults. As well as food and drinks we also got to do some crafting i.e. made hobby horses out of sticks and old socks. They even got some parents making elaborate wooden fence slats to replace the old rotten fence (engraved with the kids names on them), unfortunately Z and I ran out of time so we didn't get a slat with the girls' name on it.

So with out futher ado: photos from the evening
The only shot of a hobby horse

fairy princess Enya (plaster on Enya's face is from an accident at school)

Fairy witch Ciara

Where does the time go..

I can't believe it is already the end of August, we only have the last third of 2010 to go. I haven't even got used to writing 2010 yet!

Ciara continues to boycott naps at Kindergarten on the 2 days a week that she is there after lunch, she mostly still takes a midday nap at home though. The plus side is that on the days she doesn't take her nap she literally collapses into bed at night with no prolonged bed time ritual required. There have even been a couple of days where I have had to stop her going to sleep on the floor before dinner!

Enya on the other hand needs her midday nap, no ifs or buts there! As a new development, on the few occasions where Ciara has refused to sleep at home, Enya has not flipped out. Instead she has gone down without complaint and not let Ciara's noise disturb her nap at all!

Talking about noise, both girls are now telling Z and I that we are "too loud" if we tell them off or raise our voices in any way, even clapping or dropping something provokes this statement. Unfortunately telling them they are too loud doesn't get them to stop whining ;0). We have been practicing "loud and quiet voices" with them but it is still a huge game for them and they are not carrying it over in practical situations.

I'm still enjoying being back at work but it really leaves me with not a lot of free time. I will keep posting but i fear it may be even more irregular than it has been up to now ;0)

Kindergarten

First day in Kindergarten (for the Americans: In Germany kindergarten starts at 3 years) was on Monday. The girls had a blast, there were bobby cars and slides and did I mention the BOBBY CARS! I think the girls spent 2 of the 3 hours we were there riding round and round the building on the bobby cars. The grounds of the Kindergarten are even better than I thought (we visited in winter so didn't do too much exploring then), lots of up and downhills and plenty of shady spots with playground equipment. I think Ciara and Enya are going to battle with choosing what to play with first as there are lots of "new" toys there.


The best part about the day was they were taken under the wings of older kids (happened spontaneously with no adult orchestrating the shepherding) who then looked after them while everyone was playing outside. After the outside playtime was over, there was a circle time with songs and sitting games, unfortunately by this time Ciara and Enya were fairly wrecked so they didn't really participate- Enya actually laid herself down on the ground cuddling her Cuski and sucked her thumb, she was so tired. After we got home they both slept nearly 3 hours which is a long nap for them now!

We also had a trial run with their kindergarten rucksacks and they both suddenly love them. So much so that even after kindergarten the girls refused to take them off the rest of the day.



I can't believe my babies are getting so big! Ciara in particular looks like a little girl now, she has lost the toddler look completely now!

Kindergarten report

May I just repeat that I love love love the Kindergarten (for the americans here Kindergarten = nursery school in German) we've chosen for our girls!

We went yesterday for our first orientation visit and to meet the other new kids. Ciara and Enya will have three nursery school teachers in their group (2 of them are part time) looking after 20 kids. There are 3 other new kids starting and every new child has one older kid as a mentor. They are allowed to move freely around the Kindergarten building and can even join the 2 other groups for playing/activities if they wish (they have 60 kids in total and start taking kids from 2 years). Happily though there are the basic rules and regulations regarding only one toy at a time and cleaning up after themselves that we have at home. We have weekly visits now planned so that the kids are comfortable with the teachers, other kids and the daily happenings when they start full time in August.



We received our shopping list of things we need to buy(rain trousers, rain jacket, wellies that stay in the Kindergarten, rucksack for Wedensday walks, breakfast box and bottle etc.) and they couldn't emphasize enough that everything EVERYTHING must be labelled.

I'm not at all concerned how Ciara will adjust, we had to go looking for her a couple of times during the introduction (literally all 3 teachers and myself were searching the building) as she had gone to play with the other kids in another group. The fact that they have bobby cars at the Kindergarten just sealed the deal for her! Enya on the other hand stayed close to me pretty much the entire 2 hour visit, although at one stage she did go and sit on another mother's lap to read a book with her. The teachers were pretty impressed with how both girls could concentrate on an object that they were playing with. Yes, you read that right, my flighty girls were complimented on their concentration skills!

The girls even got one of the other newbies calling cars "cars" instead of "autos" (german), we may have to speak a bit more german at home for the next few months until they start Kindergarten ;0).

Busy busy

My baby sister is here for a visit and we've been very busy doing nothing much. Baby sister is being called granny and we were asked if she was my twin (she's ten years younger than me!) so I don't think she feels very complimented-medical school obviously drains the life/youth out of one;0).

C and E are being delightful, exhausting and exuberent as befits nearly three year olds. They were discharged from cardiology last week! WOO HOO!! Both of their ASD/PFO's have closed. We're almost rid of all our specialists now!!

Our program for next week involves the first visit to kindergarten for a trial session (with parental accompaniment). I'm intrigued to see what is planned and how everyone (read Enya) copes with the session. I'm really excited about them starting kindergarten as I believe they will gain so much from it. I have already seen how much they pick up from the older kids when we have visitors and I can't wait to see what they learn when they are exposed to other kids everyday.

Gotta take my baby sister to the airport tomorrow very early, this week has really flown by !

On the up

So I went out and invested in a disinfectant conditioner so all the bedding and more importantly all Enya's bed companions (the soft and fluffy ones) can be washed. I've also, for the first time, bought hand disinfectant so that we can hopefully keep the eye infection from spreading to Ciara, although the Eye Guy wasn't very optimistic yesterday. Thankfully even with the few doses of eyedrops Enya has had so far, we can already see a huge improvement. No longer copious amounts of green secretions we need to clean away every hour or two, although when she wakes from naps or sleeping her eyelashes are still glued together. The one disadvantage of her disgustingly long eyelashes, they are really difficult to clean properly!

Brighter news is, I've found a weekly play group being run at our local Mother Center. It is on Thursday mornings, children between the ages of 1 and 3 can be dropped off for 3 hours and supervised by a qualified adult while the parent has some time off. Since we've got back from the Kur the girls have been asking me everyday about "grayploop" (their word for play group) as they loved having other kids to play with and really enjoyed the playgroup in the clinic. This bodes well for a successfull Kindergarten start in August, but I was looking for a short term substitute to keep the enthusiasm going in the meantime. I'm going to have a look next week (we have to rearrange the play therapy appointment to allow this) but hopefully it will all go well and the girls will begin the week after. The woman at the Mother Center said that they apparently do lots of singing and crafts during the group as well as that they have a small garden attached where the kids can play outside in the warmer weather.

All me....

I worked again today and am working half days for the rest of the week. I'm really enjoying being back at work although at the end of the work time I run out the door and hot foot it back home to my darlings. I think the reason I'm so happy at work is because I know it is only for one week and next week I get back to being a fulltime mommy.

My mum is enjoying having her granddaughters to herself and they have been very well behaved for her up to now (or so she says anyway). The girls have warmed up to her beautifully and now go to her for cuddles when I'm not there. Granny even got to help with the bathing this evening, her comment afterwards was she was glad she never had twins!

We checked out the 3rd Kindergarten on Tuesday: it was also really big with 70 children and nicely laid out if a little rundown (but clean). The hours suit as best of all the kitas we've seen so far but I still prefer the first kindergarten as they seemed to offer more activities and work a bit more with the kids. At this kindergarten I had the feeling the kids are just there to be kept busy, the educational development takes a backseat. Unfortunately my boss can't give me an idea in which hospital I will go back to work in which is a factor in our decision to which kindergarten the girls will go, from the sounds of it she will only know next year. There are 3 hospitals in the group and I will be sent where the need for a part time physio is greatest.

Oh well off to bed, I have another busy day tomorrow that is being crowned off by a visit to the dentist tomorrow evening!

Kindergartens

We got to visit two of the Kindergartens today to have a look around and start the registration process. Two more different institutions I couldn't imagine. What I'm listing now is more for my benefit than yours, so I can record the pertinent facts to compare with the other 2 kindergartens when we visit them at the end of the month

The first kindergarten is set on the edge of a wood and is an older building which has seen some hard use, but has a very comfortable atmosphere. I found it quite messy almost chaotic but I liked the informal feeling and that the kids were allowed everywhere. It is very nature orientated with Wednesdays being wood days (exploring and walking) and they even grow potatoes and peas in a small plot of land. They accept children from 2 years old although this year is already full, but at least they are used to younger kids. They have place for 65 kids so it's quite a big kiga but they divide into 3 classes with 2-3 teachers per class. They are building a sport hall and sleeping/nap room this summer, which will help with the claustrophobic feel when the kids are all there. They also only close over Christmas which gives us a lot more freedom with holiday planning.

The second kindergarten is a much nicer building, with a lots of space although the grounds are not as nice. I found it very structured, only 4 kids allowed in the sports room at any one time, 45 minute music lesson on Wednesday afternoon, every second Monday morning is walking in the woods and scheduled gym periods. It was very clean and tidy though which I did like. They also do take younger kids apparently but are also full for this year. They have 3 teachers for 22 kids and only offer 45 hours of care per week. The meals are prepared by the catering service from the Kinderklinik and from experience I can say they are mostly very good. Unfortunately the kiga is on the other side of our village and they closed up to 30 days per year (2 weeks over summer, a week in autumn and a couple of days over Easter plus a few others as needed). We are number 5 on the waiting list for next year August.

Both Z and I have preference, surprisingly for the same Kiga and reading over my list I think it is quite clear for which one. We won't however be registering the girls definitely until the end of the month when we have visited all of them.