diary of a russian mom: Back to School!

Summer is over. What summer? Brilliantly beautiful occasionally, but mostly rainy, 65-degree, Alpine summer. The biggest thing I missed this summer are Utah peaches and Spanish Fork summer community activities. I ran out of imagination to think up chores and fun stuff for my older kids to keep them away from the tv and computer. Of course, they got their daily dose of media anyway. Also, many of our American friends on Post have either PCS'd (relocated) or went back to the States for the summer, so the kids have missed their friends. You can imagine how excited are we to go back to school!!!

Nadia is in the 4th grade, David's in the 1st this year. The school started this Monday, Aug 30. Getting used to a new schedule is challenging for all of us. 6 am is a wake up call with kids practicing piano first thing in the morning, then breakfast, teeth brushing, hair doing and at 7:45 they are on the way to school. Thank goodness, the school is right next to our appartments which means I stay home and feed breakfast to the babies. Our bedtime is 8 pm. We basically have moved our day 2 hours back and I'm still training myself to go to bed at 10 instead of midnight. Kids are doing amazignly good.

Nadia and David right outside Garmisch Elementary on the first day of school

I must mention that in Germany, there’s a lovely tradition called a “Schultüte” (or School Cone) for the first-graders. It dates back to the early 1800′s in Germany, and to fall 2010 in our house. Since Kindergarten in Germany is not a part of formal educatioon, the first day of the first grade is a big deal. Parents buy or make a giant cardboard cone and fill it with school supplies, candies, small books and even toys. The top is closed so the kids have no idea what's in there until the end of the first school day when they are allowed to open their cones. David's teacher invited us to participate in Schultute tradition except parents were asked to secretely bring the cones into the classroom beforehand and the kids were presented with the cones at the end of the day and took them home to open.