August 2012 Ansley's First Day of School

We started out the morning by going to the bakery and I let her pick any pastry and then she wanted to listen to "kid music" in the car.  Then we went for a small walk in Olsbrucken the town of her Grundschule.  She requested to see more and learn more about the town of her school.

”It is such a nice village we could live here Mommy."  We both saw a flower and vegetable garden we adored and sat and day dreamed about the possibilities in such a garden.  Then we went back to the car and unloaded all of her school supplies and her schultute, a large decorated cone filled with gifts for the beginning of the school year.  This is a German tradition and each child made his or her own schultute in the previous kindergarten class.  On the way to school we saw other children carrying around their schultutes, a deadd give away that they were heading off to the first day of school.  

Heavy handed we carried Ansley's school supplies and books to the front door of the school.  A big group of parents gathered at the door but wouldn't go into the school.  I followed the protocol.  Pretty soon all the older children came outside to dance and welcome the new grundschule children.  Each class sang and performed a dance; grades 1-4 are housed in the school.  Of course I was crying during all the welcome songs. I looked around, and I am pretty convinced I was the only parent crying.

Germans have a specific tradition for everything.   Every stage in life has a rite of passage.  Ansley was asked to go up and meet her teacher and then she was partnered up with an older grundshule child to walk her to her classroom.  The parents all stayed for the first day.  We listened to a story about a raven and each child before school was given a raven to cut out and color. The ravens were taken away and would not be given back till spring when the children could read and write.  After the story the parents left for a parent coffee while the teachers helped organize the children's school supplies and books. 

Since there were originally only two girls in Ansley's class I was happy to see that a third new American girl had come to join the class.  She is also bilingual and her parents plan to naturalize themselves in Germany.  Her mother is working on a doctorate in medieval history.  The day was a success and what a wonderful opportunity for our daughter to learn about a second language and culture.