First Day

Yesterday was the first day of my new integration course. I had a wide spectrum of expectations ranging from something I would absolutely love, to something I would totally hate. The course fell somewhere in the middle of those, but probably further toward the good end of things.

I was hoping there would be a full-on daycare facility similar to David's Kinderpark, with tons of awesome, age appropriate toys, games and activities, and lovely garden for warm days. When I got there I followed some mothers with tots into a smallish plain room with a wooden floor. There were a few mats stacked up to the sides, and a few small wooden chairs, and that was it. Once they childcare woman arrived she pulled out a small table and set the chairs around it and then unrolled a rug and dumped a big box of Duplo out on the rug.  Not exactly fulfilling my wildest hopes and dreams, but the caregivers seemed very kind and the kids (who have been with this course for many months already) seemed to be generally happy to be there, so it definitely could have been worse.

Their were 8 kids and 2 child minders, so that seems like a good ratio. All of the children were between 1 and 3. The classroom for the mothers was across the hall from the children's room, so I got the pleasure of listening to David wail for the first half hour and then intermittently throughout the rest of the class. That's always pretty tough as a mom, but I'm hoping it's just part of adjusting to a new place and this will improve with time. It seemed like he bonded with one of the caregivers a little bit, so maybe next time will be better.

The class itself was neither too easy nor too hard. I learned a few new things, but I felt like they were things I could have learned in 5-10 minutes, and we spent over an hour on them. The "integration" aspect of things was also included. She spent a long time explaining to us about how tipping works at a restaurant, and what appropriate behavior is when someone invites you to their home. While I don't necessarily feel I need to be taught what percentage of the bill to tip at a restaurant, I do think it's good for me to have so much exposure to someone speaking German at a simple enough level that I can understand most of what they're saying, and as a friend of mine pointed out, it would be pretty miserable if they spend 3.5 hours just going over grammar.

Overall I would say doing this course will be a positive thing for me. Hopefully for David as well. I am praying that he would adjust well and find his time there stimulating and enjoyable.