jose's 1st week of SCHOOL!

guess who the new kid is in the cubby area?

yes, you guessed it, it's the prince
jose began his 1st week of kindergarten on monday
above is his teacher, Bastian

thankfully Bastian speaks english, so he can help jose understand what's going on in his new world as it's all in german, and the kids don't speak a lick of anything else. we figure that fully immersing the kids into german at this age is the best way for them to learn. again, thankfully, Bastian will be a huge source of help for jose.

we looked at a handful of schools for jose
and we liked none--but this one
we liked it immediately
it is clean
happy
spacious
a ten minute walk from home
and we really like his teacher
he is kinda a hip young lad

that has a heart not only for kids
but for special needs kids :)
he told me this is his dream job
i was sold immediately

the kindergarten is small:
two classes of 18-20 kids in each

17 typical children

+ 3 special needs sweeties
___________________

= what they call an 'integration kindergarten'

check out his classroom above
notice especially:
the fort
the hammock
little reading nook to the far right

being all boy,
jose went directly for the fort

there he is saying "Hi Mom!" thru the window

then he had to experience the hammock
can you tell he likes his classroom?

school is 5 days a week

9am to 2pm

(i can always pick him up earlier

if we feel it's too much for him)

and breakfast and lunch is included

all organic, as well, which is a yummy bonus

the kids (& parents) in his class seem really sweet. well, there was one boy who kinda tried to clobber prince the first day of school but after the kid experienced american mama bear hopefully now he will now be on his best behavior :). but really, the kids seem sweet. come march, this will be grace's class as well (kindergarten here is different than it is in the states; here it's ages 3-6, more like preschool). grace is already saying "I go to school!"

here's our special guy being escorted by Bastian down the stairs. time to put on our coat & time to go home now. the 1st week of school is done & boy was it a lot of fun!