So today Tim spent a whole 15 minutes without me outside on the playground with the other kids, while I was inside waiting for him. Apparently he was ok in the start but towards the end he noticed that I wasn't there and started crying. But the nice German teacher was able to calm him down and when she brought him in, he seemed to be doing ok.
While I was waiting for him though I observed a Russian apprentice teacher (she looks like she's either in her teens or very early 20s) take a crying little girl from Tim's group to the toilet. The following dialogue followed, which I could hear from the corridor:
Apprentice teacher (AT): "So here we are, you can pee now!"
Little girl (LG): *crying*
AT: "Well - why aren't you peeing?!"
LG: "Ludaaaa" (calling the name of the regular Russian teacher from the group - the one that I don't like, but kids seem not to mind too much)
AT: "Oh, so you want to see Luda! Well are you going to pee or not?!"
LG: "no... Ludaaa"
AT: "Oh, so you don't want to pee?! Why did you tell Luda that you want to pee?! Were you lying?!"
LG: *confused and crying more*
AT: "Why were you lying?! Are you a little liar?!"
LG: *crying* "Ludaaaa"
AT: "Why did you tell Luda you wanted to pee?! Huh?!"
LG: "Ludaaaa"
AT: "Why were you lying?! I'll tell Luda that you're a liar and she won't be happy with you!"
LG: *crying*
AT: "Come on pee now!"
LG: *crying*
AT: "Are you going to pee?!"
LG: "no" *sobs*
AT: "Fine! We're going outside and I'm telling Luda that you're a little liar!"
*shivers* I don't think comments are necessary at this point, and needless to say that we're really thinking about pulling the plug on this kindergarten :(
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Kita
We decided that Tim just isn't having enough stimulation flying from one continent to the next and this Tuesday he started going to kindergarten. The way it works here is that there is an introductory period where a parent comes along and basically guides the child through this initial time. Depending on how well the child is adjusting it can take anywhere between 3 days to a couple of weeks.
Tim and I have been going there for about an hour at a stretch and so far so good... his adjustment that is. There are unfortunately some things that I am not so happy about. Namely that they have a policy of going outside every day despite the weather. Every group of kids - even the smallest ones. Sounds fantastic, right? Except that there are 3 teachers for 17 kids/babies in Timmy's group, and all these kids have to be dressed... this process usually takes at least 15 to 20 minutes, given that it's still cold outside now... involving almost every child crying and being stressed and the teachers, too. Then they go outside for about 20 mins... and return and the undressing process takes almost as long. So I don't really see the point.
But mainly it's the Russian teacher that really annoys me. In Tim's group (they're called the Blackberries - all groups have berry names) there are two German teachers and one Russian one. The German ones are fine and one of them is in charge of his introductory period. Unfortunately the Russian one is just a bit too Russian, in the worst possible way. She brings with her all those superstitions that so many people there seem to have. For example she was telling me of a boy in the group whose teeth are black and rotting. "That's because his mother breastfed him until he was 1.5 years old". I couldn't help but reply that I believe that to be not true... but she insisted that breastfeeding for so long ruins the child's teeth and that there is it's own time for everything. She also lectured me on the fact that I have no shoes for Tim and don't drag him around trying to force him to walk (he just started crawling for crying out loud!), which is something she does with all the small babies. She believes that parents have to be constantly alert as to what the child might be capable of and push him to do it... otherwise children will be doomed and behind in their development. With utter horror she told me of a "catastrophe" that is a 1.5 year old boy who _just_ began to walk. His parents apparently really missed their chance with him. And like all good Russian teachers she yells at the kids for doing (what she considers to be) naughty things and tells them off inconsistently about this or that. For instance she was yelling at one of the little girls for digging sand out of the sandpit and putting it on the ground outside... "sand belongs in the sandpit - how many times do I have to tell you that!!! If you do it again I'll take away your shovel!". The little girl then went to sit in the sandpit and was observing the world around quietly. "Don't SIT in the sandpit, you'll get cold!!! Stand up - how many times do I have to tell you that!!!" ... and so on and so forth.
Needless to say I'm not really thrilled about her and the prospect of Timmy being around her. However we have offers from another two kindergartens for a spot starting around August-October, so this might just have to be a temporary solution. We'll have to see how he is doing... if it gets too bad, then we'll just take him out of it now and sort something else out until August. He himself doesn't seem to mind it too much though. He is very curious about the toys and things that they have there and is completely oblivious to being the centre of attention as all the other kiddies are very curious about the newbie. One older (ie. around 2 years old) boy keeps coming up to Tim, touching him on the head and saying "ляля" (baby) :) In fact today I left Timmy by himself for two minutes with the German teacher (it's part of this whole introductory period, where the parent says goodbye and leaves for increasing amounts of time and the child gets used to the new environment on their own) and he was pretty happy... I don't even think he noticed I was gone :) I almost feel that it won't be too long that he'll be leaving the nest *sobs*
Tim and I have been going there for about an hour at a stretch and so far so good... his adjustment that is. There are unfortunately some things that I am not so happy about. Namely that they have a policy of going outside every day despite the weather. Every group of kids - even the smallest ones. Sounds fantastic, right? Except that there are 3 teachers for 17 kids/babies in Timmy's group, and all these kids have to be dressed... this process usually takes at least 15 to 20 minutes, given that it's still cold outside now... involving almost every child crying and being stressed and the teachers, too. Then they go outside for about 20 mins... and return and the undressing process takes almost as long. So I don't really see the point.
But mainly it's the Russian teacher that really annoys me. In Tim's group (they're called the Blackberries - all groups have berry names) there are two German teachers and one Russian one. The German ones are fine and one of them is in charge of his introductory period. Unfortunately the Russian one is just a bit too Russian, in the worst possible way. She brings with her all those superstitions that so many people there seem to have. For example she was telling me of a boy in the group whose teeth are black and rotting. "That's because his mother breastfed him until he was 1.5 years old". I couldn't help but reply that I believe that to be not true... but she insisted that breastfeeding for so long ruins the child's teeth and that there is it's own time for everything. She also lectured me on the fact that I have no shoes for Tim and don't drag him around trying to force him to walk (he just started crawling for crying out loud!), which is something she does with all the small babies. She believes that parents have to be constantly alert as to what the child might be capable of and push him to do it... otherwise children will be doomed and behind in their development. With utter horror she told me of a "catastrophe" that is a 1.5 year old boy who _just_ began to walk. His parents apparently really missed their chance with him. And like all good Russian teachers she yells at the kids for doing (what she considers to be) naughty things and tells them off inconsistently about this or that. For instance she was yelling at one of the little girls for digging sand out of the sandpit and putting it on the ground outside... "sand belongs in the sandpit - how many times do I have to tell you that!!! If you do it again I'll take away your shovel!". The little girl then went to sit in the sandpit and was observing the world around quietly. "Don't SIT in the sandpit, you'll get cold!!! Stand up - how many times do I have to tell you that!!!" ... and so on and so forth.
Needless to say I'm not really thrilled about her and the prospect of Timmy being around her. However we have offers from another two kindergartens for a spot starting around August-October, so this might just have to be a temporary solution. We'll have to see how he is doing... if it gets too bad, then we'll just take him out of it now and sort something else out until August. He himself doesn't seem to mind it too much though. He is very curious about the toys and things that they have there and is completely oblivious to being the centre of attention as all the other kiddies are very curious about the newbie. One older (ie. around 2 years old) boy keeps coming up to Tim, touching him on the head and saying "ляля" (baby) :) In fact today I left Timmy by himself for two minutes with the German teacher (it's part of this whole introductory period, where the parent says goodbye and leaves for increasing amounts of time and the child gets used to the new environment on their own) and he was pretty happy... I don't even think he noticed I was gone :) I almost feel that it won't be too long that he'll be leaving the nest *sobs*
Back in Berlin
Yes, we are now back in Berlin - as of last Saturday. Sorry to everyone in Melbourne who we didn't get a chance to catch up with... organising our stuff in the shed, being sick, etc etc etc - time just got away from us :( But we hope to be back in not too distant future given that travelling with Tim has been a lot better than we expected!
We want to write more about our trip but need to sort through some photos first :) So stay tuned for that.
We want to write more about our trip but need to sort through some photos first :) So stay tuned for that.
Crawling
For a while Timmy has been rolling around and going backwards, but hasn't mastered forwards. Backwards was easier mainly because we have fairly slippery floors, so it's pretty easy to push away with the arms and thus move back. While in Australia at his grandma's house he had a couple of attempts at going forward, as the floor there has more traction, but this week he can finally do it properly! He still complains about crawling for too long, but I think once he realises that it gives him heaps of freedom things will change. Here's some video evidence.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
First word
Today Tim said his first word. I gave him a little ball as distraction to make him less squirmy during nappy changing and said to him мячик (ball in Russian) and he repeatedly said "ba bal ball ball ball ba ball" (in English).
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
What I did on my holiday in Australia
G'day mate, as they say around here - actually hardly anyone says that at all.
We've been in Australia a little while now and thought it was finally time for an update.
The flight here was fantastic, much much better than expected. Tim slept for 1 hour during the 6 hour flight to Doha and then for 6 hours and 1 more hour on the 13.5 hour flight to Melbourne. We had great seats - front row just behind business class, and Tim got his own little cot. It was only barely big enough for him but it saved our arms and backs immensely.
If anyone is ever flying anywhere we can't recommend Qatar Airways highly enough - they were absolutely fantastic, giving us better seats than we had reserved for ourselves, providing great food and excellent service both in the planes and on the ground. This is the way airlines used to be I swear it is, it made a really fantastic change to flying on the various el-cheapo airlines we fly with in Europe.
See seats right at the front:
When we got to Melbourne, mum picked us up, and when we got back to her place my brother was waiting there for us. He'd brought over the car seat for Tim, and as he got very cheap flights it was better for him than posting it! So we sat around drinking most of the night as he was flying home the next morning already.
Still had some trouble adjusting to the time change, but overall it wasn't too bad even for Tim. Did make for some cute photos though - one matched pair please:
Other fun things we've been doing - sorting out the shed (again, but we all swear this is the last time). This time we're going through every box and deciding if we want to keep some of these things a. 1/3 of a cheap candle, b. broken dishrack thingy, c. 40 Million other items of dubious worth.
It turns out we kept a lot of junk, and we're now trying to flog this on eBay (with quite a bit of success actually). If we have time we might try for a garage sale too for the really trashy stuff, but I suspect we'll just bin it or put it out on the side of the road.
We've managed to catch up with Anya and Greg, Tanya and Maya and Greg, Tanti, Alexis and Polina's Grandmother too. Still so many people we want to see but Polina and Tim have gotten a bit of a cold which has slowed them down a little.
We spent today at Polina's Grandmothers sorting out her internet (Polina) and doing the gardening (me). Here are some before and after photos.
More photos later, these are all just off my phone (the cameras are in the other room with the sleeping baby and the sleeping wife) :)
Hope everyone is well.
Jack...
We've been in Australia a little while now and thought it was finally time for an update.
The flight here was fantastic, much much better than expected. Tim slept for 1 hour during the 6 hour flight to Doha and then for 6 hours and 1 more hour on the 13.5 hour flight to Melbourne. We had great seats - front row just behind business class, and Tim got his own little cot. It was only barely big enough for him but it saved our arms and backs immensely.
If anyone is ever flying anywhere we can't recommend Qatar Airways highly enough - they were absolutely fantastic, giving us better seats than we had reserved for ourselves, providing great food and excellent service both in the planes and on the ground. This is the way airlines used to be I swear it is, it made a really fantastic change to flying on the various el-cheapo airlines we fly with in Europe.
See seats right at the front:
When we got to Melbourne, mum picked us up, and when we got back to her place my brother was waiting there for us. He'd brought over the car seat for Tim, and as he got very cheap flights it was better for him than posting it! So we sat around drinking most of the night as he was flying home the next morning already.
Still had some trouble adjusting to the time change, but overall it wasn't too bad even for Tim. Did make for some cute photos though - one matched pair please:
Other fun things we've been doing - sorting out the shed (again, but we all swear this is the last time). This time we're going through every box and deciding if we want to keep some of these things a. 1/3 of a cheap candle, b. broken dishrack thingy, c. 40 Million other items of dubious worth.
It turns out we kept a lot of junk, and we're now trying to flog this on eBay (with quite a bit of success actually). If we have time we might try for a garage sale too for the really trashy stuff, but I suspect we'll just bin it or put it out on the side of the road.
We've managed to catch up with Anya and Greg, Tanya and Maya and Greg, Tanti, Alexis and Polina's Grandmother too. Still so many people we want to see but Polina and Tim have gotten a bit of a cold which has slowed them down a little.
Before
After
After
More photos later, these are all just off my phone (the cameras are in the other room with the sleeping baby and the sleeping wife) :)
Hope everyone is well.
Jack...
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