Keeping Up With the Kissingers: Last Day of School!

It’s the last day of school!!

(So much has changed since the first day of school: http://keepingupwiththekissingers.blogspot.com/2020/09/new-school-year-in-pandemic.html)

Ellie passed 2nd grade with flying colors (perfect 1’s in all subjects :)

Francis graduated from Kindergarten and will join Ellie at the Volksschule in September! He literally got “thrown out” of Kindergarten— see picture below; it’s a tradition that the teachers throw the kids out on their final day :)

Isaac completed his first of three years at the Kindergarten!

And Clare is preparing for another year of homeschooling, complete with sporting her backpack. Lucky for her she’ll have a new classmate joining her homeschool in November :)

It is amazing how the kids start Kindergarten knowing no German - and graduate fluent! The only downside to having bilingual kids is that if they don’t want me to know what they’re talking about they can just switch to speaking in German!!

Covid affected their school year in a few ways. The boys’ Kindergarten remained open the entire time, which I was very happy about it and they were too! Parents’ (and volunteer English teachers — me :) were not allowed in the school starting last October. Our boys take the bus to and from school so that didn’t affect us too much, other than the fact I no longer taught English, a job their classroom teachers took over. They did extra hand washing and spent even more times outdoors, which I loved! They were hardly sick this year; I really don’t remember more than two colds all year. In the Spring they started doing the “lollipop test” once per week, swiping their mouth with a little stick, for Covid.

Ellie’s elementary school switched to homeschooling (sending home the weekly assignments via email and having us drop off the graded work each Friday) for several months throughout the school year. The school was technically always open if both parents’ worked and needed babysitting/help with their assignments — Ellie didn’t need this. In many ways, she taught herself these months! I used Google translate to help her when needed, but she essentially did all of her works on her own, and did it very well. When they were in school they self-tested for Covid during the first 15 minutes of school 2-3 times per week. They were not allowed to sing all school year (no choir and no ‘happy birthday’ singing). They did very minimal gym time and no indoor swimming (their school has a pool and they normally do weekly swim lessons; however, during June they did use the outdoor pool in Gaming for lessons). During homeschooling weeks, we got a text message with her piano assignments but she didn’t meet in person. Ellie still progressed well and enjoys playing (her current favorite song to play memorized is the Ode to Joy melody). The kids always wore masks in the hallway but never in their own classroom. The classroom windows were often left wide open for fresh air.

Overall, I would say the kids had no trouble adjusting to the school year in the pandemic. We will see what next school year brings! They start on September 6. (The boys will do three weeks of summer school at the kindergarten in August, to help them switch back to speaking German and to help pregnant mom stay sane :)

For the record, their future plans are:

Ellie wants to be a ninja;

Francis wants to be policeman and a beekeeper;

Isaac wants to be a priest;

Clare wants lots of babies (or baby dolls).

Now I’m packing & tomorrow we’re off to the States for one month!