The Monday before I went into the hospital, Noah had what they call "Schnuppertag" at his new Kindergarten. All the kids who will be starting kindergarten after summer vacation is over, are invited to come for the afternoon. They get to meet all the children who will be in their class, as well as their teachers. Chris worked from home that day so that I could go alone with Noah.
Now, the thing you have to know about this kindergarten is that he has two teachers. Frau Huber teaches Mondays and Tuesdays, Frau Buchman (who was Sophie's teacher this past year) teaches the other three days. Frau Huber has a DOG! A big loveable, very calm golden retriever named Spiro. He mostly lays in the corner of the classroom on his little blanket, and will go on walks with the kids during recess if they want. He is way adorable and is a favorite of many of the children at the school. Noah, however, is deathly afraid of dogs. Doesn't matter if they are tiny tea cup poodles or big Dobermans, he thinks they are all equally evil and scary. Yeah, so right as we get to the classroom, there is Spiro, lying in wait to eat Noah up. At least, that was Noah's interpretation of events.
I was gently pushing him in the back to walk through the doorway, while simultaneously positioning myself between him and the dog. Nothing doing. He kept ducking around and running back to the relative safety of the coatroom. All the parents and other children are already there, and are watching this whole little show. It took me about 5 tries to get him in the door, and I eventually ended up picking him up under the arms and carrying him in the room. He was actually kicking his feet in the air as I did this. Yeah, great way to start kindergarten on a positive note.
Then they had all the children sitting in little chairs in a circle, with the teachers being at the head of the circle. Again, Noah didn't want to go sit on a chair, he wanted to sit with me. But the parents were all kind of haphazardly clustered together in groups around the back of the room. There was no way he could sit with me and still participate in the activities the teachers had planned. So I had to gently push him in the back about 3 times before he finally gave up and went and sat on the chair. So two major hurdles within 3 minutes, and enough trauma to last a lifetime. sigh.
After that, however, things did improve. He liked that Frau Huber played the guitar while they sang, and he loved the puppet mouse that lived in a big box and occasionally came out to say hello. But then they all got up to dance in a conga line around the classroom to learn where everything was, and this included having to dance past Spiro to get to the bathrooms. I was very curious to see how this would play out. Noah sort of hesitated, let a few kids bunch up behind him, took a small step to the right (away from the dog) and as the groups of kids went to pass him, he started walking along with them. This provided a nice barrier between him and the ravenous dog. Shame about his fellow classmates, but at least he was coming home alive. 🙂
We also got to help the children paint their library bags. Each child was supposed to paint their version of the puppet mouse on the front of the fabric bag, and then write their name on top. They will use this bag every time they go to the school library, to bring their books back in, and can also use it to bring home any art projects they make. He had lots of fun doing that. There was also a lot of free time where the parents could ask any questions of the teachers and the children were allowed to play with all the toys and each other. Noah was in heaven because they had the entire Playmobil Circus set up on a table for the kids to play with. He has the lion cage and the elephants at home, but here they had the big tent as well as the acrobats and high wire. So much fun!
At one point, we both wandered over a little closer to Spiro. Noah still didn't want to pet him, although I did, but at least he was standing close enough to touch should he be so inclined. That was huge progress, and I am confident he will learn to love Spiro as much as all the other children do very quickly. If not, I guess we will just have to request a transfer to the other kindergarten. Here he is proudly wearing his brand new "leüchsgi". This helps the cars see the little kids better as they walk to school.
amy, what a darling kindergartner!