Will's First Day at ICS

William started in the EY1 preschool class at ICS on May 3rd.  Here he is on his first day.

At the end of the first week, the class had an open house to show some of the "junk models" they had made.  These are creations using old cartons, boxes, and anything else that others may consider junk - that can be used to make fun models!  William jumped right into all the activities in the class, and the teachers were all telling me how impressed they were that he integrated so well into the class. They also emphasized what a confident little boy he is.  Yes, he definitely is sure of himself!

Meredith - Still a Little Doll!

Here are a few shots of Meredith.  She's 15.5 months old in these photos.

Will's Last Day at Fluegerberg

Will has gone to Flügerberg, a bilingual (trilingual) German/ (Swiss German)/ English preschool in Zumikon since we moved here.  It has been great, and he has learned so much German.  It is so fun to hear him talking in German with his German-speaking friends.  But, he was looking forward to starting at the international school like Nathan had done the year before.  Because his birthday is in August, right on the cut-off border, we decided to have him try EY1 (Early Years 1) at ICS during May and June so we could see which class will be best for him next year.

On his last day, Will got a cool bag with his name on it, as well as a book of drawings from his friends!

TatumPaolaEmilia

The teachers at Flügerberg - Paola, Tatum and Emilia - have been so great, and Will's friends, including Oscar, Romeo, Damien, Vitus, Mile, Aimee, Larissa, and others have been good friends for William.  But, we won't be far, as Meredith started going to the younger kids' group at Flügerberg this spring.

Elise the Entrepreneur

Elise wanted to get a Kindle - the electronic book reader from Amazon.  It's a good idea here, since it's not as easy to get English-language books (we can order from Amazon.de, but it takes a while for them to be shipped from Germany, and they are expensive).  Elise loves to read, and we thought would be great for her, but she had to help pay for it.  So, she cleaned out her bookshelf and found 40 books that she no longer needed, and wanted to sell.  She took digital photos of all of them and we posted them on an English-speaking expats website here in Zürich.  She helped write the posting, trying to make sure the marketing was good!  We worked together on the pricing strategy and she had a lot of fun doing all of this.  I was so happy, because she has often said in the past how boring business is - "you just sit there at your computer"!  I tell her all the time that business is so fun and exciting - and she finally got a taste of it!  We submitted the post late one night, and the next morning we had a response from someone asking how much we would charge if they bought the whole lot!  We talked about how we should give a discount for someone buying all of the books at once, then we responded and organized a time for pick-up.  Elise absolutely loved the experience, and now she wants to sell everything.  That's good, we just need to make sure she also learns how to earn money by doing jobs, not just selling things...Congratulations, Elise on earning the money for the Kindle!

A Visitor from China

In late April, Dave's friend from college, Stefan Kratz, came to visit.  He was at Duke with Dave and grew up in Virginia, but is currently living in Beijing.  Stefan and Dave were together in Berlin on the study abroad program during college.  He and his family were in Germany visiting her parents, so he came down to see Dave and stayed a couple of days with us.  The kids had fun learning a bit more about how it is to live in China!

Nathan Visits a Hedgehog Sanctuary

Nathan's EY2 class has been studying about hedgehogs this semester.  Nathan knows all about hedgehogs, what they eat, what they like, where they sleep, etc.  The class even got to visit a hedgehog sanctuary in Zürich.  I volunteered to go on this fieldtrip with the class, so I got to see the hedgehogs too!

Rain's Not So Bad

It rains a lot in the spring in Switzerland, but that's what makes everything stay so green.  This year we had a very warm April, but lots of rain in May and June!  Here's a rainbow we caught while we were driving home - just 100 meters away from our house.

Zürich Zoo

Zurich has a great zoo, just about 15 minutes from our house, so on another school holiday in April we went there.  It's always fun for all the kids, and a good opportunity for Elise to practice her photography skills!  And, it happened to be one of the first absolutely beautiful days of spring.

EuropaPark

With 2 full weeks of school vacation for Easter, skiing for a week in Austria and the weekend in the mountains of Switzerland at the ward Osterlager just weren't enough.  So, we spent two days at EuropaPark, an amazing amusement park in the Black Forest of Germany!

EuropaPark is in Rust, Germany, less than 2 hours drive from Zürich.  The different areas of the park represent different European countries, and there is a parade through the park with people dressed in typical dress of each of the countries.  We stayed overnight at a hotel just across the street from the park, and had a great weekend.

 

The park was great since they had rides for both old and young.  I went on a water rollercoaster with Elise, the first real rollercoaster I had been on since before I had kids, and now I remember why I think they are so scary!  Dave and Elise went on the Russian rollercoaster, which they thought was great.  And the boys had fun on lots of different rides.  They also had some excellent shows - better than most amusement parks we've visited.  Elise, Will and I even got our faces painted!  We'll definitely be going back!

Elise's Photography Class

Elise has been taking a photography class at school this term and has loved it!  In fact, after school one day she told me I had to come meet her outside the building because her photography teacher wanted to tell me in person what an outstanding photographer she is!  She has an eye for good composition!  Here are some of her favorite photos:

I must also say how awesome the enrichment clubs and classes at the kids' school are.  Having coordinated the after school program at our school in Moraga, I really appreciate this.  First of all, the classes and clubs are all free (and there aren't a million forms to fill out)!  Some are offered during lunch (they have a long lunch break) and others are offered after school.  It is awesome!  Teachers or parents offer the classes, and they include things like knitting, film editing, photography, scrapbooking, and of course all the different sports (Elise did swim team in the winter and volleyball in the spring).  Nathan just finished Early Years (ages 4-5) football (soccer).  The coaches for this club are two 10th grade boys who happen to have a little brother in Nathan's class.  They are doing this for their community service, which is required for all kids in the secondary school.  What a great idea!