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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

to do...or not to do

So, it's time decide wether or not to enroll Miles into German kindergarten. I am very torn on this and find myself going back and forth everyday.

Here in Germany, kindergarten starts at 3 years old, is 5 days a week and 3-4 hours a day.

I'm torn for several reasons. Some of the big pros I see are also big cons. For example, there are no Americans in his class. No one, not even the teacher herself speaks English. But, at the same time I see this is as a pro. Miles will learn German in a heartbeat. He'd probably be completely fluent by the time we leave Germany. But at the same time, will he be a complete outsider?

Another con is the culture. If you ever visit Germany you will notice several things right away. A lot of times there are no lines for anything and things can sometimes be chaotic (and I'm talking about adults here). You have to just get in, be aggressive, get what you want, and get out. People will not think twice to cut ahead of you if you're not paying attention. If you are even 5 seconds late on gunning it at a green light, you get honked at by 3 cars. There is no such thing as personal space here. You can be at a zoo with all the space in the world and someone will be breathing down your neck to look at the same thing. So with all that in mind, you can imagine what the kids are like. I have a few friends who's kids are in German schools and it's tough. We teach our children to wait their turn, to share, say please and thank you. I'm not saying Germans are extremely rude people, there is just a huge difference between American etiquette and German etiquette. So, this is cause for concern because A) I don't want Miles to feel bullied all the time and B) He's going to have to "unlearn" somethings when we leave.

Blah. I'm so torn. I hear horror stories and I hear amazing stories. My friend Alissa's 5 year old has been in German school for 1 year now and is completely fluent in German. All she did was drop him off one day and never looked back. Now, when the move back to the States, all she has to do is find some way to keep his language skills up and he's fluent the rest of his life. What a neat gift for you child.
So my question is, what would you do? Keep in mind we have about 1 year left (give or take). So I could very well not put him in anything until we get back to the States.

2 comments:

4 on the go said...

my question would be is it worth it for just 1 year?

They also have the base preschools :). I'm sure no matter what you decide He will excel at anything/everything

Crystal Turner said...

You already know the answer in your heart. Go with what your heart is telling you. You are his mother and know what is best for him!