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A Canadian expatriate living and exploring first France now Germany, then BACK to FRANCE (!!!) with her family; former fashion designer, turned unexpected UNLIKELY NOMAD, raising two children, writing, photographing, painting, playing piano (who knew!!) and blogging - and now... full time student at ART SCHOOL!! (I MUST be crazy!!)

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Finally








The children have been accepted at the International School of Hannover Region after MUCH telephoning and more than a little wrangling on my part.
Because of course anyone who knows me knows I give up after the first try and I am NOT AT ALL PUSHY…

*ahem*

It seems that though our kids academic status did not pose a problem, the school was pretty much chock a block full to capacity…which did not bode to well. The program at the International School is quite rich as compared to most other local schools. The children will study Music, Art, have Phys Ed, (anyone over there griping about your kids education realize that YOU HAVE IT GOOD) and another language. They do something cool called “Unit Study” which essentially is take one subject and learn everything about it applying all areas of study. I liked the idea. I must confess the school at first glance was a little too glossy for me as I tend to prefer things a little bit more basic with a bit more of a mixed bag regarding the student body. But hey even though it is my life’s quest; it’s never perfect!!!

There is also a Montessori School in Hannover and the kids were able to go there as well, but the only draw back to that was that the school is only in German, as well as the fact that the school is VERY small and VERY new. From a stimulation and sensory perspective it would have been the perfect place for Lily, but for Riel?? We had to ask ourselves how much we wanted Riel to struggle to play catch up in German when we knew it is not likely a language he will continue to use.

So in the end after much angst…since we never REALLY felt like we had enough information to make a good decision and since one never really knows how the kids will fit in we decided that the more robust curriculum in a more established school in English might be the best bet, for now and even though we love the tenents of Montessori.

My little compromise for myself (and the kids) is to try to get my hands on some Montessori Method books and try to do some of the sensorial work at home.

I feel a great sense of relief at having made that decision as pretty much the rest of our life in Germany hinges on the geographic location of the school since Hannover is a bit gridlocked and G*d forbid we end up in the wrong spot. So now we can make some decisions regarding housing. We will rent as we have been doing in Dijon, as buying is a difficult proposition not knowing the area or the real estate market well enough not to get caught.

We have seen lots of houses and apartments, and I must confess it is a bit discouraging (like everywhere else I guess) first the process of understanding what is available for what money and where. There is a little too much burgundy tile and icky 70’s shag around for my liking…

I will be glad to know when we will actually box up and go and where we will all be laying our heads. Finally.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

so glad to hear you found a school!!!
As for your home, anywhere you move to will be just as beautiful as the last. All your apts/homes have been fricking amazing.
Alittle shag carpeting hasn't hurt anyone. Just add a BIG COFFEE TABLE and no one will notice.

Angel said...

how exciting!!! it's exciting as long as it's someone else doing it!

ya, from the pictures, you pick fabulous places to live, with huge windows and details galore...I'm sure you'll find something fantastic.

I like the Montessorri ideas...

Anonymous said...

That's great! I sure everything else will fall into place too. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Wow what a lot of work...

Thanks for the update. Been wondering...

What we have been up to...