It was a big week in our house. The Baby started first grade. First grade is always a big deal, but here in Germany it is a huge deal. In our village it is even a humongous deal! After three years of kindy, the kids go to a brand-new-to-them school, the grundschule, the elementary school for Einschulung. Einschulung is the admission, the registering of a child for school. It is also widely used to mean the first day of first grade.
Tuesday night we had our big parent evening. Every little detail of the Einschulung was covered. What time it started, where the backpacks & schultüte would be, which big 2nd grader would be their buddy on the first day. All these things had been planned, and rehearsed, and were now being committed to memory. It was a very long three hour meeting.
Thursday morning started early, Dane bouncing out of bed in excitement before first light. Once he saw his schultüte, almost the same size as Dane, his enthusiasm couldn’t be contained. He couldn’t sit still enough for breakfast, he almost couldn’t dress himself. He was that excited for the first day of school. Together we finally left the house. Dane’s smile stretching ear-to-ear, his arms filled with the big schultüte.
We joined the other families, all gathered in the little village church. My kids are in public school, but church & state are not separated in Germany. Prayer, religious holidays & education, even first communion are still a part of public school. Most villages in Germany are either Evangelical or Catholic. Our is Evangelical. The Pfarrer (pastor) is wonderful. All the backpacks & schultüte were placed in front of the altar, treated with so much care & respect, the first graders sat in the front pews. The rest of the church was packed with parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles. Pfarrer led everyone in song, accompanying all of us with his guitar. His homily was on teamwork, and the whole new first grade helped him illustrate the story. Finally he gave them all a blessing, and we filed out of church creating a mini-parade through town to the school.
At school the upper grades had rehearsed a wonderful play to welcome the new first graders. Whirling, wild, dancing leaves portrayed letters that, on their own, were lost. Once organized by a very smart ladybug, the letters spelled out first easy words, and finally the big message: Welcome to the school! Now, one-by-one the first graders were led up onto the stage by the second graders and joined in as the school was once more complete!
All the kids beamed as the adults clapped with loud applause. The upper grades left the stage, and went to their respective classrooms, while the first graders posed for official first day photo’s, and then unofficial photo’s taken by each parent. Finally, the first graders too went to their classroom for a short, first day of instruction. The families all stayed in the festhalle for coffee & cake.
I again sat at a table by myself (see Tess’ First Day). It is overwhelming to be the only foreigner, the only one of a family, in a room crowded with families that all know each other. One of the other mommies immediately noticed and came to join me. Soon I was surrounded by grandparents, aunts & uncles as well. All of them obviously trying hard to include me. All of them obviously sad for me that I was alone. Suddenly I was sad for me too. I was sad it was just me on Dane’s big day, no grandparents, no aunts, no uncles. A day I hadn’t realized was this big. I didn’t realize all the other kids would have this much family. I didn’t realize the party would go on all day, continuing at home after school ended. I again missed a memo somewhere of how big a day this first day was.
And then Dane came back from his first day at school, still beaming from ear-to-ear, still bouncing like the energizer bunny rabbit, right into my arms. His first day of school was perfect. To him it didn’t matter it was just me. Just me was all he needed.
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