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7th July 2010 to 11th July 2010 was Forest Week @ Kindi for Tobias. This means that they went to the forest every day that week – no classes – just walking to the forest, listening to some stories, singing some songs & off you go – climbing & exploring! Tobias only went for 3 mornings cos he was in the "small" Kindi – which means the younger group.
Mummies can go too – if they want to cos the teachers do need help – they are really quite good with parent-involvement here. So i went along on the Wednesday. It was a combined event with the other 2 Kindi classes – so there was something like 50 to 60 kids there!

Everyone was to gather at their respective classes & walk from there to the forest – they chose a forest outside the "tick zone" (ticks are a problem here but only if u live in an area identified as a "tick zone" – i.e. where ticks bred) – which wasn’t the one closest to the Kindi but still within walking distance.

Here are the children waiting patiently:

Then off we went down the street, across the road, up the road behind the psychiatric hospital, over the little stream, up the slope & into the forest 😉

See that wheel-barrel? The kids all take turns to push & pull it – 2 of them will pull & 2 of them push from the back – it contains all the things they need for Forest Day. Each Kindi has their own. Great way to teach the kids to work together!

We gathered round for stories & songs:

Then the kids were let off to climb & explore!!
Here’s a shot of Tobias, walking the plank across the little river bed:

Here’s a couple of him up at the top of the very steep riverbank:

You can see they are climbing up using some ropes tied to the roots of that tree above them. There was lots of slipping & sliding but they always manage to hold on – amazingly good balance 😉 This was the activity which Tobias & his friend, Sebi, loved best & i was stationed at this point to help the smaller kids up the bank – so there are no photos of the other activities. There were swings built from logs & digging & simply walking the trails.

Then it was snack time, the teachers had already built the fire with the wood the kids had collected when we 1st got there so we sat around & ate – most just had crackers or biscuits or fruits. Some had sausages which could be grilled over the fire.

They needed more wood to make another swing so here are Tobias & his friend, Kaan, sawing a log:

Actually Tobias was just sitting on the log to stablize it & Kaan was doing most of the sawing 😉

Then it was back to more climbing & exploring before it was time to go back to school & sing a closing song & say byebye…

It was great for me to see him do all these "dangerous" things with such confidence & loving nature & being comfortable in it 🙂
i’m a proud mummy 😀
Next post – more interesting things done @ Kindi 😉
syc

…the update is that – sadly the strawberries have died – i have since found out that it was my fault – they weren’t growing as fast the cherry tomatoes so i gave them some fertilizers & apparently that killed them. "You are not suppose to give baby plants fertilizers! You wouldn’t give a 6 mth-old baby a steak, right?", that’s what a friend who was a home-ed teacher said.

The good news is that the cherry tomatoes are growing nicely & have been re-potted so they can have more room. i ended up with 16 plants, 5 of which i have given away (the ones in the round pot) & i think 3 more (that’s 1 long pot) are reserved to be given after summer hols.

Here’s a couple of pictures of them after re-potting:

Imagine all of those plants were in that one little round pot!
Now the only problem is i think they may actually fruit while we are away for the summer – sob!
At least i have someone who will look after them while we are in SG… so hopefully they will either continue to fruit when we are back or fruit late when we are here…
syc

…that’s right in 2.5 weeks Tobias officially finishes Kindergarten 1 – 1st year of Kindergarten – done & over with by 9th July 2010 😀
It is just now that i realised i have not written very much about his experience in Kindi & the great things he gets to do there. i have written about the pre-Kindi visit, the 1st day of Kindi but nothing very much after that…

So here’s to catching up (likely to be split into a few posts) from most recent events:

Yesterday (23rd June 2010) – was the Pirate Party @ Kindi. Strangely enough it was on a school night & took place from 6pm till 9pm. We were all asked to bring a dish (Tobias & i made Chocolate Walnut Cookies & also a Greek salad – the salad went down well, not so the cookies – either they were not cookie-people or everyone was simply too stuffed from all the food). It was great everyone brought lots to eat – salads & bread mainly. Everyone was to bring their own sausages to grill – now here’s the catch (which i didn’t catch onto) – everyone had to bring their own plates, forks/knives, cups & drink. i somehow completely missed that on the info sheet & brought nothing but Greek salad & cookies. People even provided serving spoons for the food they brought. Thank God one of the mums whom we know better had extras & shared with us – we were the only 2 there without our husbands. Walter was in Brussels & her husband had to work.

So here’s the shot of all the food (minus the lots of sausages which were on the grill which had too many people around it for a shot to be possible) & a couple of pictures showing people preparing their place for dinner:

But before we were allowed at the food, there were games to be played! The teacher (Frau Imhof or in English Ms Imhof) did a short intro to the evening & then the kids sang a few songs (could not take a video cos i had only my phone-cam with me).

At the last song, parents were invited to join in when it was their kids’ turn to dance in the centre. Here’s a shot of that happening:

Then we were told there were 14 stations of games & we could do any one but there was one everyone had to do – that was to guess how many goldfish (a type of biscuit which kids here love) were in the net. It was quite fun – here are a few shots of what we did get to do:

Cannon Ball at a cardboard ship

Digging for Treasure

Fishing

Obstacle Course

There was also face-painting which was where Tobias got the mustache – u can roughly see it in the Obstacle Course picture. We also tried our hand at making a net – Tobias wasn’t too interested – too complicated. There was a painting station as well as a skip-hop game. Also a Knock-the-Cans games & Hop-Across the Field. Tobias also got to try picking up shells & stones which his toes from a tub of water.

Oh, notice that the kids are all wearing coloured pirate bandannas – i believe the teachers (they have 2 teachers & 2 interns) made the basic shape & each child sewed on they own beads/sequins. & if you look at the photo of the singing, you will see them.

Then it was food time & then the prize for guessing the correct number of gold fish – there were 357 in the net. Sorry missed the shot of the fish in the net before they opened the net. After which the kids were let loose & had a great time running around as pirates, "attacking" people 😉

Needless to say, a very tired Tobias came home & slept in late this morning – good thing he had no Kindi this morning 😉
syc