Know When to Fold 'em

Changes are brewing here, and we're sending the boys to a new school. Wrapping my head around the events that got us here, I wrote this last week. I'll post the update in the next day or two.

Three, it's a magic number. That's what everyone told us anyway.

As a child, our friend Andrée lived for a year in France when her father was on sabbatical. She spent the first three months in school mute and then busted out in perfect French.

A nursing student who babysat for us last year waxed poetic about her time in the Netherlands in elementary school. She left without any knowledge of Dutch and came home fluent. “It took about three months,” she told us.

And Karl's mother, Char, an ESL teacher of many years, said something clicks for kids after three months' time in an immersion situation. “Christmas, it all comes together around Christmas.”

I could go on. But none of that really matters when it's not coming together for your kid.

Ben –– we learned recently –– has really been struggling with school. He got into a downward spiral situation which involved other kids in the class actively excluding him from break-time activities and him shutting down and not participating in class. His teacher said he would eat during class (rather than break, when it was allowed), go to the bathroom many times, and sit in the knees-up position reading an English book. (He would not earn any checks for that!) She let him because she felt badly for him.

Garrett, on the other hand, seems to be on the verge of actually speaking Czech. Although he would claim differently, his teachers say that he communicates effectively, either in using very simple Czech (with beautiful pronunciation!) or hand gestures. He makes himself understood. And based on what he tells us about his school day, it's obvious he's absorbing more than what he would be observing visually.

But Garrett's class, kindergarten, is the perfect place for a child learning a new language. The schedule is very predictable. The agenda is all play, all day. (I'm sure there's more to it than that, but from a kid's point of view, that's the take home.)

In second grade, however, Ben has to sit through subjects such as science, Česky jazyk (Czech language), and social studies all in a different language. The only one he enjoys is math. It must be comforting that the numbers are the same.

Compounding the different environments are their wildly different temperaments. Garrett is social, gregarious, not too afraid to take risks –– in other words well suited to pick up a new language. Ben is much more internally focused, intellectual and precise, a bit shy.

We're three months into the academic year. Ben is miserable when he's at school, a fact we did not understand fully until last week. We knew he wasn't happy about the set up, but he didn't talk about school at home. And at home he was very content.

We've gone back and forth on this, but the bottom line is we want our children to enjoy this year. And so, we're pulling the plug on our cultural experiment at ZS Tusarova and looking into enrolling Ben and Garrett at one of the international schools.

I'm conflicted about this only because Garrett is right on the cusp of speaking Czech. And he actually enjoys school now, which wasn't the case back in October. His teachers tell us each day how much more he communicates than even the week before.

Should we have gone this route from the beginning? I don't know. I guess I'm glad we tried it, and equally glad that Karl and I are on the same page in recognizing the need to change.

This whole parenting thing is a big kick in the pants sometimes.

Happy birthday, G!

Six years ago today, on a nippy afternoon in Cooperstown, New York, Garrett made his way into our arms and hearts. Not one to hide his light under a bushel, he immediately demonstrated his powers of amplification by entering screaming.


I don't put too much weight on astrological signs, but I learned recently that Sagittarius, Garrett's sign, is considered a "masculine," "positive (extrovert)" sign. It's also a fire sign and a mutable sign (which one source defined as inherently unstable, wavering, inconstant).

To all that I say: boy howdy ... don't get me started.

Since that first night Garrett looked us in the eye and screamed his head off, we have discovered some of his other qualities and talents. He's whip-smart, often cheerful, sometimes belligerent, generous, hilarious, and snuggly. He's mischievous. Mercurial, too -- perhaps I should just say mutable. He loves and enjoys life ... when he's not trying to make himself and everyone within earshot miserable. And the boy cannot resist the opportunity to dance. (If you have the time, download that video and check out his moves. It gets really fun at 47 seconds.)




Karl has to teach this afternoon and evening, so we started celebrating this occasion yesterday afternoon with a trip to Cirkus Andres. We had our cake after the circus. And this morning Garrett gets to open his presents and play, play, play.

Ben and Garrett enjoy their cotton candy as they wait with Dad for the circus to begin. Some of the acts we saw featured flame jugglers,


tigers leaping and rolling,


and a trapeze performer.


"The bad thing about being a lady trapeze artist is that you have to show your butt cheeks to everyone," Garrett noted. "I bet the trapeze guys don't have to wear that outfit."

I imagine you're right, Garrett.

Happy birthday, sweet, funny boy!


If you leave a comment with birthday wishes for our Sagittarian, we'll make sure he gets them!

Chilly Babies

It snowed over the weekend, just a dusting. But David Černy's "Miminka" ("Babies") were left out in the cold.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll admit the obvious -- it's hard to be away for one of your favorite holidays.

But the day was better than I had thought it would be. The glorious sunshine played no small part in this. Karl and I spent the morning running errands, which was delightful to do together rather than solo. Then we picked up the boys at school and headed to the Globe Cafe and Bookstore for Thanksgiving dinner.


We enjoyed the usual fare -- turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie -- and didn't have to wash the dishes. All to the soothing sounds of some reggae and ska music. (Which was fun, a little random.)

Ben, psyched for pumpkin pie!


Karl and Tintin entertain Garrett between courses.


We definitely missed our family and friends and toasted our good fortune to have such wonderful family and friends to miss.

I hope that sounded right.

Dining with Cavemen

Here's the thing about caveman food: our kids don't like it.

As I suspected, Ben and Garrett both earned the requisite checks to go out for dinner tonight at Restaurant Pravěk. Off we went to enjoy a meal with our well-mannered progeny.


When mammoth tusks greet you inside the door, you get the sense you're in for something different.


But despite the great decor, it was a disappointment as dining experiences go. The food was so so. The music was all wrong.* And the service was ambivalent. I mean, our server hardly had a pulse, nevermind a bone in her hair.

We realized a little too quickly that this wouldn't be the wild night with cavemen we had envisioned. But you know what? The boys, while bummed, took it pretty well. Who knew this "reward dinner" would provide its own opportunity to demonstrate a mature response to a lesson about life's inevitable disappointments.

We've moved on. Garrett has already put in his vote for our next reality restaurant. Any guesses?



It figures.


* Really. If you go to the trouble of painting the primitive sketches and hanging the bones on the walls, you might reconsider the 80s and 90s mix. "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and animal skins should share a venue only if Ricky Gervais is involved.

Although, on second thought, Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" probably did have a place on the hit list.

Berlin!

Just back from Berlin and -- hoo boy! -- are we tired. We saw everything ...

the Reichstag,


Checkpoint Charlie,


the Berliner Dom,


the Brandenburg Gate,


and even a dramatic re-enactment of the fall of the Berlin Wall.


And that was just at the Legoland Discovery Center.


It's true. Before we saw any of the major sights of the German capital, we hit Legoland because (1) this trip was planned in part as an early birthday celebration for Garrett, who will be six in two weeks, and (2) it was raining on Saturday.

For those who wonder if our life overseas is as glamorous as it might sound, ponder for a moment spending several hours of a raining Saturday afternoon at Legoland. Anywhere. Barriers of language, political philosophy, and geographic borders are torn down as children universally demonstrate the ability to scream like they're being murdered while having the time of their lives. Oh, the noise, noise, noise, noise.

Our other Saturday treat (and this was a treat for all) was spending time with Ruthie, a good friend of our nephew Jake, who has made an appearance at several family gatherings. Pursuing (at this point) a major in government and a double-minor in German and Spanish, Ruthie is spending a semester in Berlin. We all went to the German Museum of Technology before having lunch at Potsdamer Platz.


Not unlike Bara, Ruthie is loads of fun. Ben and Garrett were psyched to have a willing co-conspirator in the goofy face photo contest. (Although, Ruthie? I've seen your Facebook profile. You can do goofier than this.)



With Legoland out of the way, we settled for discovering the city itself by

mugging for photos at the Brandenburg Gate,


having passports stamped at remains of the Berlin Wall,


orienting ourselves to the city's layout from the observation deck in the TV tower,


absorbing the depths of the Holocaust memorial,


and playing in the dry fountain of the Berliner Dom.


Ask any parent. It's not always easy to travel with kids. They did come in handy at the Reichstag, though.

As we stood on line for what would have been a 60-minute queue to the dome a guard told us that families were welcome to use the handicapped entrance. Actually, it never would have been a 60-minute wait for us. We wouldn't have lasted that long.


The dome was stunning. Such a modern addition to the neo-classical design. Its airiness provides a contrast to the heavy wedding cake effect of the original facade. The central column, a tornado of mirrors, reflects light into the plenary hall of the Bundestag.


Tilted layers of the dome's beehive have gaps at the bottom for ventilation, and at the top of the structure, an opening roughly 20-feet in diameter allows heat to escape. A massive shade rotates throughout the day to reduce the sun's glare.


The tour was very cool and, surprisingly, free.

Speaking of sun, once we put Saturday's rain to bed, we enjoyed ridiculously unseasonable weather -- clear skies and temps in the 60s. Which means, of course, we overpacked by about four sweaters, two turtlenecks, and a bunch of woolen socks.

It also meant that the boys were lucky to experience their first snow of the season -- even if it was man-made -- thanks to a tubing slope erected at Potsdamer Platz. Regardless of what the thermometer said, this was Germany, and winter is coming ... what would the Christmas markets be without snow?


Auf wiedersehen!



Some more pictures for your viewing pleasure, bears included.

At the wall display.

Hot cocoa toast with Olympic bear.

The Berliner Dom (Cathedral)



Reichstag ornamentation


Holocaust Memorial

Statue of Liberty bear, inside US embassy

In the Reichstag dome


Fernsehturm (the TV tower)


Does it look to you as if Garrett's interest in bears is waning?


Yeah, me too.


Berlin Wall display at Potsdamer Platz


Postal bear (the painted birds are delivering stamped envelopes)


Holocaust Memorial

Scuba bear


Brandenburg Gate


Front row on top deck of double decker bus



Ampelmann ("I am happy to be crossing the street in the land of the workers' paradise.")