Day 4: The sun is out to make us all feel happier

Day 4 of Coronavirus Stay at Home. This morning we even received an official text from government saying "New rules in force now: you must stay at home." No more just keeping your distance. Just stay at home.

So we joined Joe Wicks and the nearly 1 million other families at home to do today's PE session at 9am. It's a good workout that. Well for me at least! My legs were definitely aware of yesterday's session.

Then we did what we did after yesterday's PE session: had cake!

Late morning Andre played school with Isabella and they covered a lot of work. I was very impressed by his teaching skills! Big part of it is really also Isabella's eagerness to learn. While they were busy with school work, I did office work.

Andre gave Isabella a word each time to create a sentence with. Next we need to
practice joining ideas using 'and'.

In case you missed it, Isabella wrote the previous blog post all on her own. I just showed her how to add pictures, but
she did it herself. It took a while, so we need to work on speed.

Isabella and I spent the rest of the day in the garden- trampolining, blowing bubbles. AND we cleaned the greenhouse! I have been wanting to do that for YEARS! And it was so easy to clean actually. You can now see right through the (glass!) greenhouse to the other side! Seeds are getting more sunlight too. The glass was a yucky green before. I should have taken a before picture.

You can kind of still see the 'before' dirty glass to Isabella's right and the clean glass obviously to my left.

We're enjoying three meals a day TOGETHER now too which is lovely. Breakfasts aren't rushed, lunch we never had together before, and dinner we can start earlier, cooking together because we're less rushed to and from activities and Andre's commute is only a couple of steps now instead of 30 - 40 minutes drive!

I know this must be super hard for many people, especially those who had to close businesses and those getting really ill, but we are so thankful for all the good that is coming from this. Time to eat, play, learn and work together. And time to just be at home. It feels good not having to rush anywhere.

World Book Day

I said I won't be posting anything about work here but I'll post this link for you to go have a look at since it's online for all to see anyway ;-) World Book Day photo

We all dressed up as story book characters. I was Puss in Boots. I ordered the musketeer hat and the sword which the child on the left is holding. The children robbed me of my hat and sword as soon as I arrived and played with it most of the day. I let them draw my whiskers with eyeliner and they did a pretty good job. I did request a maximum of three whiskers each side and they did them quite small. You can't even see them in the picture really, only what looks like a dimple is really the children's whisker art on my cheek!

It was a really fun day, as most days are when you spend it working with children!

I wish I could share more of my job with you here. You can go like our Facebook page and see more photos there if you'd like.

Creative Kids fishy crafts

It's school holiday here are the moment and my craft classes are nice and busy with lots of kids coming to enjoy some crafts during the holiday time. Our theme for the holiday is Sea Creatures. Here's what we did today:

We used plastic water bottles to create these fish.

Some of the kids in todays class with their "Bottle Fish"

On Monday we also painted some underwater scenes
which turned out great.

You can see more of what we've been doing on the Creative Kids blog. www.creativekidsuk.co.uk

Saying good byes

André has now got a 6 months entry clearance visa to the UK. It came much sooner than we expected. They said minimum 5 working days and it took only 3! Once we're there we have to apply for the actual 5 year EEA family permit.

On Tuesday I went out for drinks with the girls I've worked with at the play school. It's sad to have to say good bye to all of them. I had such a great time working with them all. I got this cute cute card which they helped the kids make for me.

They drew around the kids' hands and then the kids stuck bits on to decorate it.

Very special. I have already packed it in a box to take with to the UK.

And flower seeds! Pink ones! I love that it's called 'Cupid Pink'. I'm looking forward to starting a bit of a garden once we're settled in our new home. (And this card makes me look forward to spring!) I will miss these little ones.

Then yesterday was the first week back after the holiday for my English class. The new teacher took over yesterday and I was there to introduce everyone and help the kids get to know their new teacher. We did some fun songs together which we all love doing. Not only them. I love doing really funny silly action songs! But after that I had to leave... The new teacher showed me all the lovely and exciting things she had planned for them for the lesson. I just wanted to stay. And join in and watch them. But I had to go. I had to allow her to now teach them. It was quite sad to have to get onto the train and come home while they were all still there having fun. I knew they were having fun so that was one good thing!

A sweet sweet boy gave me these flowers.

Aren't they just beautiful? So colourful! And each one different.

I love this pink one.

And this big white one.

While I now have colourful flowers in my kitchen, this is what it looks like upstairs. Very much the same as it looked a year ago before leaving South Africa! The removal company should be here on the 16th to pick up our things and then we're planning to fly to the UK very soon after that. Can't wait!

Last working day in Switzerland

Yesterday I had my last day at the playschool where I've been working. I will miss the cute little kiddies and also my colleagues. I really enjoyed working there. How many people can say they can go to work in jeans and pink fluffy slippers every day?

For now I am enjoying a little bit of holiday. We're spending a long weekend in Germany. For the first time we managed to leave early and I was excited to arrive in Germany in day light. But that did not happen... Just over an hour into our journey, right by the Austrian border, I suddenly realised with a shock that I left my passport and Euros at home!! Stupid stupid stupid. We turned around. Drove all the way back home. Got my passport and then tried again. It made our trip an extra 2 1/2 hours longer. Ergh. But we're here now and enjoying it :-) They now probably won't ask to see our passports, but had we not gone back to fetch it they probably would have!

What I've been doing with my mornings

I've been teaching at a playschool most mornings, working with children 18 months - 4 years old. Quite different from what I was used to- teaching grade one (age 6-7 year old children), but I've really enjoyed it. Above is the older group during circle time practicing numbers. You're wondering where the circle is? We're working on that too!

We do crafts every day and celebrate all the English and American holidays. These turkeys were for Thanksgiving. (It is an English playschool.) 

The entrance hall with a picture of each child on the wall. 

Toy room. 

Soft play room. (The kids' favourite!!)

Library

And the outside play area, mostly for summer time. As you can see it is now covered with snow...

My Tuesday and Wednesday classes

Yesterday I told you about my Thursday class. Today I'll tell you about my other two afternoon classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I'm looking for someone to take over these two classes from me, so if you're interested please let me know. It would of course help if you're a primary school teacher, but if not and you think you'd like to do this and like working with kids, let me know asap. I'll send you more details.

So on these two days I teach at Kidee, a learning centre for children. They offer all kinds of classes here and this is also where I did the Jungle book and Water theme summer camps. I teach English first language kids. So they speak mostly English at home, but attend a local school where they learn/ speak German. Their parents want them to still be able to read and write in their home language and so I teach them that.

I have two hours on a Tuesday, but at the moment I have only filled one hour. In this hour I have two 8 year old children. They are fairly fluent readers and able to write and spell quite well already. I give them reading exercises on topics they have chosen, comprehension tests, creative writing, spelling tests and we play word games. Lovely kids, hard working and eager to learn.

On a Wednesday I have a group of six children age 5-7. So they're between first year kindergarten and first year at school. We have now just finished learning all the sounds of the alphabet and next they'll start on double sounds like wh-, sh- etc. They have a book in which at first I gave them printed sentences with high frequency words to which they then drew pictures. Now they are able to write their own sentences and draw a picture with each sentence to remind them what it says. From not being able to read and spell 6 months ago they are now able to read and spell short words like cat, bed, and even longer ones like cave and love. These they know because we learnt that v cannot stand on it's own at the end of words. You see the letter v is Vicky Violet's vase and if it doesn't have an e after it at the end of words it will fall over and spill all the water and flowers. So always remember to put an e to make sure your vase won't fall over at the end of a word!

I love these kiddies, they are all really great children, well behaved, polite and so eager and excited to learn more. I will miss them when we have to leave.

My Thursday Class

I just got home from my "Thursday Class". And before I tell you about that I must just say that I noticed it was not completely dark yet when I left at 6pm. It did help that there weren't any clouds. It was a beautifully sunny day today. But I'm sure winter is slowly moving along south. Yippee! I can't wait for the longer days!

So I've been meaning for a long time to tell you what I do when I'm not at home writing blogs. And today I'll tell you about my Thursdays since thats what it is today. On Thursday afternoons I teach English to a small group of Swiss children. They're learning English as a second language and they've been in this class for two or three years now. They're six years old. And although most of them can't yet really have a conversation with me in English, they're doing really well and learning a lot of vocabulary. 

The picture above was taken in June. We did a lesson on kitchen vocab- table, knife, fork, etc so I brought sweets and we had a little picnic. A few of the kids have moved away after the summer when they started their first year in school. I now only have four kids in the class but tonight two was absent. It was so much calmer! They are real little busy bodies. And chatterboxes. My most difficult customer in the group was such an angel tonight and I guess that is why I now felt like writing about this class. It feels so good when a really difficult child is being so good for a change and participating. Hopefully it will be like that next week too when I have my last lesson with them.

Now another story about teaching here: We rent a classroom at an old age home. They like seeing the kiddies around. Tonight when I walked in, the door to the classroom was closed and a "Besetz" (occupied) sign was on the door. I knew what this meant. I've seen that sign a couple of weeks before. So I open the door, knock, say hello, say hello again, and again as I'm walking closer and right up to the old lady sitting at a table. She sees me, gets up, shakes my hand, asks me how I am etc all in Swiss German so I can't tell you exactly what she said. I ask her if she has a course on here tonight? There are two mattresses rolled out on the ground and some towels on the table. She says, what? I can't hear you. I repeat myself and she still can't hear me. I see her hearing aid lying on the table and it takes her another moment to realise that too. Because, I continue then, I have kids for an English lesson here from 5-6. No no she says, impossible, she has been here for years at this time for her class. Right, I think, you weren't here last week. And I know from a previous experience that you have got the days muddled up. (I don't say this to her.) I say instead: On a Thursday?  Yes, yes, for years, she says. On a Thursday from 5-6? Every Thursday, I ask. Hang on, she says and checks her diary lying open on the table. I look over her shoulder and see stuff written in at Fridays date. Nothing for Thursday. Oh dear, she says, it's Thursday today? I had the days mixed up. And she packs her things and leaves.

Now if I didn't have a class there on a Thursday, it would have been the second time she would have sat there waiting for her people. She teaches a breathing class she told me the previous time.

Good thing I showed up to tell her it's not quite Friday yet. But she made me speak an awful lot of poor German to make her understand that.

busy busy

Tomorrow is Friday and finally the end of another week. I'm still adjusting to the new job and I will do a proper post hopefully soon to tell you all about that. I'm just a little tired at the moment. New teaching jobs do that to you. It takes some time getting used to it. Luckily it is school holidays for 2 weeks now. That doesn't mean I won't be working. The play school does not close for school holidays and today I actually started working there full time which means every morning. But at least I won't be teaching in the afternoons for 2 weeks. Yay! No rushing around from one venue to another and planning lessons and making resources for my four different classes.

This sort of a holiday is timed perfectly because my dad is arriving for a visit on Monday. They leave again next week Friday and then we have friends from the UK coming for a visit. I'm very excited to have visitors and happy that at least I will have some extra time to spend with them.

So just wanted to say I'm still here and will write more soon, hopefully over the weekend!

Have a great weekend!

Schulbeginn

I'm 3 weeks late with this blog. The new school year started 17th August. These pictures have been sitting on my laptop but I've had so many other things to write about and so little time. The first time in a long time I'm having a slow relaxing morning again today. School work is all planned for the week. The house is clean. The fridge is full. So time to catch up on blogs!

I went to a lot of trouble getting these pictures. Hanging out the car window, telling André to go slower! Being a teacher I just had to get pictures of this to show you. These signs are all over Switzerland and we've driven around quite a bit. You see them when you enter every town, warning you that school has started again and to watch out for the kids on their way to school.

Isn't it great how they care about the safety of the kids? You see even the littlest ones walking to school on their own with their little orange reflectors over they're chests to make them more visible along the road.

I especially like this poster of the girl saying, "Hey, you stop for me okay." Or something like that in what I assume is Swiss German because I don't recognise it as proper High German. And at the bottom it says: Beware, children on their way to school!

I got another teaching job!

But first I have to say, what's with this HEAT? It is extremely hot here in der Scheiwz. I wish I had a thermometer at home so I could tell you how hot it really is now. I'm sitting out on the balcony, I dragged my desk chair outside because we don't have outside furniture yet so I'm actually very comfy (it's a good chair :-), and if I use my imagination I can feel a tiny little bit of cooler air. But I think it's just my imagination, that's all. André always says women don't sweat, we just glow. Well I don't think there was any glowing going on today, it was definitely sweating! So Switzerland is not only all about snow. Oh no.

Last week I went for another interview. This one to work only mornings as my afternoons are now all filled with English lessons and the classes are filling up nicely. The owner of this English play school is actually moving to South Africa. Not only South Africa, but to Atlantic Beach Golf Estate in Melkbos! Small world! Her husband is South African and so they are moving back there with their son. She has sold the school to someone else. I got the job to take over the curriculum planning from her and to teach. I spent the morning there today and really enjoyed it. I start next month and I'm looking forward to it. Now I can really settle into a routine and know where I'm going and where the money is coming from! Andre has been such a good husband and taking very good care of his new wife, but it would be good to earn some of my own money again too.

I've had almost a year off now. And I haven't been bored for a bit. I love being at home. But it will be good to work again too. (I just keep telling myself that!)

So have I told you how hot it is? Shame I hear you Cape Tonians are being washed away there by the rain. I've put the cookies I baked into the freezer to have something cool to nibble on. It makes them nice and crunchy.

Ok, let me stop talking nonsense now and sort out Saturday's photos of Bern so I can show you.

Another Summer camp

This time the theme was pirates and water. I don't know much about pirates and they've never interested me. They are bad and violent people and I wouldn't choose to teach kids about this, but if you leave the violent part out, kids do like to play pirates, especially the boys. (The girls enjoyed trying on the jewelry in the treasure chest.)

We had a pirate ship in the one classroom in which the kids could play with a treasure chest with some 'treasures' in, which they could fight over. Each time I would take it away and hide it in a drawer. By the 3rd day they would bring me the treasure chest themselves to hide when a fight breaks out! Proper pirates!!

We made all the accessories pirates need- hats, telescopes, treasure maps and so on with a treasure hunt on the last day. We also learnt a bit about water- the water cycle and fish. Here's the scene from the story "Drippy the raindrop" about the water cycle.

There were 22 3-5 year olds from 8:30 - 16:30 with 2 teachers and an assistant. Again it was a bilingual course and I of course did the English part. The assistant was a great help and could speak perfect English too.

I did enjoy it but am glad it was only three days. On Tuesday evening I was totally exhausted. André laughed at me because all I could do was sit and stare. Went to bed early and just lay there! I couldn't even hold up a book to read!

When I woke up on Wednesday morning I was wondering why my legs felt as though I've done a really tough gym class, sore muscles like when you've had a proper workout. Then I realized it's from bending down all day long to these little kids and squatting on the floor beside them!

I am really appreciating the day off today! I had a lazy morning, didn't even walk with André to the station this morning. André cleaned the whole house on Tuesday when he was home (and he does a better job than I do actually) so I don't even have house work to do. Such a good husband I have :-)

Summer camp

Here are just some pictures of the summer camp I did with another teacher this week. It was a bilingual camp and the theme was The Jungle Book. We had lots of fun with the kids :-) Another one in two weeks time!

The board game the kids made with pictures of the Jungle Book animals and questions about the animals.

Origami wolves and paper mache tigers:

Spiral snakes:

A busy week with kids

It's been almost a week since my last post. I've had a really busy week. Hardly had any time with my laptop. I'm teaching at a summer camp all week. I haven't been this happy about it being Friday in a long time! I'm actually really enjoying it. The kids are great. A nice small group of 8 kids and we're 2 adults so I can't really complain. But I'm not used to it anymore and was exhausted after the first 2 days. Slowly getting used to it again now. But it's a long day with the kids - 8:30-16:30.

I'll write a proper blog tomorrow night and tell you all about it.

Job hunting update

It's been a while since I've written anything about my job hunting so I thought I better update those interested!

I didn't get the full time Kindergarten teaching job in Horgen. Although the money would have been good having a full time job, I was a little relieved. I would have had to leave the house everyday while André is still asleep. Just thinking about the traveling already made me tired.

Last week Monday I found an add for teaching English here in Dietikon. Isn't that great, it's a 10 min walk from our flat. So I sent off my CV and immediately got a call back and had an interview the next day. All went well and I joined the class on Thursday. Hang on I think I've told you this before... let me check.. no can't find it, I must have emailed this story to someone that's why it's starting to sound familiar now. So anyway, I went to see what the class is like. It was great, 8 little kids, 6-7 years old. I just went to observe the lesson but also had fun joining in all the activities for the hour. Now that's the thing.. it's only one hour a week so I'll have to find more part time teaching jobs. Can't only be working for one hour a week! I got the job and we now just have to wait for my permit which should arrive soon soon. I am allowed to work since I've got an EU passport, but it's best we wait for all the papers and make sure I'm legal.

I'll be substituting 2 classes in June here in Dietikon and another 2 closer to Zurich, also in June with this company. It's a great start and hopefully more work will come from them. Oh, this is teaching English as a foreign language. Most of these kids can not yet speak or understand much English.

Then I've also posted on 2 expat sites that I teach English lessons and got good feedback from that. So this weekend I created my own website with all my details on to email to those interested in lessons.

Tomorrow I'm seeing a mother who is also interested in lessons. They're American so the kids can speak English (obviously), but will be attending a local school and she wants them to also start learning to read and write in English. (At the local school they will learn German with English only as a second language at a basic level.) She already has a venue and possible others who might be interested in English first language lessons.

Besides that, I'm keeping myself busy today by sorting out my files on my laptop. I'm converting all my .doc files (which came from my windows pc) to pages to use on my mac. It's quite a pain when you accidentally click on a .doc file and it starts up windows. It takes forever and everything comes to a standstill.

I walked André to the train station this morning. It was such a beautiful morning. A lovely sunny day today. I've opened up all the windows in the Wintergarten so the house feels nice and fresh.

I also took a walk to the recycling bins where I dropped off our empty tins and wine bottles (only 2!) of the past two weeks. I think I should take another walk. I'm not getting enough exercise...

Interview in Oberrieden

This morning (Monday) I went for an interview at another bilingual school, close to the other I went to. Also a nice school. Very small still, only one group which they divide into two classes it sounds like. Really young kids, some are not even quite two years old yet, up to I think about 4. Max 12 kids in the group which is nice and often they don't even have that many since some don't come every day or only come for the morning.

Oh I forgot to mention... they are open from 7:30 - 18:30! They're offering a 50% post and are very flexible. It might be 3 full days per week or everyday for half the day. Don't know how anyone can work such long hours with kids FULL time!! No school holidays... they're open right through the year so you get 20 days leave per year. They also offer language

classes and asked if I might be interested in teaching English as a second or foreign language. I said I would like that a lot.

The school has another branch, the original one in the next door town called Thalwil, where they have kindergarten, so the kids are a bit older.

Now I have to wait and see...

The pictures I took while waiting for the train in Oberrieden after the interview. Stunning view of the Zurich See...

This afternoon I prepared my lesson for next week which I'll be teaching at the school in Horgen with the pre-K class. I've also been hunting for more apartments today. I tried calling a some and after a few unsuccessful calls remembered it's a holiday in Zurich. Only in Zurich city though. I must go find out why it's a holiday today... Ok I found it: Here's the info from a website:

Sechseläuten:

20 April 2009, Half-day holiday in Zürich City. (they now take a full day holiday) Celebrated to mark the end of winter, this is one of Zürich's most colourful festivals. The name signifies the six o'clock bell which called the workers home. A costume parade of the 26 guilds leads from the Hauptbahnhof down the Bahnhofstrasse to Sechseläutenplatz at Bellevue. Around 3000 guild members, riders and horse-drawn vehicles take part. The climax is the burning of the Böögg, a figure of a snowman, on a bonfire at 18:00; the quicker it burns, the better the summer will be.

Good excuse not to go to work!

Unfortunately Andre's company chose today to welcome him at their head office which is NOT in Zurich. So he didn't get the day off. Instead he had to get up at 4:45 this morning and travel 3 hours in four different trains and one bus to get there! I'm still waiting for him to get home (19:24).

Here's a short video clip I took on my walk before the interview.

Oberrieden, Switzerland from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

First interview

Yesterday I went for my first interview. It's a private Swiss school and is bilingual so children are taught in English and German. Both mixed, they don't choose the language they want. In kindergarten and pre-kindergarten, which I applied for they get both language all day everyday mixed. From grade one they are taught half the week in English and then the other half of the week in German. It looks like a really nice school, meaning they have GREAT resources! But then that's expected if the parents are paying huge amounts of money... In the pre-K class's art room one whole wall is filled with shelves of art supplies. Lots and lots of it!

Pay is good for a teacher salary, but then you work normal office hours. No going home at 14:15 like I got to do last year... Teachers must be at school at 8:15 and school starts at 8:45. There are very long lunch breaks and play time and lots of free play of course for the littlies. But all kids then only go home at 15:45. That includes the 3 year olds in pre-K. Shame what a long day for them (and for the teachers!) So I guess that's why the pay is better than in SA... You WORK for it! Oh and you also only get about half the holiday time to actually be on holiday, which ends up to about the same as any other working person in Switzerland. The rest of the holiday time is spent on courses and some of it at school, planning etc.

Yesterday's interview was for a 100% post, i.e. full time. They work with percentages you can e.g. have a 40% or 60% or whatever job. Monday's interview is for a 50% post so only part time. Will be interesting to compare the hours and salary.

mmm... What else happened yesterday... Oh yes I managed to also travel on the bus and two trains to the interview all by myself! I was more nervous about the traveling than the interview. All went very well though. I went in the right direction on all the right trains and got there exactly on the minute as the schedule said I would. If you're on the train wondering how far it still is to your stop, you can just check your watch and know exactly how long it will still take. I was so focused on getting there, had my directions all written down which I checked every two minutes. But I never gave one thought to how I would get back! Was very easy though. So that's another accomplishment. I should make a list of accomplishments, will be quite a few all in one week!

Yesterday I also went to open a joint account for me and Andre. So I will now have my money in my account and his money in our joint account. Clever don't you think!

Oh and I also accidently found the shopping area of Baden. I think it's what they call downtown Baden. It's a long street with shops on both sides. No cars, only for walking in this street. And it's by the river. Really nice. Everyone was outside having their lunch.

Ok, let's see what else I can find to do today... Andre's working from home today. Yay! So nice to have company here all day.

Enjoy your Friday!