![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Sep. 16th, 2007 09:19 pmA good weekend. I didn't get much writing done (that's how weekends generally are, it seems). But some. Otherwise it's been a rather kid-oriented weekend. Friday night was the beginning of the year kickoff for the youth I work with, so I got to help run a dance/food thing.
Observations:
Germans dance real dances, and Americans might do "moves," but it's a lot more improvised.
Because of that, German and American kids do not often dance with each other.
The boys hide in the hall and the girls dance in a group.
It's a lot more entertaining to be an adult at these things than an angsty teen. On the other hand, it's not so fun when you're the person who has to crack down on people breaking rules. I'm a terrible authority figure. You know Ron and Hermione as prefects? Well, let's just say that it's not Hermione who I most identify with there.
Then yesterday (after a whole-family archaeological expedition to clean the boys' room after the summer), I took the kids with a friend to a Biergarten (outdoor picnic area with German food for sale nearby) at an old farm. There was a playground and the kids kicked around a soccer ball and played a game their kids discovered on holiday in France. (Bouille--perhaps I'm not spelling it right? Old men play this game--and our friends' kids.) The youngest girl is my daughter's friend from kindergarten, and they are half German, half Australian. They moved here from the US and so the older boys went through the same difficult transition as my kids. They go to a different school unfortunately, but we play when we can. Their kids are just nice kids, the kind that respect others and are smart and energetic but never bully-ish.
Today a family I know from another town visited our local church congregation, and they also have three kids around our kids' ages. Again, smart kids who are energetic in a nice way--they run around a lot, but inside they are peaceful, if that makes sense--and our two oldest hit it off well. There is also a Russian family who moved here most recently from elsewhere in Germany with boys the same age. They left early after church instead of hanging around to play with our kids, and begged their mother to call us up so they could see our kids. So we did and they had a lovely time running around together.
None of these kids go to school with mine, but I can't say how glad I am for all these good friend experiences this weekend. My kids really need them. I'm always glad when my kids can make friends with someone around them, but with all three sets of kids this weekend, there was a spark of connection there, not just circumstances throwing them together. They were on the same wavelength, and it's been a long time since I've seen that. Hopefully we can repeat this kind of thing often.
Observations:
Germans dance real dances, and Americans might do "moves," but it's a lot more improvised.
Because of that, German and American kids do not often dance with each other.
The boys hide in the hall and the girls dance in a group.
It's a lot more entertaining to be an adult at these things than an angsty teen. On the other hand, it's not so fun when you're the person who has to crack down on people breaking rules. I'm a terrible authority figure. You know Ron and Hermione as prefects? Well, let's just say that it's not Hermione who I most identify with there.
Then yesterday (after a whole-family archaeological expedition to clean the boys' room after the summer), I took the kids with a friend to a Biergarten (outdoor picnic area with German food for sale nearby) at an old farm. There was a playground and the kids kicked around a soccer ball and played a game their kids discovered on holiday in France. (Bouille--perhaps I'm not spelling it right? Old men play this game--and our friends' kids.) The youngest girl is my daughter's friend from kindergarten, and they are half German, half Australian. They moved here from the US and so the older boys went through the same difficult transition as my kids. They go to a different school unfortunately, but we play when we can. Their kids are just nice kids, the kind that respect others and are smart and energetic but never bully-ish.
Today a family I know from another town visited our local church congregation, and they also have three kids around our kids' ages. Again, smart kids who are energetic in a nice way--they run around a lot, but inside they are peaceful, if that makes sense--and our two oldest hit it off well. There is also a Russian family who moved here most recently from elsewhere in Germany with boys the same age. They left early after church instead of hanging around to play with our kids, and begged their mother to call us up so they could see our kids. So we did and they had a lovely time running around together.
None of these kids go to school with mine, but I can't say how glad I am for all these good friend experiences this weekend. My kids really need them. I'm always glad when my kids can make friends with someone around them, but with all three sets of kids this weekend, there was a spark of connection there, not just circumstances throwing them together. They were on the same wavelength, and it's been a long time since I've seen that. Hopefully we can repeat this kind of thing often.
