September 1st… Fall seems to be arriving early in this neck of the woods. And school starts even earlier, in early August. Axel has now been attending a Krippe (daycare) part-time for almost a month.
It’s a pretty big change for him (and for me!), but they have a whole process that they go through here called Eingewöhnung (“acclimatization” or “familiarization”), which is a 2-week transitory period during which one of the parent is expected to be available and stay with the child, at least for the first few days. Perhaps they have something similar in the US or France? I have no idea, this is all new to me.
So the first day of school, parents (sometimes both parents) stay in a corner, trying to be as passive as possible, while the children explore their new surroundings and the Erzieherinnen (educators) go on a charm offensive to get the kids to warm up to them quickly. This goes on for a couple of hours, then that’s it for the day. On the third or fourth day, parents try going away for 15-20 minutes to see how each child reacts to being left with the educators. If there are tears, they try to comfort the kids, and if that doesn’t work, then the parent is brought back in and they try it again the next day.
The following week, the kids stay for a bit longer and the parents “disappear” for longer periods of time, until both educators and parents agree to try leaving the child for the entire time. Of course some parents simply can’t take time off to go through this process, so some kids have to deal with the new reality pretty abruptly. Also, reactions seem to vastly differ from child to child. Some kids understand the awful truth quickly and resist strongly, and spend a lot of time crying.
Others, like Axel, seem to whine mostly when their mothers are within sight, and apparently turn into complete angels when somebody else is in charge. So even though Axel is the youngest of the group (or maybe because of this) he’s adapted very quickly and has adopted the educators (and the new toys) without much fuss. Right now there are only 5 babies for 2 educators and an intern (a young man, Axel is best buddies with him already) — I’m told they are expecting 3 or 4 more children before the end of the year.
So all in all this has gone very smoothly. Axel doesn’t seem fazed by a third language being added to his day-to-day. The only problem we have is that he is forced to skip his morning nap, so he tends to be very tired when I pick him up. But I know all is well because when I drop him off in the mornings, he jumps out of my arms and excitedly toddles off without a look back… A page has definitely turned!
Baltic Baby 
