Alex's Goodbye Party

Alex's teacher told us that his classmates were concerned about him leaving, and so she wanted to throw a little party for him, to help the kids say goodbye in a way that made sense to them, and also to help Alex know that he was loved and would be missed. How could we say no to that?

So yesterday I baked up the last of my brownie mix, and this morning I popped a few bags of popcorn, and at 9:00 Dennis, Joey, and I waded through the snow to Alex's class.

The snow!  It's incredibly deep, now, and, as though I bundled the kids up for school in boots, and snow pants, and sweatshirts, and jackets, I couldn't believe I was sending them out in such weather. But now they'll be able to tell their kids "When I was your age, I walked to school in the driving snow. Uphill. Alone, in a foreign country!"

But Alex made it to school, and he looked very happy when we arrived.  As I've mentioned, Kindergarten in Switzerland is all about learning through playing, and so the kids have amassed quite a long repetoir of games with which they're familiar.  But today, because it was Alex's special day, he got to be in charge of all them.

When we got to school, Joey ran right into the classroom and joined the circle of Kindergarteners, all official-like, and Alex very sweetly wrapped his arm around his brother and made sure he knew what he was supposed to do.  And whenever the class played a game that involved volunteers, Alex made sure to choose his brother first first of all.

That was a bit of a problem when the class played the Smarties game. Smarties are a lot like M&Ms, and for the game, a lucky volunteer gets to close his eyes while a Magician (Alex) carefully spreads out five Smarties, says some magic words ("Simsalabim" is a standard German incantation), and then touches one of the five candies with a magic wand.  Then the volunteer can open his eyes and eat the candies, one at a time, until he touches the magically chosen Smartie.  Then the whole class yells Stopp, and stop eating he must.

As you can imagine, the tension is thick in the room as the volunteer guesses anxiously, trying to eat as many candies as possible (four) before he needs to Stopp.

But wouldn't you know it: when it was Joey's turn to choose, he selected the magical M&M on the very first pick.  He didn't understand what was going on at all: in his point of view, he was offered yummy candy, but when he tried to eat one, it was taken away. Not cool!

Luckily, he was too confused (and awed by the big kids) to complain.

Anyway, this particular game is Alex's favorite, apparently, so today the class played it many, many times.  It was amazing to me, how calm and accepting the class was, watching a few lucky ones eat candy in front of them.  Although because the class were such good sports, Alex was allowed to pass around a bowl, and each child got to take exactly one Smartie in the end.  And Frau Ziegler gifted Alex with the class's most special magic wand and an entire tube of smarties at the end of class.  Alex was beyond excited. And he very cutely asked the teacher if it would be okay to share some of the candies with his sister.  Gern!

There were many, many other games today.  The class played freeze-dance to the Macarena, with Alex in charge of the cd player. However, he was very busy making the class laugh, doing extra-exaggerated butt-wiggles to the dance, and kept forgetting to stop the music.  Frau Ziegler let him enjoy his moment: she told me that, just in the last month or so, Alex has really become comfortable with the class, and I could see it at that moment, especially. He looked so happy.

A few days ago, the class all drew pictures for Alex, and the teacher bound them in a book.  To receive his present, the Frau Ziegler had one of his classmates hide the book in the room, and then the class played "hotter, colder" with Alex while he searched.  Silly Alex pretended to blow on his hot hands when he found his gift.  Later, he told me, confidentially, "I wish there were pictures of the kids in there, too.  I'm going to miss this place."

Of course he will: it's an incredibly sweet class, and the teachers have worked so hard to build a community in the classroom.  It was interesting to me, how many of the class's games dealt with paying attention to classmates, and recognizing them, and building rapport.  In one game, a member of the class was hidden under a blanket, and then Alex had to figure out who in the class was missing.  In another, while Alex hid his face, one of his classmates tapped his back and talked to him, and Alex had to guess who the classmate was by the sound of his voice.

There were songs today, so many of them.  It was nice to hear the class sing the things that Alex has been chirping at home all these months.  For my favorite and Alex's, five of the classmates put on paper bunny ears and hopped around the room while the class sang a song about a fox eating them, one by one.  Alex played the fox, and he got to tap out the hopping bunnies, one by one.  Except, during one of the rounds of the song, Joey was a bunny, and he got tired from all that hopping and sat back in his chair in protest.  Alex covered for his brother: giggling, he pretended to tap out an invisible bunny instead.

But all in all, Joey made a fairly good Kindergartener.  When it was recess, Frau Ziegler actually offered to keep Joey there, with the class, so that I could have some time to myself. "He is so sweet," she said.  Dennis and I asked Alex how he felt about having Joey stay with him, and he was all for it...but he also wanted the rest of us to stay, too.  He's a family man.

Dennis is scrambling to get work finished, so he couldn't entertain the idea, but I had some time, so I stayed through the rest of the day, enjoying a long snowball fight with Alex's classmates on the playground, and watching their whole little Advent calendar ceremony after recess.  It was awfully sweet, and the teacher had Alex play the special Advent calendar song on the xylophone for me, so that I could see it.

So that's on the video below, as are a lot of the other things I described.  Alex has already watched this video several times: he's feeling nostalgic, already, about his lovely little class.  Dennis and I are so glad that he loves his class, but oh, we feel bad, uprooting him yet again, and taking him away from such a wonderful group of friends.

Later this afternoon, Alex's friend Bleart's family stopped by with chocolates and an enormous calendar for Alex, with the cover page reading "from ur best friend Bleart," whose mother asked Alex to please keep in touch by video chatting.

And when his teacher helped Alex page the class's book, Alex looked really sad, and he got really quiet. Frau Ziegler noticed, and gave him a little hug, consoling him: "Please write us, Alex, and we'll write you back," she promised.  And so he shall.