Christmas Box

One of Isabella's first nursery projects is to prepare a Christmas box for a child in need. It's like Operation Christmas Child in the UK.

We're sending it to a nursery aged girl. She will probably be from Syria or the Ukraine. We're filling it with lots of little treats. 

It really makes me aware and grateful for just how lucky Isabella is and therefore how lucky we are.

Parent Rep

Here in German schools, things are run much more democratically than in England.  At my first disciplinary meeting for a pupil, I was surprised to find so many people there - the pupil, all of her teachers, her parents, the class rep and a parent rep.

At the start of every year, every class elects student representatives to represent the interests of all pupils.  They actually take it very seriously and on the whole, do a good job.

In the same way, the first parents' evening is used to elect parent representatives.  Unfortunately, not all classes have parents who are interested in or able to do the job.  My class is in its second year without a rep.  It doesn't disaadvantage us too much as teachers (some reps can be quite a hinderance to the job) but it is so much nicer to have cooperation.

That is why, in the run up to Isabella's first parents' evening, Nico and I agreed that if there were not enough willing volunteers, we would  be prepared to do the job.

In the event, that is exactly what happened and I volunteered to be the second rep for Isabella's class.  It is a responsibility that I take seriously but to be fair, it's not a huge task.  Next week is our first meeting and we'd like to get the parents together regularly but apart from that, it's just helping out with some events and making sure that the staff have what they need and that the parents are happy.

I'm so looking forward to getting started next week and helping to make Isabella's nursery time very special.

Sewing Project 2014 - 10 Nursery birdy

Yesterday I dug out a book of sewing projects that I got for my birthday last year. It's a German book and it's full of stuffed animals for children.

I decided to go with this little bird for the nursery as it was a small project and would use up some material I had. The colour is not a sign - I plan to make a pink one too. To be fair though, the nursery is so full of pink things from my childhood, that the blue brings a little balance.

I loved the combination of machine and hand stitching. I liked using the buttons and I liked adding in the pleated wool for the legs.

The challenges came with the beak and the generally tricky side of tackling such a small project with the machine. I adapted the pattern a little from the book. For example the eyes should be little beads but I didn't have any so I used some embroidery silks and stitches. 

I'm pleased with the finished product and I'm thinking of making some for the Etsy shop when I relaunch later this year.