Day 1634. On Tuesday the kids had their ice-skating class again. They only have two more Tuesdays left this winter. Yesterday they had the afternoon off and played downstairs, while I had students.
This morning the alarm went off 15 minutes earlier than usual. Randy got up to make their breakfast, while Tammy continued sleeping next to me. When Randy left with Sammy at 8:15 am, we all got up and got ready to leave the house. When Randy returned at 8:45, we all left together a few minutes later.
This fall Tammy and Emmy are supposed to start their mandatory kindergarten year and then next year they'd start with first grade. As preemies they have the option of starting a year later, and that's probably what Sammy is going to do. So far the plan has been to homeschool them, but I'd much rather see them in a Christian kindergarten/school. Unfortunately there are few (non-catholic) ones in Vienna, and most of them are expensive. But then I found this little one, where we had an appointment to look both at their kindergarten and their elementary school. It's in our district, but there's no direct way to go there by public transportation. You either take two buses or bus+tram or subway+tram or subway+bus, and it takes them all about 35 minutes to get there, including the walk from the bus or tram stop to the school.
Today we took the subway followed by the tram. It was raining a little, which excited the kids as they got to bring their umbrellas along. At 9:25 pm we arrived at the school building; it's a new building, so that they've only been in there for the past two years. When we walked inside, the first thing we saw was a Bible verse written on the wall in big letters. We saw the office and had to wait a little for the founder and director to be available. She then gave us a tour of the kindergarten facilities, answering all our questions. I asked her to do it in English, so Randy could also understand, but we used both languages. The kids were a little shy at first, but they liked what they saw.
After half an hour the tour was over, and we walked over to the school section to meet the director there. We found her in her classroom. She then explained everything and showed us all their facilities. I liked the school even more than the kindergarten. Every one of the four classrooms had a different pet animal in there - mice, fish, snails and rainworms. Our kids loved the animals, of course, and so they were warming up and losing their shyness. I liked that it was all small, so that it was more personal. Their way of teaching is a little different in that the kids work a lot on their own. After we had seen everything, we went to her office. That's when she told me that there was actually no more free spots for fall of 2025, but I could fill out a form anyway, in case two spots became available for our kids. She said she'd know by the summer. And I found out that she would actually be our kids' teacher, which excited me as I found out that not all teachers are born-again Christians. Please pray we hear from God whether to send Tammy and Emmy there.
We said good-bye and walked back in the direction of the tram stop. The bus came first, so we took it, then had to change to another bus. By 11 am we were back home. Randy and the kids went downstairs, while I turned my computer on to work. However, I was very tired and stayed that tired all day. By noon they were all back upstairs, then Randy left to go pick up Sammy. Tammy and Emmy were hungry and ate before they returned at 12:45. Then Randy and Sammy ate. I was preparing for my 2:30 pm student, a new student. Sammy wanted to go downstairs, and so Randy went downstairs with them all. They came back upstairs before I was done teaching at 3:20 pm. Then I dressed them, and we all got ready to leave the house, which we did early just after 3:30 pm.
Of course Sammy wanted to come with us rather than staying at home with Daddy. We took the subway, and after we got off, we had quite a long walk ahead of us. We were on our way to a dance studio for a one-time, free dance class to see what it was like. We got there a few minutes before the class was to start at 4:30 pm. It was an old building, where Randy had to get the wheelchair up a few steps before reaching the elevator. We went inside the studio that was full of people, and it was not big. At least the one and only dancing hall was big. We had to fill out a form, then we took our coats and shoes off and went inside.
There were a lot of children and a lot of parents. And there were balls all over the room so that the kids started playing with them. Sammy was excited about them! Then the teacher called all the kids together. She introduced herself and asked all the kids to tell her their names. Tammy and Emmy were both dressed with the same T-shirt and all in red, so they are easy to identify in the pictures. Then she took a few minutes to warm up - not something that particularly Emmy enjoys. Then she had them line up in two groups and made them jump and walk across the room in different ways. Then she did the basic steps of ballett with them. Emmy didn't care for that at all, while Tammy was trying to copy her. Then she put a mat on the floor and had all the kids run and jump over it. Next she put a huge mat on the floor and had the kids lie on it next to each other. She had them grab their legs with both hands, then she made them turn around and do a bridge. She went from kid to kid to help them. Usually there are not that many kids there. Sammy became interested and tried to go there. We had been playing with him with the balls, but he really wasn't that interested in them any more.
Then the teacher had them line up again, and the kids came one by one to do somersaults at first. She helped them do them. It's a class for ages 3 to 6. For the second round they were doing cartwheels - that was a first for our kids. I filmed them, as she was showing and helping them to do them. Then the end of the class had already come, and she had all the kids bow down in front of the mirror - one by one, then all together. Emmy was having fun with the bow, overdoing it. The class was over. I asked the kids how they had liked it, and they said they had really enjoyed it. I asked them whether they would like to come back and continue with this class, and they said yes. I then talked to the receptionist to find out a few details. They are actually registered to continue the same dance class they've done since fall, but right now it looks like there are not enough kids for it to continue. So it works out well for them to go to this school instead.
We put their coats and shoes back on and left to walk back to the subway. This time we took a tram for one stop, so that we didn't have as far to walk. By 6:20 pm we were back home.
And it was high time for food. I quickly warmed up some soup for them that they wanted and boiled some eggs. I left the fruit and bread with salami straight for the bathtub, and they actually ate it all. Then we went through our typical bedtime routine. Tammy lay down in my bed, while I went to the kitchen to cut my salad, which takes about half an hour. It was 9 pm, when I carried Tammy to her bed and sat down to eat. Now it's 1:30 am and much later than usual. I still have to do the dishes, then I can go to bed as well.
