Climb Every Mountain: August 2018

On July 30th our little Hannah girl turned 6 years old. This past year has led to many new things for Hannah. The biggest being that she started kindergarden. In Switzerland you have two years of kindergarden, this year being the "small" kindergarden (Klein Kindergarten). The kids go to school half days between 2.5-3 hours depending on the day. She also took additional German that is mandatory for all foreign kids. She has quickly improved upon her Swiss German and understands a bit of high German as well. Hannah is the oldest from her small kindergarden, since most kids are still 4 when they start. Hannah had just missed the cut off of June 30th so she waited a year to start. She was also almost the tallest from both classes (small and big) of kindergarden.... she definitely gets that from John. Hannah also participated in a year of KiTu (kinderturnen- gym class) which took place on Monday afternoons. She loved both kindergarden and KiTu, really Hannah loves just about any structured activity that we sign her up for!! She likes and needs stimulation! She also had her first sleepover. The whole kindergarden class slept for one night in the tepee at our towns campground. Her teachers are crazy in my opinion, but they do the funnest things with them!! She also took her first swimming lesson this summer. This was a HUGE accomplishment for her. She never wanted water near her face, but now she can jump in even without goggles or plugging her nose. She also learned to float and kick for about 5 seconds. We plan to sign her up again for another course in October. The last first that seems noteworthy is that we did a 3 hour hike to sleep in a mountain hut as a family. The huts (Swiss Alpine Club huts) are more like a hostel, providing dinner and breakfast. You can also purchase snacks, beverages, and sandwiches. We slept in a 5 person room, since we knew the dormitory room would not work so well with kids. It was a great experience and we were very proud of Hannah for doing the whole hike, even though she was definitely tired at the end. We are so proud of Hannah for accomplishing all of these firsts in the last year. Some things did stay the same. She continues to be very creative, artistic, intelligent, a kind big sister, always needing a project or activity to be doing, a good sleeper, and lover of chocolate (or any sweets).