We’ve been on a short visit back to the USA which has luckily coincided with Halloween. Our kids, 2 and 6-years-old, have only experienced the Germans’ half-hearted embrace of the holiday before. Our American friends and family have been fascinated by the differences in how the holiday is celebrated and our kids have been lapping up the numerous opportunities for candy.

This has sparked numerous conversations about the cultural differences between Germany and the USA in other ways. A perpetually popular topic here on the blog, with posts like ABC Cultural Manual for Germany, I’m not surprised. There is nothing that quite explains what is really like living abroad than comparing the surprising things other places do differently. 

Our daughter just started German public school this year and even though we have been in Germany a while (*cough* over 10 years) it has been a steep learning curve. From school supplies to the German school system we are trying to avoid missteps – and not always succeeding.  Here, as always, I leave you with some of our key experiences so you can avoid the mistakes we’ve already made. 

German classroom PHOTO: Erin Porter

Hort 

My daughter started going to her new school before school officially started. There was a gap between KiTa ending and Erste Klasse beginning and Hort took its place. 

This is a kind of after-school daycare. Traditionally, German public schools ended at midday so children could go home to eat a warm mittagessen (lunch), typically the one big meal of the day. As work hours modernized and the family gathering at home midday became less common, children stayed at school past the typical 13-14:00 end of school. They ate lunch on campus and would be watched over by Erzieher (child care worker) until 16:00. 

Hort can be quite different school to school, but usually looks like some form of extended recess. There is time spent on the playground, games and crafts, as well as clubs and activities. Children may learn to sing in the choir, practice capoeira, or join the swim team. First grade is usually excluded and activities may only be available to certain grades. 

Whatsapp 

Something that has carried over from KiTa which somewhat surprises me is the use of unofficial communication as communication. I was wholly unfamiliar with Whatsapp before our KiTa group said it was necessary to have an account. Once we joined, all manner of important info was passed along by other parents in the group. There was info about lost hats and favorite toys misplaced, but also information about KiTa days off, planning for the building, and event coordination. 

While this can make sense, we didn’t realize the importance of the group so it took us a little time to join. We were shocked how necessary this group was to know what was going on. It seems like a lot of this should be arranged by the school. In fact, there are concerns about security and mentions of using Signal and of course nothing insecure like Facebook come up periodically. 

Substitute Teachers

Another difference we had heard of is that teachers are not usually substituted in German public school When we had a German foreign exchange student in the USA, he breezily told us his match teacher was out sick for over a month. We asked how they were supposed to keep up with the curriculum and he shrugged, saying they had a book. 

This was a little different when our daughter’s Lehrer (teacher) became sick her first week, thankfully. We had written a letter to her before school started, practiced her name carefully, and then after just a few days with the kids she was gone. In the second week we were told (by the Whatsapp group of course) that something had happened to her and she would be gone, perhaps for quite a while. 

Another teacher was hastily introduced and has been teaching the class for the first 2+ months. I guess they think the first years need more than a book to get started. We’ve just been told the first teacher will not be returning. No further information given by the parent group. 

Children’s Absences

Not so lackadaisical are children’s absences from school. We’ve been warned that foreigners who try to leave during school term with their school-age children have had difficulty getting it approved.  

Germany keeps a tight leash on its schooling regulations with things like homeschooling not allowed. Absences are also regulated and I’ve heard of things like weddings or family reunions not being acceptable reasons to leave. Seems a little rich when teachers can be absent months at a time; particularly as a foreigner living in Germany you need more than a weekend to return for family obligations.

Kids in USA trick-or-treating PHOTO: Erin Porter

As I mentioned at the top of this post, we are currently in the USA and this trip wasn’t planned. We had to respond to an emergency with our family and planned and left for this trip within 48 hours. As is typical for events like this, the timing was poor. Herbstferien (fall holidays) was just ending so we would be encountering one of these dreaded school absences. We took a breath, contacted everyone at the school we could (it was still break so all staff was basically unavailable), and left. We breathed a huge sigh of relief when our school accepted my daughter’s absence.

Til our next living in Germany speedbump…