Kindergarten doesn't mean the same thing here as it does in the States. Here kindergarten is for one to five year olds although not all schools take children younger than three. The one in Klingenbach is smaller since the village is smaller; hence, they have three, four and five year olds. There are larger villages one to three kilometers from here who take younger children.
So kindergarten is a combination daycare and pre-school for children under six, run by the Austrian government. Almost all parents send their kids even if the mother is a stay-at-home mom. At the age of six children begin first grade (must turn six before September 1, just like Texas). Kindergarten costs vary, but a fee of about 30 Euros a month is common for children three through five. School lasts about 11 months of the year so for one month you're on your own for childcare if you're a working mom. I think the hours are approximately eight to four. The school in Klingenbach has three ladies running it; I think one is the teacher and the other two are assistants, but I could be wrong on that. All I'm sure of is that one of the ladies is in charge.
A couple of weeks ago the kindergarten in Klingenbach had their end-of-year program, and I went with Ljuba. The children were adorable, as all kids are. They sang songs in Croatian (most people in this area are ethnic Croatian) and German. The children tend to speak Croatian at home, then learn German at the kindergarten. They learn a little English, but serious English education begins later in primary school. Near the end of the program they sang "Old McDonald Had a Farm" in English which delighted me. It reminded me of my kids and grandkids which made me misty of course.
The program was held at the Klingenbach Community Center and had over 100 parents, grandparents, siblings, and other relatives and friends in attendance. Several were taking videos and still pictures. They offered pies, cakes and cookies for a fundraiser (just like America), and of course soft drinks, beer and wine (this is Austria after all).
The program was charming, like so many I've gone to through the years. Some children sang loudly and off-key, one child cried the whole time, they knew the songs and their lines in the skit, and the audience cheered and applauded them effusively.
Sorry the pictures are so dark, but I didn't want to intrude on the parents who were videoing the performance.
The kids on the right in the red shirts are three;
the ones on the left side are four; the group in
the middle are five.
This was a song about sleeping and awake cats.
The skit was about looking for friends among the animals.
These are two of the children in the program later in the
evening. Milos and Mena are the children of two of our
friends at Hotwell. Mena is the one wearing the silver
crown on the left in the previous picture. She was the
star of the skit and didn't miss a line.
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