Our US trip

redplaydoh wrote: Once again, the trip has changed... Now after some huge meetings at work they've decided not to send DH with the machine thinking it would look bad if the programmer had to go with the machine blah blah blah.... (wish we'd known this eons ago).

So now DH has taken the month of September off for our vacation. Just from doing a first check on flights it *looks* like we'll be leaving here Sept. 1st and spending until the 12th hanging out in CT and the surrounding area. I'm hoping we can go back to Storyland in New Hampshire again, the kids LOVED that place.

Then on the 12th we'll fly to Colorado. On the 22nd we'll head to Oklahoma, leaving from Dallas to head back to Switzerland on the 28th

grapfruit replied: That's neat that you can spend that long of a vacation. But I guess when you're traveling that far....

mom21kid2dogs replied: AWESOME!!!! Bet you'll be counting the days til departure!

Calimama replied: Have fun!!

MyBrownEyedBoy replied: Planning on hitting any certain stores or restaurants while you're over here? Hope everything goes smoothly.

redplaydoh replied:
I'm gonna step off that plane and head to the nearest Diet Mountain Dew I can find. I'm also really looking forward to Target shopping...

There are a few restaurants I want to go to in CT. DH is looking forward to Chili's or TGIF.

I'll just be glad to be around products/signs/sale ads etc written in English and to just hear the conversations around me in English.

Anthony275 replied: are your kids bilingual?

ihave4kids replied: Have fun!

redplaydoh replied:
Yes - for the most part.

They understand Swiss-German but reply in English when asked a question. Although this week we've really seen a turn-around with them, several times this week they replied in Swiss-German.

They both attend preschool (one day a week) that is taught in Swiss-German. Lucas will start Kindergarten in August and they start introducing German to them and after Kindergarten his classes in school will be in German. Around the time he is 7 it is compulsory here for students to learn another language so he will be able to choose from French or Italian. Also (this is new for this year) students will have to learn English at some point in their education... I *think* here where we live the students are around 12 when they are offered the course, but my kids will hopefully be able to skip right past that or take advantage to learn another language.

To sum it up, by the time they are 8 years old they will speak:
English
Swiss-German
German
French or Italian

MyBrownEyedBoy replied: Wow, says a lot for the US education system, doesn't it?

luvmykids replied: You must be so excited, keep me posted on the dates!

HuskerMom replied: Sounds like fun!

Brias3 replied:
That's so great.

When we were living overseas, the kids attended ISB in Brussels and had such a diverse exposure to languages. Here, they take Spanish at school but that's it. I would love for them to keep up on the French they learned over the years but I myself don't speak the language so its difficult. I want to look into enrolling them, if they're interested.

Where again are you located in Switzerland? I miss Europe!

Anthony275 replied: wow, i only started another language when i was a freshman

redplaydoh replied:

We're about 20-30 minutes outside of Zurich.