Babies on board.
| Auteur | Weldon, Robynn |
| Fonction | Expat pages: books |
Settling down in a new country is a challenge for anyone. For parents, there's the extra stress of worrying about your kids: how will they cope with missing their friends and adapting to a different way of life? What about schools? And the language barrier?
Every expat family has to deal with the same problems. That doesn't make it any easier, but it does mean that you can learn from others who have been through it before. There is a wealth of support available online for families new to Switzerland (see the English Forum parenting board for an extensive list, bit.ly/eflinks), as well as books to guide you through your journey.
Ticking Along with Swiss Kids
Dianne Dicks & Katalin Fekete
Illustrations by Marc Locatelli
Bergli Books
This joins a series of Ticking Along books about life in Switzerland--but is quite different.
Designed for children of primary school age, it's packed with information about Switzerland, with a strong visual emphasis. Photos and cartoony illustrations, as well as maps and charts, combine with bite-size lessons about Swiss history, geography, culture, language, holidays, food ... It's a very thorough but accessible introduction to your children's new country. There are even cutout language cards, with some useful phrases ("What happened?" or, urn, "I'm looking for the toy department") translated from English into all four Swiss languages--including both high and Swiss German.
Going Local: Your Guide to Swiss Schooling
Margaret Oertig
Bergli Books
While Ticking Along is great for the kids, this one is definitely for you. Trying to untangle the intricacies of the education system in a foreign country is daunting, and for many expats, the Swiss way of doing things is unsettlingly different. Wait ... did I say "the Swiss way"? Silly me. We all know there are dozens of "Swiss ways", since it all depends on the canton. In fact, this is one of the areas in which each municipality may assert its independence with a peculiar local quirk.
Oertig devotes nearly 250 pages to careful elucidation of the country's educational system, both nationally and the main local variations. The book is divided into sections for each level of schooling, from kindergarten, the beginning of compulsory schooling, to tertiary education. Other chapters cover such topics as language issues, transitioning to a local school, communicating with teachers, dealing with bullying and provision for special needs or gifted children.
The book is carefully...
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