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Interview with Michaele (mother of 2 children)

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What would you consider as the advantages of the belgian care system?

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What would you consider as the advantages of the belgian care system?

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It is a carefree all-round care, which is very family friendly and flexible. Parents and educater are informed about all relevant events by a daily documentation. In the day care even small children are already promoted by a daily changing program. The individual support is offered from seven in the morning until six in the evening.

Parents working in shift operation can use the hotel for children, where the kids are taken care of even at the weekend or over night.

Other than in germany, the children are given to all-round care very early, often when they are only 3 months old. I myself spend 8 months in parental leave. After giving birth to Jill there where no difficulties to reduce the amount of care time taken by Fabio, for I was at home with Jill anyways. My day care did not hesitate to support me at that time and after my parental leave it was very easy to increase the care time again. A lot of children are taken care of by baby minder.

From 2 to 6 years most of the children go to preschool but only if they know how to use the toilette.

Preschool is devided into 3 classes with class 1 for the youngest kids, class 2 for the kids aged 3-4 and class 3 for the kids from 4 to 6 years of age.

After preschool the children go to primary school. Interestingly there is no big party on the first day of school as there always is in germany and so there also is no „Schultüte“. Basicly the children just switch from one school to the next.

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How did you feel like leaving your children to be taken care of in childcare that early?

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How did you feel like leaving your children to be taken care of in childcare that early?

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Of course it was a very weird feeling for me to give them to daycare being that young. You have got to imagine that I just became a mom and next thing you know is that you hardly ever see your child.

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However, are there in your view also any disadvantages?

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However, are there in your view also any disadvantages?

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Yes of course there are, the costs for example. They depend from the monthly income of the parents and in our case that meant monthly costs from 700 to 800€.

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Compulsary school ends at the age of 18. Until the age of 15 one hast o visit the school full-time. After that part time is also possible. Pupils can start a job education when they are 15, which lasts for three years. However every child must go to school until the age of 18. This can be combined with a job education. The primary school is called Primarschule and hast o be visited for 6 years.

After that you go to Sekundarstufe, which is devided into two parts, each lasting two years.After two years of orientation you can choose your favorite subjects once more devided in three parts, the general part, the technical and the vocational part.

The school year starts in belgium on the first of september and ends on June 30. Holidays are the two months july and august in addition to christmas, easter and mardi gras. Belgium schools teach the whole day, education ends in the afternoon.

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If you compare schools, belgium is always on the top of that list, especially flanders. The promotion of children starts in kindergarten and the primary school lasts 6 years, compared to 4 years in germany, for giving every child the chance to countervail the differences between pupils.

As in other countries there are social differences in belgium, too. However it is not as striking as in germany, because the schools in belgium are very independent and therefore are responsible for success and failure of their pupils and due tot hat seem to try harder. There is no curriculum and the teachers are evaluated every few years.

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There are different types of school in belgium. Some of them are completely financed by the state, some only partly. There are also schools from different religious groups, the community or free schools. Stateschools are for free but children can also go to private schools.

The schools are in a kind of competition for being really good and reach a high number of pupils. As a result of this the education is very good. As part oft he competition other than in germany the children don´t have to go to a school nearby but the parents can decide wherever they want heir children to go to school and to which school.

Last actualized 14.01.2018

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In some schools children go to second class in math but visit the first class for reading and learning if they still have problems with reading and writing. Often there is not only one teacher but two caring for one class at a time. The third and fourth grade are also teached together, in order to give children, who learn slower than the rest of the class, the chance of improving without rerunning classes.

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Belgian comics and it´s heroes are famous in many countries of the world. Maybe you don´t know yet that Tim and Struppi, Lucky Luke or Gaston Lagaffe are belgians. At least they are made in belgium before reaching the hearts of children and also grown ups all over the world. There are a lot of shops in belgium where you can buy comics. And in which not only children but even al lot of grown ups can be seen. Belgium also has a museum especially for comics.
| | The comic character Lucky Luke is supposed to shoot  faster than his own shadow.[ © Jmh2o / CC BY-SA 4.0 ]

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In belgium there is also a hitlist of names children are called. The most popular names change from year to year. Of course there are many french names on the list, such as Marie, Elise, Julie, Camille, Juliette or Chloé. Common names for boys are Louis, Liam, Maxime, Jules, Victor or Alexandre. Other popular names are Emma, Lea or Charlotte aswell as Clara, Sarah, Laura, Luna, Nia or Ella. Loah, Lucas, Mathis, Thomas, Adam, Arthur or Mohamed. Tom, Lars and Simon can also be found on the hitlist.. Flanders prefer names like Milan, Wout, Robbe, Senne, Seppe, Dann and Rune.

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Grownups often say that children fight for no reason. In belgium Flanders, who speak dutch, and wallons, who speak french, live together. In former times there were a lot of differences and even today sometimes these groupes fighte ach other. Sometimes there is no reason but o the heritage.

People say that flanders are shy not very outgoing. The wallons on the other hand are supposed tob e more openminded but also a little chaotic. Most oft he belgian people agree to those prejudices but to get a correct impression you probably have to find out yourself by visiting belgium. Because sometimes grown ups behave just like kids in judging people and fighting for no reason.

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The highways in belgium are illuminated at night. This makes it a lot of brighter and more comfotable to ride on. The lights have been installed also for security reasons. Today people discuss, wether to shut down the lights to save energy and go easy on resources. Environmentalists critisize this typical belgian tradition of illuminating highways.

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Mercy killing of children is allowed in belgium. When children can not be healed and also live in great pain euthanasia is allowed, of course only with the permission oft he parents. The child itself must express the wish to die. In germany there is no such law. However in belgium it was discussed intensively before the law was passed.

The meaning oft he colours:

Blue: mercy killing allowed
yellow: aid for suicide allowed
green: Passive euthanasia allowed
red: no legal form of euthanasia at all, all kinds of euthanasia forbidden by law
black: undefined laws

Last actualized 15.12.2017

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The wallon cuisine is very much influenced by the french ciusine. Typical dishes are rabbit stewed in beer orchicken fricassee pastry.The salad Salade Liegeosie is named after the belgian city of Liege, where also fries with mussels the so cold Moules-frites are very common.

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Waffles, chocolate and fries are very popular in all different areas of belgium. Besides that the belgian cuisine can be devided in the flanders, the wallon and the rather german cuisine. Typically for the flanders is not only meat but also all kinds of fish, fished in the very region such as sole, plaice and prawns. French mussels and fish from the northsea are can also be found on the the menue.
Beef, pork, horse, chicken and rabbit are also on the menue, often pickled in the popular belgian beer. Fruits and vegetables are grown in Flanders but not eaten that much in that region at all, because people think those things are better used as food fort the goats. However asparagus and chicory are very popular.
| "Rijstpap" or rice pudding, you probably did try this yourself before.[ © Dimitris Siskopoulos / CC BY 2.0 ]

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In belgium there is a large variety of sauces offered with fries, such as bernaise, brasil, samurai or regular sauce with mushrooms.

A special thing ist he belgian Mitraillette, which means belgian machine gun. It has nothing to do with weapons but is a real bomb of calories. Based on a cut off french bread meat, fries and salad with cheese are flavoured with a sauce to your liking. The bread is served either hot or cold.

The belgians love the potatoes also as chips, which can be found in much more varieties than in germany.
The so cold Mitraillette is a dish first served in brussels.[ © Renatus / CC BY-SA 3.0 ]

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The belgian waffles are a popular speciality. The belgians are famous for their sweets, such as a unique sandwich spread made from apples, pears and dates.

The children´s favorite dish is fries, fried in beef fat, so not suitable for vegetarians. Almost on every corner in belgium fries are offered, not only served with ketchup but with more than 15 different sauces. Often the belgians eat fries with mussels on the side. The fact that fries are offerde almost everywhere makes it even for american franchise difficult to be successful in belgium.
Hm... belgian waffles with ice[ © Paul Wilkinson / CC BY 2.0 ]

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Did you nothat belgium is known for delicious chocolate? Chocolat as fine pralines. Walking throgh the capital brussels you will find lots of chocolate factories. Making pralines is a long tradition in belgium and has lead tot he finest pralines in the world.

You can easily make your own belgium pralines. You only have to mealt different kinds of chocolate, whatever flavour you prefer, and then fill it into small boxes. Smoothing it with a stick ist he next step. Once the chocolate is cold you can loosen it. Nougat, almonds and truffle can also be used to flavour the chocolate, making the pralinesfanciful.

Not only pralines are made in belgium but also very delicious biscuits made from fruits, pastry or dough. You are spoilt for choice….

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Even though you ar not allowed to drink beer yet, you should know that there are more than 1000 different kinds of beer in belgium. Belgium is wellknown for many breweries. Belgian beer is stronger than german beer and is often served at roomtemperature, which would be unimaginable in germany, and is offered in many different flavours.

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| Local name |
| Kurzform | Belgique (french); België (flemish); Belgium /english)
| Official name | Royaume de Belgique, Koninkrijk België, Kingdom of Belgium
|   |
| Heritage oft he name | The romans called it gallia belgica. This northern part of gaul was inhabted by the belgae with celtic and german heritage.
| Official english name |
| short | Belgium
| long | Kingdom of belgium
| National subjects | Belgians
| adjective | belgian
|   |
| Political state | independent
| Right to vote | Righgt to vote at the age of 18
| National holiday | July 21st
|   | Independance day (7.21.1831)
| Memberships | EU; NATO; OECD; OSZE; UNO; WEU

| inhabitants | 11.570.762
| Growth of population | 0,67%
| birthrate | 11,30 birth for each 1.000 inhabitants
| Estimated length of life |
| overall | 79,78 years
| men | 76,62 years
| women | 83,08 years
| Structure of ages |
| 0-14 years | 17,20%
| 15-64 years | 64,03%
| 65 years and older | 18,78%
|   | area | 30.528 km²
| population | 11.570.762
| Inhabitants per qkm | 379
| capital | brussels
| language | french, dutch, german
| Average income | 46.600 USD
| currency | Euro |
https://www.lexas.de/europa/belgien/index.aspx

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https://www.kinderweltreise.de/kontinente/europa/belgien/alltag-kinder/
https://www.lexas.de