A Playmobil Mystery Solved

My sons are really into Playmobil. OK, so that's no mystery. If I was a kid, I would be, too. But one particular piece mystified us - it came with a Victorian child's bedroom set, and in an individual set that had a child with a backpack and a big, cone-shaped thing.

We finished the book we were reading - Children of the Old House by Ruth Borchard, set in Germant. One chapter is about six-year-old Inga's first day of school. She has her lunch, her sachel of books and a big cone-shaped thing. All the first-grade children have one. Apparently, the children carry them to their first day of class, and just after the parents leave, the teacher has them open them, and they're filled with candy and toys. It's a way to make the kids feel better about school, and to take their minds off the fact that their parents just left. Neat idea, huh? I even found a page about it with a picture here. It's called a Schultüte [school cone] and Wikipedia has an entry about it.

I'm not sure whether the parents buy these (are they required to, is it on their list of supplies needed, and their targets and Walmarts are filled with these cones in a display bin??) or do the schools issue them?

Anyway, Playmobil is a German company, so it all makes sense now.