Hello.

Despite a long time searching on this forum and the web in general, I have not been able to find appropriate activities (e.g., art classes, sports, swimming, etc.) for our young sons (3 and 5) in/around Zug this summer. (We're in the process of moving from Africa to Zug, so I am not yet familiar with the landscape).

Would appreciate any guidance on where we might place our boys for some summer activities (and, ideally, give them a (fun) taste of Swiss German). Thanks in advance...

LA

I'm not from Zug, but I'm quite sure, that -
- swimming lessons
- Gymnastics intergrated with exercise / games - 3yearold would be MuKi Turnen, and there is Sport (Turnen) available for the 5 year old.
Every town has a few associations (vereins) which offer activites for Kids.
Art Classes, will be quite difficult, and expensive to find.

will be offered, when you arrive, a trip to the local municipality ( Gemeinde) where you find tons of leaflets, about what is available.

here is a PDF file with some info,
www.zug.ch/behoerden/org-mit-leistungsauftrag/.../at.../file_pdf

You may well find that alot of the groups shut down for the summer holidays (only 5 weeks) as so many people go away for the holidays or have family visit.
For art classes try and find a local atelier - we have a lady in our village who organises ad hoc days for kids to do various art projects in her basement workroom for a very reasonable price. http://www.silvia.bertschingers.ch/angebot.html
There are football courses through the summer
http://www.intersoccer.ch/
Also try the local sports halls and tennis clubs because they quite often have holidays schemes - for instance the Thalwil Tennis club did a multi sport week

hth
Caz

try this one: http://www1.zuger-ferienpass.ch/index-fs.html

Holiday-activities for schoolkids are called "Ferienpass", it's organised by the community. On the homepage it says that the program 2011 should be available starting june 14. So check again then.

Thanks, everyone. Excellent suggestions.

(For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to officially "thank" each of you... so please consider yourself officially thanked with this message!)

All the best... LA

howzit
the best thing we did for swiss german was to send my son to creche/kinderkrippe - he went in may and started kindergarten in august - and was able to help himself...
group things to do in the holidays only become available from around 7 or 8...
another thing you can consider is looking for a waldgruppe/cevi/boy scouts in your area - basically the kids go play in the woods for a sunday afternoon - but that is only from about 5.
good luck and enjoy the sunshine!!!
sd