leise rieselt der Schnee - for all those lovely people in Germany and Austria or whoever wants to join us!

[Canella]

a new wintery thread in honour of Hupa's first snow of the season!

Hi everyone! Wow, I don't know if I'll be able to catch up with all these messages and figure out who's done what and when!

Ad - I don't think you have to make the explanations too complicated, they just want the kids to understand the concept of the metaphor.

Grünes Feuer would be one - every bush/shrub a green fire or alight with green fire

Flammenhügel another one - flames + hills = hills being lit up by the sunset

But the last two lines are really more of a simile - when the wind touches/fans the hills of fire, the dust forms clouds of golden smoke. So the wind blows, kicks up the dust on the hills and the sunlight reflecting on it makes it look like golden smoke Or something.

I suppose you could make a metaphor out of it in a pinch.

I think the whole deal is that he's making it seem like everything's on fire when it really isn't.

Ahhhh, just found this which explains it quite well - www.britting.de/Sekund/Schug.pdf

You can click on the name of the poem on the left side bar and it tells you a bit about it.

Canella - yeah, if it's a new quarter, you need a new referral even if you've visited that doctor before. You can either get one from your GP, or pay the EUR 10 and get a referral from the specialist back to your GP for further use in that quarter.

Will read more later!

Oh, I see you already got some help! That's good.

Hia, flying back to Germany soon after w/e in UK. Did someone answer the Uberwisung/ Praxisgebühr Q? Basically I got right conned for this when I moved cos no one told me, but, when you go your 1st doc appt of the new Quater, you have to pay 10? Praxisgebühr, but you should then ask for an Überweisung for whichever doctor you might Laos want to see during that time, so I'd automatically ask for one for Hausarzt & Frauenarzt just in case I need to go during the next 3 months, then keep 'em with Krankenkassekarte and bob's your uncle.

Ad, i'd be interested in the solution to the poem, just for practice, cos I'll be facing that soon. Have to say, whenever mine have had to learn a poem, I can't help but feel that they are all really shite. Never read a good German poem yet. Feel like sending ds in with a limerick to liven things up.

My ds1 got his phone when he started gumi, so start of 5 th class. I then went and got one for ds2 who is in the 4th class, as this year I need him to sometimes get the S- Bahn home, so need the phone to remind him to get the S- Bahn and not wait to be collected, and also to let me know he's caught it ok and so he can contact me if needs be. But he's in the grundschule in the next village. Otherwise i'd say start of secondary school.

Ernest - check out the link in my longer post for an explanation of the poem.

Ernest, I'll email you the answer as it's now neatly typed up in a table with th epoem for future reference!! I think we need to start a reference for homeworks to come group somewhere!

That is a really cool website westvan, thaks for that! You were next on my list for a desperate email if no one helped me!

I've got both my dc at their dasks studying now and it's been snowing outside.

What sort of dancing does your dd do canella? Is it local?

Just emailed the whole poem (3 verses) to you with the answers ernest!

well its amazing what can happen in a wee trip out in the afternoon!! went to the library and the man from the local paper was there and asked dd and i if we wouldnt mind having our picture taken while getting our books out!! i said yes but am dreading seeing the photos - my hair was dragged back and a bit frizzy and dd's hair needs washed after dancing tonight!! he said it'll be in the day after tomorrow so will have to buy the paper on that day to look!!

Then after the hairdresser got shouted at by some woman (who i think was absolutely crazy even by german standards!!)! i'd parked my car outside the butcher and as i went to get out she shouted to me to move my car a bit as i was still blocking a bit of the pavement i said Entschuldigung and moved forward a bit! got out the car and realised she was still shouting!! she started off at me but then was just walking up the street shouting!! thankfully i realised quickly that it wasnt all directed at me as i was ready to tell her to stop!! It really wasnt a big enough deal for all that shouting!!

but def the craziest afternoon for a while!

Re: the poem - my lord I am glad my kids are in international school and I don't have that to contend with! Helping 3 of them with homework takes enough time as it is!

Just thought I'd share this website for German maths. You can click on the year/age for th esubjects and it also has a few links, one to youtube videos explaining the rules and techniques in German. Mathe

Thanks for the link admylin - I've bookmarked it as I'm sure it will come in useful in a few years' time! Will have to convert German school years to Austrian ones though as they start all over again at secondary school, i.e. children are back in the 1. Klasse when they start Gymnasium here.

Have spent far too long this morning playing with my new home routines app on my iPod (sad but true - I'm trying to keep myself motivated flying-wise), so really must get on with a few bits and pieces now. I've decided to teach DD2's class school things in English today, so must get a pencil case etc. ready to take in (although I'm sure there'd be plenty I could borrow if I forgot anything!).

Why would my daughter?? have got a letter from the Bundeszentralamt fur Steuren?.....looks like something to do with and identification number?... need to translate it yet... but thought a heads up would help me interpret it correctly.

We got one for each dc when we moved to Hanover and I think it's something abit like the National Insurance Number in UK. If you are applying for Kindergeld they might give you a number automatically. Just file it, that's what I did!

K...it's talking about filing for taxes...

one nice thing about translating German...when you know about compound words you can try to dissect them without actually knowing the big word...

Yep, nothing to worry about, they introduced the personal ID number a couple of years ago and everyone in the family gets one.

Well, last night ds14 and I went to an information evening at his school about the Qualifikationsphase for the Abitur and all that and I think he's realized that he's going to have to really work hard if he wants to make it. He got a terrible report card for the first term of the 9th class so we're trying to get him up to speed now. Apparently you can even cancel out 5's and 6's if you get the right marks in other classes an in the end it's really at the discretion of the school whether or not they let you proceed to the next grade.

Ad - funny that you had snow yesterday, we just had rain. They said the east and north east of Hannover was a sheet of ice yesterday and the rest was fine. I didn't even realize that some of the trams weren't running.

Today I'm concentrating on decluttering the catch-all drawers in our front hallway. Cards and envelopes and pens and tons of other stuff all mixed up together and we can't find a thing when we need it.

Oh I've got one of those in the hallway too - where are all those things meant to go and do we really need them - hope you get through yours!

Was the meeting to help them decide which subjects to take or just general information? Did you have an appointment or did everyone just turn up? I'm worried about this already and ds is only year 7! Is ds2 managing without Nachhilfe or tutoring? Have you ever heard of Lernschopp? One person (dh's colleague) sends his dd there for homwork and test revision help. I am going to try it for dd's next maths test. Not sure about German as her next test is about Gedichte.

Speaking of cleaning, I've realised I've been cleaning a lot more than I ever did had home, dishes every day, laundry every other, sweeping and hoovering loads(even though we had a whole house) I could not figure out...then it occurred to me...dh is home every night now. (before we moved here he was gone M-F and it was just me and Moo except on the weekends) So I'm cleaning up after the both of the 'kids' 7 days a week again... I think I'll need to have a word.

Bebe - it's suprising how much mess they can make, isn't it? I am constanly trying to keep the clutter down to a dull roar here and some days are better than others.

Ad - it was just a general information meeting for all the parents with children in the 9th class and they do a couple of separate information things for the kids during school hours repeating everything they told the parents and sending information home. In the next couple of months they'll be given a couple of forms to fill out where they have to decide what profile group they want to be in in the 10th class - languages, sciences, social sciences or music/art. There are a certain number of core courses they all need to take like Maths, German, Sport and two foreign languages, and then there are extra courses to choose from depending on the profile. It sounds very confusing at first, but it's all quite straighforward once you have the actual papers in front of you. We've already been through it with ds17 so we're not sweating yet!

We're not going to get a tutor for now, his problem is just laziness and disorganization. You'd think that an almost 15 yr old could do it on his own, but he's completely different than his brother was so we're just checking every single thing he does and making sure it's all complete. Apparently he hadn't been doing his homework (telling us he didn't have any) or doing a very superficial job of it and that counted towards his bad marks. He's making an effort to participate more now as well. We'll see what his teacher says at the parent-teacher conference next week. The daughter of friends of ours was at one of those tutoring places, either Lernschopp or Schülerhilfe but I don't know if she got a lot out of it. It's quite expensive and I've heard that some of them just hand out ready-made worksheets and don't offer that much real help. You could try it out, though, as long as you don't get caught up in some year-long contract thing that they are so fond of doing here. I think they have Schnupperunterricht or something, don't they?

Well, back to decluttering!

does anyone fancy trying out their decluttering skills at my house?

Absolutely knackered after flight back. Still not unpacked.

Tallpoppies, which IS school do your dc attend?

Am I the only one who's happy with German school? I think I must be.

ANyway, must drink more tea and unpack.

I'm happy with it too ernest even though I panick at thing! Really I'm happy if the dc feel good and enjoy going every day (which they do) and my German is improving with every homework they get!

Just picked dd up at 11:20 today to go shopping with me , that's at the end of the 4th lesson and there were surprisingly quite alot of dc coming out of the building at that time (not just dd's class) and that's one thing I find hard to get used to. In my day all dc were in school until 3:30, never let out early or anything. Thank goodness they introduced verlässliche Grundschule system or I'd have gone mad when they were smaller. Before my 2 went to Grundschule even the small ones would just be let out of school to make their way home at unannounced times.

yes, that's bonkers. Mine would be permanently locked out if just turfed out any old time. mental.

I have v little to do with my dc homework. i guess I should get involved more...

yeah they turf dd out early quite often!! the other week she had to sit on the freezing step outside for 30 mins till i came home!

but apart from that i'm happy with her school! but whether thats cause she's a bright kid getting 1's and 2's all the time! might be a different case at the gymnasium next year!

The DDs often finish early here too, but we get a note in the Mitteilungsheft and if you don't sign it, the children have to stay at school.

I think our school is more formal and demanding than a lot of other Austrian schools, e.g. grades from the 1st semester, the children call the teacher Frau X rather than by their first name, but it suits some children more than others. It's definitely not the best kind of learning environment for DD1, although she's quite happy at school, but DD2 loves it and is doing well. I'm not keen on the emphasis on grades but I do think it's a good school, if a little old-fashioned in the way that the children are taught (one of the other mothers told me that they're being taught in exactly the same way as she was over 30 years ago).

Hi ernest - they go to Munich International School.
How do you all find the german system? Did your kids cope with it ok when you first moved to germany? I think if we had been going to stay in Germany then we would have put them through the state system but as we plan to go back to the UK next summer it didn't make sense for us. It's helped me meet people out here although it has made me more lazy about learning german - I understand and can speak enough to get by but am far from fluent!

my dd found it a huge change from the UK when we first moved here - she was 7 at the time so had been in Y3 in the UK but went into the 2nd class here. She only had homework once a week in England then was having to do it every day here as well as learn that particular way of writing. She also only ever had a spelling test in ENgland every fri morn (10 spellings) so to be tested so often was a big change.

But she absolutely prefers school and life here - think its the shorter school days and going to school in her jeans that swings it for her!! That makes her sound lazy and shallow but she just has more time to enjoy life! She copes well with the pressure of all the tests - think it will be a different case for ds1 who's not such a bookworm and not so enthused with learning!