Looking for German story cd recommendations....

[ilovespinach]

Hi,

We need to improve my sons German so that he can start school this year. We were by the school this week and his German isn't quite there for him to start in Klasse 1. The school want to see him again in about 3 months to see if he has made any progress. They recommended story cds (we are at a disadvantage as dh and I only really speak English) - I've been looking around on amazon and ebay but there are so many!

Would appreciate any recommendations.....he is 5 so anythin at that age range or slighlty younger would be great. Thanks

My 4 year old boy (and his 6 year old sister) adore Pumuckl - a bit annoying to an adult on repeat listening but apparently hilarious to the target age range... we have a few story cds they listen to in the car sometimes. The only other German story cds we have are aimed more at girls (Bibi Blocksberg) but Benjamin Blumchen might be another option for a 5 yo boy.

You'll find them all on Amazon or probably even in a large supermarket.

By the way boys often do better kept back a year in the German school system - how is he at sitting still, quietly listening for long periods? My ds1's German is native speaker standard and academically he is fine for 4 - recognises his numbers 1-10, can count to 29, can write his name and a few other words, recognises about half his letters, holds a pencil properly, has lots of friends etc. etc. but we are still going to keep him back to start school at nearly 7 instead of nearly 6 for maturity, social and concentration reasons - more sure of that decision than ever now I have a dd in the 1st class and know how it works!

thanks will check out Benjamin Blumchen and I just remembered he was talking about Kokosnuss the Drachen the other day....

He is April born so will be 6.5 when they start school. He can sit when he wants to same with listening. TBH the school weren't bothered about that the main concern was his language and that he needs to make some progress. I think once he gets into the school environment that sitting etc will get better.

Think about things he's comfortable with in English too and look for the German translations - Bob der Baumeister / Thomas und Seine Freunde etc. That way he can associate words/names with familiar items.

Look in Real and Woolworth if you have one - also Schlecker/Rossmans sometimes have this sort of thing too.

I heard Mr Gum on Deutschland Radio Kultur in the car a few weeks ago, they were obviously serializing it. There's also a regular programme aimed at kids called Kakadu - I think it's on at 2pm. You can check out the schedule at www.dradio.de

my dd used to like ones about a ghost. Hui Buh

more detail than you want on wiki

my daughter loves a cd of Felix (die kuschelhase).

Do you have a decent Hugendubel or Thalia bookstore nearby? There staff is normally very knowledgeable and helpful.

Otherwise:

Das kleine Gespenst
Drache Kokosnuss
Robi, Tobi und das Fliwatuet
Urmel aus dem Eis

I found Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivfuehrer to put me and DD to sleep. I love the story but Mr. Ende reads like a sleeping pill.

Does he go to Kindergarten? Have a word with the staff, they normally have a decent knowledge what's good for boys. If you have a library nearby you can normally also borrow CDs.

Agree with the Drache Kokosnuss - really sweet stories with lots of humour. My DC loved them.

Astrid Lindgren books are great.

See if you can get the DVD of Die Wilde Kerle - my DS loved this at 5/6yo.

And songs - Rolf Zuckowski was a big favourite, and we still sing some of these songs. They loved "Ein Kühlschrank ging spazieren" and "von Tegernsee.." Good for parents too cause they are really funny.