Admylin

[SSShakeTheChi]

Recovered and returned. As you can see this is the year I plan to take up Tai Chi (not that I've done anything about it yet).

You told me once that you were working with the English curriculum at home and I was wondering 1) where you get the patience to do that after doing the German homework and 2) which books/materials you've been using

By the way try www.joethedragon.co.uk/ for some realy good school stuff but with fun games too, we'll be doing that with dd in the holidays.

Why the EU doesn't finally do something useful like ensuring that all schools in Europe teach the same writing style instead of measuring the size of bananas,eh?!

Not impressed with the "t". How the hell do you write that with the curl under the link?! Quite like some of the fancy curls on the capital letters though, looks quite artistic. Suppose you just have to go with the flow really though whether you like it or not.

Quite happy with dd's school so far but I am wondering now if I shouldn't have chosen English language education for her so she'd have fairly clear sailing all the way through. How do you think your dc would cope if they were to enter the UK education system now?

If they went now they would be OK but if we leave it 'till say year 7 they would be in trouble. I am in a real conflict at the moment about keeping up this double german school and home education thing in english because they really have a hard week but if I drop the english stuff at home then we would be in trouble if we moved to UK. If we went to the US I have no idea what the schooling is like. We'll see.

Bet they have a German school in Boston. Might be easiest to go for that.

Any news on the job front?

THere you go, I knew they'd have one:
www.germanschoolboston.org/D-Seiten/D-home.htmbingo

arghlinks

No thanks, I can't wait to se ethe back of the german school system! I would try to join a german club if we moved away just to keep it up but otherwise no.

Depends when we leave but my friend returned to UK from Germany with her 12 year old daughter and she was allowed to sit her GCSE in german which was great as she now has one GCSE more than her class mates and can concentrate on catching up in english etc.

Dh has said i should start some distance learning course but I have to find one so I am searching the internet. Some big differences in price from place to place and some things just seme pointless as I want to study something that I can use later. My german friend did english at university and she is regretting it as she can't find a job and if she does apply for one it hasn't anything to do with her english studies. I really want to study religion but haveto be sure it would help me in a job later when kids are selbstaendig atlast!

There's a lot of distance learning courses available for religion. I would check out a university near your parents' place so it will be convenient to do the residencial credits. You'll have to spend a few weeks there but that'll be the nice part of it I expect. They could probably help you find a course at the British Council.

Religion sounds good to me. I'd go for it. Think distance courses take a bit longer really. As for jobs, you know you can study quantam physics these days and end up unemployed. Do what fires you, I'd say. Expect though that you have to do some voluntary work in the field of religion somehow to have a foot in the door when it comes to jobs later.

residential I meant!

Good tips, my parents live in the back of beyond though so I would have to go for distance learning with no residential stuff - I figured out if I start now and it takes me 4 or 5 years that should be around the time when I can say my kids are old enough to not need constant looking after and should help in the house or do their share so I could finish studying.

I think I should start with an A level in religion or an access course to get back into the swing of things. Haven't done much learning in the past 5 or 6 yeras - have to wake my brain up! I lik ethe sound of studienkolleg to get warmed up but I couldn't do the german part of the courses. I think studienkolleg is the german version of an access course but it is full time at the university.

opera

Will pack dd off to this one day next week. It's on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 2pm. Would your dc be into that? Dd loves these kind of workshop things. Haven't yet figured out how you do the Anmeldung though!

Dd would love it especially the costume and behind the stage parts but ds would refuse to go - that is one of my biggest problems, where one goes the other has to follow because I have to take both! I suppose if dd would go alone I could hang about with ds.
Soon we have to confirm if they want to carry on at Aikido and ds says yes but dd says no - trouble is if ds goes she would have to come and watch anyway!

That is difficult, isn't it? Know a mother of 7 year old twins who has real problems with this. One has dropped out of music class but the other wants to continue. The ds wants to learn ballet, the dd refuses to, etc.

Would your ds be into this one? It's at the Jewish Museum. They have quite good things for dc. However, didn't see anything for dd's age group this time round. Even if he isn't 9 yet, I'd still give it a bash, have to admit I often send dd to things she isn't quite old enough for. She manages fine.
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You are so good at finding these sort of things, how do you do it!? Sounds great, I should get a couple of things organised - a week is a long time to entertain them. Will your dd be having friends round too? I just hope we won't be getting the neighbours kids every day, they seem to spend the whole weekend with us and usually in school holidays we're not here so this time we will see!

I trail the net all day instead of having a real life!

I called the Staatsoper and got dd in there. You have to call and reserve a ticket and pick it up by the 2nd of February. There were only two left for that day.

Hopefully I won't be having dd's friends round TBH. I can do without it. Love the way your neighbour's kids always wind up at your place. Think maybe you have to get in first and send yours over there straight after breakfast!

Same here, well most mornings anyway, don't get more than the absoloute minimum of jobs done either! It's teh only time I get to chat in my own language, I hate german!

I've tried but mine won't budge, they are quite contented in their own little world and have plenty to busy themselves. I think the neighbours send theirs up to get rid of them and they don't do any entertaining of any kind. They are young too and have grandparents in Berlin so they go out every weekend and the kids go (after playing all day at our place) to sleep at grannys. Nice life!

don't you just love those dp who dump their kids at every opportunity but never think of returning the favour?!

Do you do any sport yourself?

The worst thing is they all go to the same school and I've often been tempted to say let them walk with us as we are going anyway but I just know it would be one sided and they are always late so if I was sending my kids with them they would arrive late which they hate. But it could have been a perfect arrangement doingthe school run alternatively etc. Can't complain, itcould be worse, I've heard nightmare stories about german neighbours!

No, the nearest thing to sport is riding our bikes! Unfortunately I have zero motivation even to go jogging. I want to go to a running track with thekids as that would be good for us all and if one needed to stop and rest they could. Jogging out on the road would mean stopping and waiting for each other all the time! What do you do? I remember you doing tennis in an old thread.

yes, I'd be very wary of making that offer! I haven't made good experiences with this type of thing.

Do you invite your dc's schoolfriends over much? I used to do it at kindergarten but I found the dc so rude or demanding that I tend to avoid it these days. I've noticed there is huge competition between the mothers of girls in dd's class though to get their dd invited round to as many classmates as possible. It's like some frenzied popularity competition and I've kept out of it so far but worry now that dd may suffer from being a bit left out. Wondering whether I should be jumping on the bandwagon

No we don't have any school friends over. Most of the girls in dd class stay at the Hort whereas dd gets picked up at 2pm they all stay till after 4 and I think that is when all the mothers chat and arrange stuff . Alot of them do sleep overs which my dd isn't in to.

Ds has a few pals but they are all allowed out on the street by themselves so they don't do invitations they just meet up - we are not ready to just send ds off into Mitte by himself! I've told a few of them to call round but they prefer staying out I think.

I feel a bit like you that I should try more and invite and do sleep overs but as long as they aren't asking ..! I must admit they haven't found a "special" friend yet, dd did but she moved back to Ukraine which was sad but they are social and well liked in class just there are no kids they absoloutly want to be best friends with.

Sorry forgot to answer about the sport! I used to do a lot more and I was in much better shape physically and emotionally. It does do you good but I had so much more time when dd was at kindergarten. I'd pick her up at 3pm instead of 1.30 and she'd have had a warm lunch already. Then of course I wasn't getting up at the crack of dawn in those days so I wasn't as tired as I am now. Thank goodness I have so many excuses these days!

Now I drag myself off to tennis on Sunday morning because I can leave dd with dh and it does me a world of good but I do have to force myself to get out early on a Sunday when I could just flake about at home. Wish it was in the afternoon!

I got a ticket for dd for the opera workshop on Monday next week. If your dd would like it and it suits you, maybe yours could go on the same day and they could see how they get along together? We're hardly ever (well never really) out your way usually. What do you think?

By the way is Hüttenweg too far for your dd's swimming? Dd has a place at JFK so we're going there for a trial but it seems some dc haven't taken their places, maybe your dd would like it. It'll be in English but a bummer to get to. Send me a mail if you like and I'll forward you the bumpf I got.

Hi, would love to go to the english swimming but it's too far, it would take us nearly an hour to get to according to the bvg website! I'll have to check which days the lessons are in Mitte, the one we wnet to last year at Seydlitstr was good because there was a cafe adjoined to the pool so I could at leastsit and have a coffee and chat to the other mums but dd didn't click with the teacher so if it's the same teacher there's no point (she's a fussy person)

On the Monday do you know what time you get out of the opera house? I could try and get dd a ticket if ds stays outside with me maybe?

It's two hours and they start at 2pm so they'll be finished at 4pm.

If you have a minute, can you have a look at Finknottle's posting under bilingualism about her ds? It sounds awful to me. You have more experience of German schools that I have. What would you do in her place? Don't know whereabouts in Germany she is, do you?