Durch die Strassen auf und nieder, leuchten die Laternen wieder... ***Herbstunterhaltung im Deutschem Eck***

[MmeLindt]

Durch die Strassen auf und nieder
leuchten die Laternen wieder:
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

Wie die Blumen in dem Garten
blühn Laternen aller Arten:
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

Und wir gehen lange Strecken
mit Laternen an den Stecken
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

*

It is that time of the year again. Check your lanterns, get enough batteries, start the Bastelaktion.

well not we´ll

good luck hupa.

I remember in basle they had a mushroom inspector at the market, and you could take along what you'd picked and he'd check it.

Glad the teaching went well. In what way is school under resourced? Ours is good. It's just been totally renovated and has interactive white boards or whatever they're called,
is def. better resourced in the classroom than the £££ IS,

Thanks for the mincemeat tip. So far I have mincemeat, marmite and branston on the list

well done hupa. I don't think I would like to face a class of 25-30 odd (some of them very odd) schoolchildren . Will you be teaching regular lesons after the Herbstferien?

does anyone know how much ein Stich Butter is? I have this recipe dd wants us to make with a cup of this and a cup of that and 1 Stich Butter but I have no idea what that means. I like precise amounts really.

no idea zzen - i like precise amounts too!! just made my first ever MN recipe and pleased it turned out ok (only brownies though!)

got a bit confused when i clicked on the last page of this thread without reading the rest - first post on this page says" you cant take crackers on the plane" - totally wasnt thinking about christmas crackers - was thinking of like Jacobs crackers and thinking the airline's had lost the plot! . never even thought about not getting crackers here - christmas wont be the same without! i'm wondering how long i should leave it before i buy my first Stollen - i like it so much but think i could make myself sick if i eat it too much!

well done hupa on the teaching - imagine it must be nice to work after a while of not - think it'll be a while before my german is up to working!

had a good weekend the other weekend in the UK but was a whole mixed bag of emotions - nice to see friends, sad to be leaving them again and really sad to visit my friends grave and to speak to her dh - left me a bit emotional for a good few days last week.
but being back in the UK made me even more sure it was the right decision to live here - just appreciate how nice it is here compared to some of the really rough parts that i drove through!

so this week is the start of "einschulen" for my ds1 - his birhtday is the middle of october (he'll be 5 this week) so he's just after the cut off date for going to school next year but can go if we think he's ready - such a hard decision to make - how do we know whether he'll be ready in a year or if we shoudl wait another year till he's nearly 7. no idea of how the whole system works so there's an elternabend about it tonight and we've got a meeting about him tomorrow. school just seems really pressurised here and i dont know whether he'll be ready - aarrggghh - decisions decisions!

Is it taken from an american recipe - they have sticks of butter there? Dunno about German, but if it's translated from the american, or the same as an american, then 1 stick of butter = 1/4 pound
1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup
1 stick of butter = 8 tablespoons
1 stick of butter = 4 ounces
1 stick of butter = 113 grams

It#s from a book origianlly Canadian, translated into German so that might be it. I didn't know they have sticks of butter but what a daft translation eh? 1 stick of butter = ein Stich Butter in German?

Hmmm

Thanks Ernest, that's a big help , so 113 grams for me.

Canella I didn't really understand what you meant about ds. Is he to start school now, mid-Oct aged 5 or do you mean he will start Sept next year in the 1. Klasse aged not quite 6? If the latter, that's what dd did and it was fine, lotso fother kids in the class in the same situation.

As for school stress, well it is not year 1 that is the big stressy set-up. The problem is getting adjusted to sitting still and b eing quiet for such a long time as they are not at all used to it and can be quite tired and ratty at first. Dd really missed kiga once she tried school. I think there is generally no real harm in leaving them a bit longer at kiga. Kiga is quite nice and you have to know how good he is at wielding a penicl, scissors etc, how long he will sit still etc. If he were to stay in Kiga and have another relaxed year, you could gently be teaching him to read English in that time?

However canella another thing you might want to think about is that although year 1 and 2 are not hugely stressful in that they do not involve all the testing and grading that characterise the years which follow, eventually ds will find himself in year 4 and have to cope with that. Perhaps once you get to year 4, you may feel starting later might have been to his advantage.

At least dh has been through the system so he will probably have a pretty good basis for judging it. You could also ask the kiga teachers for their opinion if you get on well with them.

Canella - our ds also turns 5 this week. We´ve already made the decision not to put him into school earlier. It´s easier this time round, with dd we spent weeks discussing whether we should or not and eventually decided against it. I´m pleased we did because she really enjoyed her last year in Kindergarten and as Zzzen says the pressure does eventually pile on and I felt it was good for her to have one more carefree year. I must say we only know one parent here who has gone for earlier Einschulung, but we have friends in other areas who say nearly all the kann Kinder enter school a year early, it maybe worth asking around and seeing what is normal where you are.

Ernest - the school is just so old and shabby. Everything is falling apart including a lot of the books. There are no whiteboards and the library of which they are so proud is a really small room with hardly any books in it. When I left England nearly 10 years ago we already had whiteboards in a few of the classes and a computer suite with 30 computers in it. The school is hoping to get thousands from the Konjunkturpaket in the next few years, so hopefully things will improve. On the positive side there are only about 20 children in each class which is good.

he's to start next sept at nearly 6 - sorry if that wasnt clear! think the kiga just want to start the process now so its on my mind.

i have a good friend here who's started her dd this year - she's not quite 6 and they've had to take her back out again and put her back to kiga - she just wasnt coping with the speed of the work - think thats what i mean by pressurised - they dont want them to learn to read before they go to school but expect them to learn it fairly quickly - think ds would struggle with that. he's no interest in learning to read!but maybe he'll change in a year!

I think a year ahead is a bit early for you to make a decision on it. I find sometimes dc mature in huge jumps over the summer. They are suddenly very much taller and also a lot different generally to before the holidays. I'm not sure really why that should be or if it is just my perception of it.

I think chances are if he starts school next year, he'll be fine (with your help if needed) and if he leaves it another year, he'll also be fine. Year 1 is just learning to read German and form letters, adding and subtracting numbers up to 10

Canella, sorry, X post yesterday. If it helps, my ds is almost exaclt a year older than your ds. He is mid November birthday, and will be 6 next month.

We decided to delay school, for many reasons. Mainly, cos if he had started in September this year, he would have only had 1 year of Kindergarten, and we felt he would benefit from 2. We had only been in Germany a short while, and thought the extra time would help get his German really up to speed. We thought he was also a bit immature tbh (or stroppy arsed little so and so, depending on how you want to look at it). Finally, he is so small, we thought a year to maybe grow a couple of cm would help.

When do they do the Vorschuluntersuchung? I found ds interesting, though obviously, she only sees a snap shot of him, she made a few interesting points. She also recommended delaying a year, which I agreed with.

And ultimately, personally I feel being one of the oldest in the school year is a huge advantage over being one of the youngest. Obviously all kids arer different blah blah , but as a general rule this is proven to be true. UK studies show that August born boys do worse than older peers, and this disadvantage stays with them for their whole school career. (Poorer GCSE/A level results)

It's also worth thinking long-term. It's easy to focus on the immediate situation.

hth

Will this be your 1st Christmas in Germany too?

I was trying to think back to year 1 the other day (blanked it out tbh, was horrendous) and I don't recall the pace being very fast. That may vary from state to state but I definitely didn't feel they were rushing the reading - quite the opposite in fact. You just have to know your dc. My concern with leaving it another year would have been how far behind the ENC the dc would have been when we left (this is more relevant in regard to maths I suppose where the gap can be too big to bridge very successfully without a lot of input from the dp).

I think you are quite settled in Germany canella, although you haven't been here all that long so that isn't something you need to think about much. If your dc are going to stay within the German system right through, it doesn't really matter much when they start. Dd was 5 when she started German school and so was about a third of the class and they all managed ok. The ones who struggled were oldly amongst the oldest but I think that had nothing to do with them being so much older , just whatever other factors influenced their academic ability or application. I think it doesn't matter too much either way tbh, just go with your gut feeling for your dc.

In Berlin when dd started the rule was every child who would have turned 6 by 31 Dec had to start in Sept, whether they were 5 or 6 or in some cases indeed even 7 (because the dp had elected not to send them a year before). The 7 year olds were the difficult ones - both academically and unfortuantely in terms of aggressive social behaviour (why I don't know really). If I had kept dd in kiga another year she would have been the only one of her age left there and all her friends would have moved up to school, so she wouldn't have liked that.

If it is still quite common in your village, I would consider it canella.

you know I was telling about this man I knew when I was at primary school and how he had brain tumours and was not expected to live much beyond Christmas? I just got an email today to say he died last night.

I was hoping to be able to visit him in the hospice at Christmas. Everyone is saying how very cheerful he was throughout, right till the end when he was conscious. I don't know how people manage to be cheerful under those kind of circumstances. My mother was unbelievably strong too.

Zzzen, sorry for your news. Glad he was able to remain cheerful. How inspirational. DOn't mean that at all patronisingly. On Thursday it's the 2nd anniversary of mil dying, she also had brain tumour. Can't say she remained cheerful. Don't mean that at all nastily. She was scared, terrified, sad, can't say she coped at all well, poor thing. It was a blessingly when she finally dies. Her last few months were an absolute nightmare.

On a different note, ds2 is, as we speak, being sent home from Hort with nits. I am so depressed about this. They sent him home yesterday, and I could literally see just a couple, so I combed and combed and combed and hand picked my way through his hair, and spent literally hours on it. I have been through it again this morning. I called them and said I couldn0't see anything, so they said he could come in, but they checked him and say they can still see nits. Well, I don't know what to do now. Really, I have combed him every other day since he got the lice, and so much last night. He has just walked in and I can't see a thing. I am so pissed off.

I would give him a crew cut Ernest.

I think I would be more like your MIL if that happened to me : sad, terrified and also angry. I don't think I would be all that nice to be around.

I think the cloakrooms are a breeding ground for nits. All the hats and coats and scarves half covering each other. Lice have no problem wandering across from one to the other, do they?

Are you washing all the hats and outdoor wear?

Zzzen - sorry to hear about your friend and that you didn´t get a chance to visit him before he died.

Ernest - what a nightmare. Could you take him to you Hausarzt this afternoon. He/She could then confirm it in writing for Kindergarten, but it´s a bit of a hassle. I´m wondering if they really did see anything today, maybe they´re used to dc being off for a week to get rid of them and have sent him home to be on the safe side.

I forgot to report back on the mushroom collecting. They found absolutely loads, about 4 different sorts and our neighbour kindly cooked a meal for us. It was delicious. I have to admit there was a little voice in my head saying, "I bet we´re going to be ill." as we were eating, but we´ve all survived so I think the danger is over.

I really don't know my way around mushrooms so I have never done this. I know you can take them somewhere to be sorted and checked but I would like to be sure that I know myself what is poisonous and what isn't.

So did they taste different to the mushrooms you buy in the shops?

mmmm. Love mushrooms.

Taken your advice. He is almost bald, bless. Luckily he has got such a beautiful handsome face with big adorable eyes. Will be a shock for everyone tomorrow.

Have managed to get Haudarzt appt at 4.10, so hopefully that is the end of that.

Dh admitted he was glad he was with our neighbour as a couple of mushrooms looked the same, but one was edible and one poisonous. They tasted great, but I couldn´t really say they tasted better than shop bought mushrooms.

It will grow back nice and thick. Apparently you are supposed to shave it all off now and again for that reason -according to an ex of mine anyway. Not that I have ever done it. I am keeping the cruddy hair I have

grow back nice and thick!! Bloody hell, he has got so much (ultra thick) hair, I hope not. Now, ds1 and myself, with our fine, thin scraggy hair could possibly do with a shave...

I used to have nice thick hair

I couldn't face shaving it off though. Even if it does make a huge difference (which I doubt). I just don't think I'd have the fragile waif look. I'd just look like a runaway convict

ha ha me too. Dunno why I'm laughing though - Hort just phone - found nits in ds1 now bloody hell. He's on his way. This is beyond a joke. Now, persuading him to get shaved is not going to be fun or easy. Wish me luck.