help me with my sons german please - forms of zeichnen??

[debinaustria]

is this right or not
Ich zeichnete
Du zeichnetest
sie zeichnetet
Wir zeichnen

thanks

ok, I've looked at the 50l verbs book and it looks good and amazon deliver free - so I also need a good dictionary , what would you recommend?

admylin - you'd at the contrast with my ds2 in y3.
Weird or what?
Yours is exactly what my lot had in y1

advent - it also sounds like the homework my son had last year.

well I don't think it a secret that we're pretty much rock bottom in German schooling standards here in Berlin these days. I don't know IS anyone below us even?!

We use an old Langenscheidt of mine. Need a better one really so open to recommendations.
Deb - the 501 is v old-fashioned in its examples and choice of verbs but it has the standard verbs and it conjugates them which can be easier for the children to learn - they can see a pattern.

I know, it is very worrying. They aven't even done a book review yet. Year 3 the set book is Das Sams - but ds didn't do anything apart from read a few chapters, no discussions, reviews nothing. Dd has it this year but is doesn't look as if they will be doing much with it either.

In SW Germany ds's old classmates have already done about 5 book reviews and had to stand up and present each one infront of the class.

How can I get int oteh Christmas spirit when things like this keep reminding me. We have got to get out of here fast, have to send off more job applications for dh. Worry, worry .. and I started the day singing Morgen kinder wirds was geben..

Here's me in RP tearing my hair out at how much h/work.
You two in Berlin tearing yours out at how little
lol
Recommend the Zauberlehrling for German in Y3 & Y4. DS2's on "doppelte Mitlaute" atm.

Will order Zauberlehrling straight away...off to Amazon.

Well it's a mystery to me what, if anything, dd does in German class. I presume they're writing on slates and rubbing it out at the end of the day.

Only thing I have seen is they cut out some pictures, glue them on a page and write a story to match. Dd hates those and they are a bit odd. For instance this is one picture story: 1. Cow in a field. 2. Cow turns around looking at a giant egg. 3. Is about to sit on it but a chicken comes and says, "nein". 4. So cow lifts up tail and then the final text is given to you: "Die Kuh tat 'was anderes legen" and drops a cowpat.

Now dd refused to write anything for that. I wouldn't have been tempted either. Very crude sort of humour I thought and personally I would never say "Ich tat + verb". To me that sounds like weird dialect.

Would also point out that you two are at least in a position to consider leaving We're here for the duration... That has me trying (!) to focus more on the positive.

Sorry for hijack, Deb, when we start, we're unstoppable.
But always happy to help with homework

I'm not tearing my hair out yet Finky, just dyed it in fact but somehow managed to miss all the grey

It's not that I want a lot of homework, I'd be happy if they were just doing something noticable and effective at school IYSWIM. I don't think primary school dc need a load of homework

Bildergeschichte. V popular here. Boys were rubbish at them.
at cowpat
Maybe 'tis not so bad in the provinces

Found it I think, Zauberlehrling:
is this it?

Another thing, you had better be good at maths in Germany to get the Abitur. In UK atleast if you are rubbish at maths (like I was) you can still get through to A level on different subjects. I had A grades in most subjects but only had a CSE in maths (pass grade C) and I can see dd struggling already and she hates maths.

By the way: Cowplat - very important vocab for living in the city eh!

Well I didn't make her do it because tbh with you, even as an adult, I couldn't come up with a decent text for that. Another one we got was also weird:

1. woman comes home carrying a huge bottle, almost as big as she is 2. puts it in a wardrobe 3. is on a rocking chair in front of a cradle with a giant goat in it 4. opens the wardrobe and there is a baby in there.

C'mon now, I defy you to write a text for that. Dd will write me notes all day on this and that, she loves scribbling away but she couldn't for the life of her come up with a story for that.

That is really strange. Please tell me this is for German and not for the English class.

No this is German

Nice woman but dunno where she gets her material from

Yep, that's it. Small chunks reasonably well put together - am v fussy They get 4 to 8 pages to do over 2 to 4 days and it does help.
Didn't I help you once with funny vegetables or something? The pictures can be odd.

OMG - those picture stories are WEIRD
We had 'boys fall in ditch' or 'man drops water on floor' - that was a laugh
Humour's odd, isn't it? Just remembered the water on floor one - the man thought his dog had weed in the living room.

The last homework I had a problem with was all the noises animals make (in German of course) - even the teacher wasn't 100% sure.

Finknottle, what do yours do when the other dc have English lessons? Ds has one-to-one tuition with a teacher who speaks fluent English which is one of the few things I am happy with at his school! Dd is allowed to read by herself and sometimes joins in but mostly has to sit quietly as it's unfair on the others (last week they all drew a monster, stick it up on the black board and then the teacher said in English point to a monster with 4 arms, or 3 eyes or a green monster etc - dd wasn't allowed to join that)

They stay in the class.
When ds1 started Y3 I and another mum asked if the boys could do some English work with books I'd got from WH Smith. Worked fine for a bit then the teacher stopped them as she said their German needed help so she made them do extra German instead. Was Ok with that.

Ds2 used to bring a book/comic in Y1 & Y2 or join in and his teacher made him feel useful and saw it v positively. His new Y3 teacher insists the children (2 other English speakers) do the lesson with the others. Teacher never calls on them so they're bored.

Ds1 has 6 hours a week in Y5 and is finally learning to write in English - or rather accept corrections unlike with mum He is "used" by the teacher (the head) to help the others and it was again v positive and bolstered his confidence. Head is now away and the new teacher does nothing really. He said he migh tbring in extra worksheets Disappointing really now.
I just want him to work on writing and he will do that happily at home now as English is finally (at aged 10) a proper school subject.

There was someone who did the Zauberlehrling and needed help with a page ds1 had just done. May have been NightyNight.
Blimey - 1.30pm - ds2 has just come home and he had 5 (five) things for homework today

I wish they hadn't changed the law on language instruction. Previously they could have had Latin as first foreign language but now in all schools other than the bilingual ones, English has to be first foreign language here, in RP too? Wouldn't it be great if they could just do French or Spanish instead? Well, at the current school dd would be learning French from year 5 but I don't think really she will be there that long. I much prefer it socially to the one we had but academically it is always a constant worry, isn't it admylin?

Feeling really last couple of days. Got totally screamed at in the street by this other parent when I picked dd up. She was with me walking along the street and I hate it when she's with me and things like that happen. God knows what the problem was, I was walking along minding my own business and nodded and said hello to this man coming towards us since I recognised him from drop-offs. Really ruined my day and all day yesterday too. Don't think I will ever learn to deal with this kind of thing

Ds is doing mostly spelling practise now as he can read everything. I might suggest that dd's teacher could get her to help out then she isn't bored. Thank goodness we only have 2 hours of English for them to get through.

The other day, although both my dc are fluent in German and you can't tell they're foreign - ds said he'd be so happy when dh gets a job in an English speaking country then he can drop 'this stupid langauge' he dislikes it even though he has no real problems with it. Must be the vibes from me, I must try to send out positive ones in future.