Wouldn't you think they'd let up in the last week of term but no....

[debinaustria]

Today ds has 10 words to learn and copy out 3 times, sentences to copy, 5 times table to learn (again) - apparently he told the teacher I didn't have time for him!!!!!! and reading.

Then this week he has another times table test, a reading comprehension on Thursday, and Deutsch test - dictation on Friday. I was foolishly asking him before if they did anything special on Friday being the end of term - oh yes - another test!!!!!!!

Wish I'd seen the Lidl bedding - I think ours are summer lightweights and we're in the coldest room in the house.
Glad we don't get temps like Munich; -4C was cold enough this morning. Dd kept stopping on her bike as her eyes were watering so much. Don't mind the cold as the skies are blue, the sun is shining & the vineyards silver with frost.

The flippin' cycle of tests has nowt to do with the reports, it's the norm for Y3
Ds2 is trying so hard & I'm always aware that my rants & mutterings aren't going to help him so I'm a lot more relaxed about it.

SSStollen - the homework by the fire has really helped the afternoon gloom & we've been rewarding ourselves for getting through the homework by watching Rosemary Shrager's School for cooks on ITV. Ds2 loves cooking.

SSSandy - am trying to remember what books for German the boys had in Y2. Think the school ditched ds1's and ds2 had a mix of smaller books & heaps of worksheets. Must look. Pusteblume it was I think. Pretty rubbish tbh.

Maths is easy.

www.mathe-im-netz.de

Don't like the Mathebuch itself or the Arbeitsheft but the little Uebungsheft is good for small regular doses of practice. Only cost 5 or 6 euros. Got all mine on Amazon.

The Zauberlehrling is for Y3 & 4 but I think there's a Y1 & Y2 book too. Would be better for German than the Pusteblume ones.

Had to laugh at the bah humbug dh finknottle. Mine is a compilation of bah humbug and scrooge and I am trying to my best to be the understanding loving wife like you (he has alot of work stress etc) it's always good to have someone remind me to be understanding! I suppose he did go out on Saterday with us and ordered some new glasses which cost quite alot.

I will go and get a tree this afternoon, you are all right it is lovely sitting snuggled up with the tree lights on and a few candles just talking, it'll do the dc good aswell.

Are your dc doing a party for Christmas in their class? Dd's class teacher isn't going to manage one this year as he is also music teacher and is fully booked with concerts here and there. Alot of the mums are totally entäusched but it doesn't really bother me. Ds's class teacher doesn't bother as only about 4 in the class aren't muslim.

Thanks for the tip about Lidl and the bedding NN. I'll go and have a look. I need a warmer quilt for dd and my pillow is all lumpy. I keep swopping it for dh's but unfortunately he notices! Bound to be all sold out now though.

Thanks finknottle, we have the 5 Minuten Heft for maths from school but dd is not much enamoured of maths so it's a bit of a trial getting her to put any effort into it. I think she could do it but she is so supremely uninterested in it that she doesn't concentrate. I have an American maths book and that Mathe König one and I use a combination of the two to try and keep on top of it.

Thank God she was successfully (for once) adding and subtracting carrying over the damn tens in her head yesterday. I thought that would never happen.

Then she drove me mad this morning not being able to add up coins and banknotes in the bl* school maths book - 50 Euro + 20E + 5E (as notes) + coins 2E + 2E + 2E + 1E. Now how difficult is that really?! I had to walk out the door and scream to myself.
At least it put me right on whether I could really handle home educating her. I'm always moaning that it isn't an option here, but tbh I'd be useless at it. Don't have the patience.

We had a nice class Christmas party admylin but dd wasn't happy about it because she had to be a narrator and because it had nothing to do with Jesus (she's the big religious number). I have to say this school is fantastic on the social activities side, they really do make it nice for the dc.

I'll look into the Zauberlehring finky, thanks. I have the Lerndrache Rechtschreibung and the Lerndrache Diktat book as well as the Lollipop Schreibschrift book and I'm ploughing along at a gentle pace through those.

Actually it seems totally ridiculous to be an Englishwoman in Germany and be teaching your dc to write proper German instead of the school doing it, don't you think?!

yes, this has often struck me as barking mad too, Sandy! It does improve my German though. My children use Zauberlehrling in the school, it is good.
Also, they use the beolingus online dictionary to help with their homework.

I was talking to an acquaintance in Munich the other day, and her dd does Kumon maths at home. There is a woman here who sends out the worksheets by post, the children fill them in and return them, and get them back the following week corrected. If they make a lot of mistakes, they get a different sheet on the same subject, otherwise they move on. They get some sort of little reward for completing steps.
She says that her dd started below her school age, and is now above it, and has gained confidence with maths.

That's interesting Nighty, I'll have to look into the Kumon maths. Not sure if it is available here. Will have to google about a bit. So you use Zauberlehrling too? I had a look for it in the shops yesterday but didn't find it. I would have to order it. I find the American maths book works best for dd since they use word problems and jokes and riddles - more on her wavelength than the school books. However it has counting with dollars and dimes as well as measuring in quarts and things, so a lot of it isn't relevant for us.

That maths site is good too Finky, I see they have a section on counting with money. Yippee

Strudelface, how was the turbo Punsch?

Manchita, remind us where you are again

Wouldn't worry to much about the money, Stollen, ds2 is 8 and good at Maths & only "got" the money now in Y3. First time round in Y2 he was so muddled. Ds1 as well thinking back.

I don't feel I have to teach the boys thankfully. Dd's German is still very wobbly & that's a headache enough. The school here might be all tests but the teaching is good. One woman told us at the Y3 parents' evening to stop complaining about too much homework as it was preparing the children for secondary school i.e. Gymnasium Hey Ho. I'd rather they learnt to learn and not become rote robots. Thankfully both boys have a great teacher this year.

Tho' I think this daft cursive writing is a waste of class time. Y1/2 teacher told me they wished they could spend less time on how the children write (the loopy D & mind the tail and your downstroke's not angled enough...) and focus more on what the children write.

Only found the Mathe im Netz when I looked for the textbooks for you. Might try it out too.

Am avoiding doing anything useful. Maybe I'll start by writing a series of lists...
We have the Ils for C'mas Eve , us 5 here on C'mas Day and then we fly to England on the 26th for 5 days

Expensive flights huh for a family of 5? So what are you serving the ILs? Is it goose with Rotkohl?

I'm getting a bit sick of all the teaching and stressing about the schoolwork TBH. I want to go live on a tropical island and weave baskets all day and let dd run wild for a bit. I was talking to Dad about it last night and he said they never had to do any of this with us and I wonder if I really HAVE to do it, you know, or whether it would be the end of the world if I just let go.

I'm still chewing over that one.

I still have to get dh a CHRISTMAS present. I have NO idea what. I bought him a book last week but realised afterwards I bought myself a book, it's not his kind of book at all!

I've been able to let go now that ds1 is settled and I'm more canny about how to cope with Y3. Is def a relief all round. Hence more relaxed homework by the fire & not making school the focal point of the boys' or our lives. Ds1's Y3 & Y4 were poisonous & I'm not going through that again.
Took me a while mind

Ils - meat fondue. By Decree. Dh loves it, I'd prefer something else esp as I'll have to do a separate dish for the children
Refuse to bow to Mil's insistence on Kaffee und Kuchen at 3pm. I'll make coffee for those who want it but I'm not doing the whole laid table and homemade cake thing. We only ever do it with them & I don't like cake. Shall do canapes & Sekt instead.

Will need industrial amounts of alcohol to get through the evening

I got dh a USB turntable so he can transfer his vast dusty record collection to the computer/CDs/MP3.

Phew, I've just sat through 3 hours of parcel wrapping with two PTA mums from school. They decided if the teacher isn't doing a party then they sure are! One mum went out and bought a load of cheap rubbish small gifts for all the children and I offered to have them round to my place to wrap and decorate.

Feel quite proud as I went and got a tree yesterday and the dc put it up and now we can get in the mood. I also have to get something for dh, did you find anything yet Sandy? A book that I can read later would do I suppose.

Oops, cheap rubbish is meant to be crossed out, selber schuld for not previewing message.

dd is really into the meat fondue as well. She's always asking when we can have it again. You can buy a whole whack of nifty little sauces for it. Problem I find is it isn't really satisfying eating these tiny niblets of meat and waiting for the next one to cook and fishing the bits that have fallen off back out etc... etc... Still gives you something to argue talk about! I serve it with those ciabatta rings because they have a bit of taste in them and look more frivolous than baguette. Sounds like you have it all sussed there finky.

What's being served chez admylin? Maybe your crowd would enjoy fondue. I'm thinking Kaninchen here with dumplings on top (it still isn't organised mind you). We have a duck ordered from Poland (from my friend's dp's farm) but I'm not good at cooking big birds, dunno what to do with it yet. American woman was telling me to get an oven bag (just what the hell is that?) and you seal it in there with all the vegetables and apparently it cooks just fine.

Finky that's a good present. I went out expecting to encounter horrible elbowing crowds and bad-tempered shop-assistants and everyone was so nice. Geez I couldn't get adjusted to it.

I had something in mind for dh but when I saw it I didn't like it so I'm still stumped. Will have another roam about this evening when dd is at chess. I nearly bought him a mad pair of fat reindeer slippers which sing Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer when you press the nose! Reconsidered at the last moment though!

In the end I bought myself a ton of stuff but nothing expensive. I needed it all of course - like some trousers and a blouse, two pairs of sparkly earrings (trying to match the tree this year), those tshibo slippers because I threw mine out the other day by mistake (!), some perfume (I'd run out).

Not doing a great job on the pressies this year. Dd even found her big one (unwrapped under the desk - damnit).

at dd finding her present - does she still believe in Santa? Ds2 still does at 8 and I got a wee bit teary-eyed at listening to him & dd discussing leaving biscuits and milk & a carrot on C'mas Eve. They thought one carrot was a bit mean as there's more than one reindeer...

Agree about fondue - you get full but you don't feel like you've eaten properly. Best thing about German Christmas is that we get the inlaw bit over on the 24th and can have a whole lovely day to ourselves on the 25th.

Couldn't afford to fly if it weren't for Ryanair despite the "Now You Must Pay to Breathe On Flight" charges they dream up. Dh only comes with us when we go for Christmas itself. We take the car & I buy tonnes of bacon, crisps, Imperial Leather bath stuff, Hobnobs, Marmite, tea, more crisps, Quavers....
Not the same when we fly.
Want Quavers now. And a mince pie with buttery pastry...

That would be a dream of mine, to drive over and fill a car with stuff! I recently had an order filled in on a food from UK website and then deleted it telling myself to get a grip.I could really do with some oxo cubes and crisps, tea, marmite, branston..we're running out of it all.

We're having salmon at Christmas as we don't like duck, goose or turkey that much. Do you let your dc open alltheir pressies on the 24th then? I can't bring myself to do it even though I know it's tradition here and dd always says on Christmas eve, 'mum, all my friends have had their Christmas and it's all over and I've still got it to look forward to'. What about you Sandy - do you do it your dh's way or our way?

No no no to Christmas Eve presents. They get them from the Ils and mil does this "ring the bell the Christkind's here and look what he brought you" then the children have to thank her & opa for the presents...
Think we'll be saved the bell as it's at our house this year.
Then Christmas morning we open our presents - after all Santa brings them in the night.
Am v bossy about how things are. Well, I do all the work

I buy Oxo cubes too - and Bisto which ds1 calls "your homemade gravy Mum" as opposed to whatever Mondamin sludge I've ruined

Dh is here & I'd better pretend to do something other than MN!

Bisto, yes I really miss that. When we're in the Uk we practically drink gravy as if we're addicted. Isn't that maggi/Knorr stuff yuk and mondamin is rubbish too.

I'm so jealous - I bet you will even get to go to the sales in UK when you're over. I heard they start them right after Christmas now.

I'm really annoyed about dd finding the present, it was so stupid of me to hide it right where I am on MN all the time. She HAD to find it, didn't she? It wasn't even wrapped. Father Christmas rules here so I am going to tell her some story like Father Christmas had the elves drop it round early so we could check if it worked with the TV in case he'd got the wrong one. Thank God she still believes everything I tell her! Was kicking myself though as you can imagine

We were driving home on Sunday and passed this guy got up as Father Christmas on a motorbike with a side-car and dd let down the window, she was waving to him and screaming "hi Father Christmas". He was good, he waved back and did a "ho ho ho". She's convinced she saw the real Father Christmas but she did ask "or was it Nikolaus mummy?"

So I said no, Nikolaus only comes once a year but Father Christmas is probably doing some last minute shopping. She swallowed it just fine.

How sweet the little finknottles are caring about all the reindeer! Ours get one carrot to share.

I've managed to side-step the Christkind thing so far. Gets very confusing after a bit. As head of the household here I decreed that Christmas is on Dec 25th and we have the presents in the morning.

That reminds me I meant to post a thread on how to make good gravy

I did it once, open the pressies on Christmas eve that it. It was the first time I spent Christmas in Germany before I had dc and it felt really wrong and wierd! But I was trying - joined in with all the traditions and tried all the food the first few months I was here anyway.

dd won't eat any of this Grünkohl or Rotkohl or Preiselbeeren etc. We're having rote Grütze and vanilla sauce though.

Just how did people make good gravy in the days before bisto then?

Maybe try this but the roasting juices, oxa and bisto just make the besttaste I think.

how to make gravy

OXO not oxa!

That's sort of how I make it admylin, thanks for that. I put in the red wine and so on but I haven't tried any redcurrent jelly, maybe that makes all the difference. It just doesn't seem to have much taste.