German children's books

[sandycheeks]

hello I am interested in introducing my dd and ds to German. I studied the language at school but never appreciated the value of an European language as a teenager. I now deeply regret this lack of enthusiasm and am interested in reviving my German by reading a few children's books with my children. Could anyone recommend any interesting books that would be suitable for a my three year old dd and me.

Hello Sandycheeks,

I am German but my ds is only 10 months old, too young to be interested in books and I am not sure what would be suitable for a 3 year old. Have you heard of the European Bookshop for children, I am sure you will find it if you put it into Google. The Bookshop for adults is just off Regent Street and I am sure they will be able to help you as well. They must have good books for your dd! Let me know if you can't find it and I will ask my friend as she has been there a few weeks ago! Viel Spass

Hi
I did do German at school but have pretty much forgotten everything. However, we have some German friends and they sent us some books for Christmas by someone called, I think (sorry - they are in dds' bedroom and they are asleep!) Otfried Preussler. We have them in English translation. We've read 'The Little Ghost' and there is also 'The Little Water-Sprite' and 'The Little Witch'. Dd1 is 4.5 and loved 'The Little Ghost'.
Hope this helps. Someone correct me if I've got the name wrong....

You can also do a search on Amazon for German children's books and should come up with some. I got a Beatrix Potter book in German for ds but I've got to work on my pronunciation a little more before trying it out with him

hi sandycheeks, I am German and we have masses of German children's books in this house. Will have a little look later this morning and get back to you with some suggestions. Just looking at what's hanging around near the computer - there's 'Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen' (where the wild things live), and very popular with my dd when she was three were the 'Ich bin der kleine Fuchs' and 'Ich bin der kleine Spatz' toddler books published by Ravensburger. They do lots more baby animal ones, 'Ich bin die kleine Katze', 'das kleine Baerenkind' etc.
Ravensburger also do nice large board books of the 'my first finger rhymes', 'my first bed time stories' variety, 'Meine ersten Fingerspiele' would be a fun way of introducing German.
Another good one would be 'Lulu liebt Lesen' - a nicely illustrated toddler dictionary type book, my daughter is now 5.5 and likes looking at it to practise her German reading, it'd be a fun way of introducing new vocab to a younger child.

I always order my German books from www.buch.de, their delivery is cheaper than amazon and they have been extremely quick and reliable so far.

I can also recommend the 'Findus und Petterson' DVD to you. Findus and Petterson are an old Swedish bloke (Petterson) and his cat Findus. They live on a farm and have all sorts of country adventures, it's a very very good, slightly wacky cartoon. The DVD is available with both German and English soundtracks.

Danke,thanks for your suggestions and information. Your choice of books geekgrrl sound like fun. Hopefully I'll be able to refresh some of my very rusty German, by having some fun with dd.

I'd also suggest trying to get things like Bob the Builder (Bob der Baumeister) and Thomas the Tank Engine (Thomas und seine Freunde) as if they know the stories they will understand them in German as well as in English. I wish I'd got the Thomas videos in German as my son is such a Thomas fan. He likes the Little Polar Bear DVDs too which is Der Kleine Eisbär (can be a bit scary though). Muzzy from the BBC/Early Advantage is great too (expensive to buy new but you can buy in instalments over about 6 months and often available in ebay). I also used Amazon. I might get a Bob DVD from Amazon and see what my son (3 in November) makes of it. He is uni/monolingual but has been to Germany 3 times in his short life and I think has worked out that something over there is a bit different with talking. Berlitz also do a kids language pack which is good but more for older kids and one last suggestion is the website linguatots.

Hi there!
My dd is now 5 and I have been buying German books, films and tapes for her on www.e-bay.de ; I also tape Sesamstrasse (Sesame Street) on "KiKa" (German children's channel) for her, which we receive via Astra Satellite Dish. I just bought her the book "Michel aus Lonneberga" by Astrid Lindgren (I used to love books by her, when I was a kid), which is a book about a boy, who always gets himself into trouble...
Bob der Baumeister is also a favourite of hers and she knows the names of the charecters both in English and in German...
We've also got some CD's with German Christmas songs, which we like to sing along to.

hi everyone
can i join in. i am german as well dd is 4.5 years old and doesnt speak much german wich is
quit upsetting for my parents she is really interssted in learning it when we are in germany but as soon as we get back here she doesnt want to know. anyway, simmi i got a lovely german baby book here called Abenteuer auf der Insel
dd not interested in it anymore could post it to you if you want it, havent had the heart to throw
it away. also got Rotkaeppchen and der gestiefelte kater MiniFavouriten douples if anyone is interested. gruss anja

Hi Anja
My dd told her "oma" on the phone a few months ago that she can't speak German anymore and she (my mother) should speak English to her.
That came as a shock to my mother, as she doesn't speak any English and I had to assure her that my dd is just to lazy to speak German, because her English is becoming much better than her German, as she hears it all day at school! So even if she chooses not to speak German that much anymore, at least she understands it, as I will continue to speak German to her! And, of course, the visits to Germany help...

hi veggie
my mum dont speak any english either, when we are in germany or on the phone she just speaks german to dd and somehow she seems to understand it but if i speak german to her she just gives me a funny look and says "mummy.....speak english" its my fault i should have spoken german to her right from the beginning. wish i could teach her german just not sure how to go about it. dp dont speak german so we just speak english at home and to be honest i find it a lot easier to speak english than german. my mum taped a lot of german fairytales for dd but now
video player is broke.urg..... will have to sort it out. mum always makes me feel guilty about not teaching dd german

so there are Germans on here!
Any of you in West London at all? Trying to expose my kids to a bit more then just me :)

As for books... I usually hunt some down on ebay.de and have them sent to my mum for her to bring over when she comes visit 3-4x a year

I've got a few german DVDs I got from ebay as well like Rotkaeppchen, Froschkoenig etc.

killed another thread have i? :)

hey mrs big D
looks like you did kill this thread after all.
its been dead since friday night or does this site always go a bit qiet over the weekend.
seems to be at its busiest weekday mornings when all the blokes are at work and the kids at school. HEAVEN.

that might be it... note to self... do not post Friday afternoons