Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Incorporating German Culture and Customs


I like to read books with my children that initiate discussions on German culture. The Lesemaus books do a great job of this in a very natural way. My favorite right now is Ich hab einen Freund, der ist Bäcker. This book transports me back to my student days in München and hot bread and pretzels from the neighborhood Müller Brot. Bakeries in Germany are ubiquitious and there's just nothing like them in the U.S.! This book has a picture of a bakery case and reading about the Streuselschnecken and Brötchen takes me back. My mouth waters and I wonder for a second if I've finished my German assignment for Frau Rischer! Will those college nightmares ever cease?!

Anyway, my two-year-old loves the images of kneading fresh bread dough and grinding oats into oatmeal and his big brother loves the thought of buying his own Pausenbrot. Come to think of it, we need to go make Brezen!

Some other great choices for German culture are:
Wir entdecken das Hotel
Welches Tier war das hier? (We love the hedgehog and dung beetle!)
Märchen, Fabeln, Sagen - Set of 8 Pixi Books - how can you discuss German culture and leave out fairy tales?
Conni am Strand I get such a kick out of the hairy middle-aged lifeguard in this book!

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