Ein neuer Assistant

I had some extra help today. The girl who packs my orders is on vacation and I was left alone to do the job myself. Yikes! Well, I must have done something right because my oldest, N, at the ripe old age of 7 1/2 joined me for the job, and we had a blast! He was responsible for folding invoices and sealing packages and was mighty proud of himself. So if you ordered over the weekend and your package arrives with a label carefully placed just so, you'll know who gets the credit.

Games for Learning

In case you don't receive the newsletter, here are some quick and easy games to play to advance your child's German. To subscribe to the newsletter, please visit our website.

Mystery Game (for beginning readers)
Gather 5-10 small objects from around the house. Raid the toybox for miniature items. Ideas include Katze, Mann, Hut, Ball, Schuh, Hahn, Auto - once you start looking, you'll find all kinds of small items with short names you can use. Write the names on slips of paper. With a great air of mystery, tell your child "I'm thinking of a secret object - can you guess what it is?" Have your child pick a slip of paper, look at the word, and select the object. Keep the selection small at first and build up as the child progresses.

Wiederholen, bitte
We have been working on improving short-term memory to aid with overcoming learning challenges. This simple memory exercise can be done whenever you have a few minutes to spare - we're trying to do it several times a day. Slowly recite a few numbers in German and ask your child to repeat them back to you in order. Start off with 3 digits and see how many you can work up to. For an added element of fun and to engage the kinetic learners, do this while tossing a bean bag back and forth.

Der, die, das
This is a form of the classic game, Mother May I? Make signs in big letters for der, die and das. The leader stands at one end of the room and the rest of the group stands several feet back. The leader holds up one of the signs and calls out nouns. When the leader names a noun of the gender matching his sign, the other players may move a step forward. When he names nouns of other genders, the players must remain still. If they take a step incorrectly, they must go back to the starting line. The first person to the leader gets to take over as leader and the game begins again. This game is a lot of fun and can get very silly.

Harry Potter und die Heiligtümer des Todes

Harry Potter #7 auf Deutsch - coming soon! Pre-order now and get free shipping.