Have you started your Trip to Germany yet?

We started using our very own Trip to Germany unit study today. Unit 1 was actually released several weeks ago but we've just now started school work so it seemed like a good fit to coincide with our fall activities. I thought it might be fun to share how we're using this study in our own home.


I'm reminded all over again what a great job author, Sarah Menkin, has done on this unit. We had so much fun! All three of my kids (ages 2, 5, and 9) participated and were excited to be "studying" German as a subject. Up until now we've just lived it (and not nearly enough, but that's the subject for another post...). So now we'll include it as a school subject and hope to get started reading and writing in German as well.



Sarah has it so well organized - I was able to grab the books, open my binder with the lesson plan and go. We reviewed some common phrases, tried to teach Jack some colors and numbers, and talked about the Kölner Dom and Brandenburger Tor. The kids thought it was very cool that I have actually been to the Tor. Oh, to be 18 again!

I'm not super-crafty but as you can see below from our very serious model, we were able to manage the flag-making activity and we now have 3 very nicely done German flags for our notebooks.


Are you doing the Trip to Germany study? Tell us in the comments how it's going or leave a link to your blog if you have one.

Free Nikolaustag (St. Nikolaus Day) Unit Study

Edit 12/7/08: the free download has ended. Thanks to all who participated!

Nikolaustag ist endlich da! And to help you celebrate, we've prepared this Nikolaustag unit study. Normally $9.95, it's free for you today only, on Nikolaustag. It's packed with songs, crafts, suggestions for snacks, website recommendations, the Nikolaus story itself and a German-English vocabulary list.

Download your free unit study

New set of free German flashcards online!

The response to the Animal flashcards was incredible! Thank you so much for your kind words. I am thrilled so many of your children enjoyed them.

I've just posted a new set - Bei uns im Garten (Backyard Nature). This time my dear husband recorded the sound so you have the advantage of listening to a native German speaker. Take a look and let me know what you think!

This has turned into such a fun project for me and my kids. Next we are going to try producing our own photo story. My oldest is helping to take the pictures. The two younger boys are the (not always) smiling subjects. Stay tuned for another set!

-- Sarah

P.S. Please let me know if you have problems with the sound. I think it's a little quiet but it may just be my computer.

Thoughts on Language Learning

Up until now my strategy of imparting German to my children has been very simple - give them as much German as I can in a number of formats. We haven't spent any time actually "teaching" them German - we expect that they will learn it through immersion the same way they are learning English. And so far, so good - they even speak to their baby brother in German - amazing!

Now I'm preparing to start a little German hour with some good friends of ours who want to learn German as a part of their homeschooling. They don't speak any German so we'll be starting from square one. I'm not calling it a class or a lesson - we won't be that formal - since my friend's daughter is just 5. Instead we will try to start her off with some songs, words and phrases a la TPRS she can use in everyday situations. I'll be posting about my research and results on the blog. It's going to be a lot of fun for all of us!

Non-native Accents

We are preparing to sell our piano and so we had it tuned today. No one in the house has played the piano since I stopped taking lessons almost 20 years ago. It just so happened that the piano tuner is a native German. What a small world! She casually paid me the highest compliment -- she said I sounded like a native speaker. Oh wonderful day! When I was studying in Munich, this was a real badge of honor for us students - we were always hoping to be mistaken for native Germans as a sign of our excellent linguistic abilities. I don't think anyone was completely fooled by my accent LOL, but perhaps I could pass for some other nationality.

This leads me to think about what kind of accents my kids will develop. Their German exposure is native from my husband as well as my pretty good accent. They also hear native speakers in German music and on DVDs. They have a really hard time understanding our Oma and Opa, though (from the Black Forest). I, too, didn't understand much of my in-laws initially but have since adjusted to their version of German with it's Badisch bent.

My oldest son has a beautiful accent - he seems to have a real talent for languages. My four year old, however, has the funniest way of speaking. It's not so much an American accent, but it's not quite German either. I guess it will work itself out in time.

I think the key for me was the total immersion in native German I had while learning. (I didn't start studying German until college so I'm proof that you never are too old to learn!) Most of us won't be able to provide total immersion for our kids, at least not most of the time. That's when it's critical to find other ways to provide native German for your kids, either from native speakers or also from CDs and DVDs. My kids listen to the same stories over and over, and easily pick up words and phrases, intonation and all, and so this can be a great way to reinforce a good accent.

So now we have a tuned piano and we had a nice visit with a lovely piano tuner. After hearing her play, I am longing to play the piano again! Maybe we won't put it up for sale just yet :)

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.

Learning Styles Continued

In my last post, I wrote about my older son's preference for visual/spatial learning. My younger son, ML, is not quite three so his style is a bit harder to identify but he's showing a definite preference for tactile/kinesthetic (or active) learning. If he can manipulate something, he understands it and remembers. This kid has been loving jigsaw puzzles for over a year - and can pick out the piece he wants from a big pile. Show him where the play button is on the remote control and he'll never forget where it is (and uses it often!) My older son still needs reminders on which buttons to use. Like any self-respecting preschooler, he adores water play and is proud that he knows how to get the temperature just right. Dancing, climbing and jumping are favorites of his. My little ML is very active, however, he easily sinks deep into concentration when doing something engrossing to him like a puzzle or a matching activity.

Some other activities for tactile / kinesthetic learners which you can apply to German immersion:

Crafts. Do a craft and read an accompanying story
Role-play (have kids act out a story they know and help them with the German if necessary)
Dance and sing to German music.
Allow frequent breaks for movement.
Read books with tactile effects. (Lift the flap, glitter effects, touchy-feely). ML loves these kind of books and will "read" them to himself.

Luckily there seems to be a lot of overlap between my two kids' learning styles so I'm not going in two completely different directions most of the time. I wonder what the new baby will be like...?

Learning Styles for German Study

In a continued effort to understand what makes my kids ‘tick’, I have been reading a lot lately about learning styles, and consequently thinking about how it can be applied to expanding a child’s knowledge of German.

I seem to be mainly an auditory-verbal learner which explains why I found German so easy in college – I just listened to the lecture, read the textbooks and learned the rules. I always wondered why everyone said German was so difficult. I loved learning all the rules and their exceptions! My learning style is well-geared toward traditional methods of school instruction.

Fast forward to my efforts to homeschool my older son, NJ, now 6, and my verbal style is frustrating us both immensely. He is more of a visual-spatial learner and is much more interested in the big picture rather than the small details. He’s extremely creative and is constantly constructing things with his hands. The kid even learned to knit last week! (Yes, I am very proud!) Pesky details, however, are not of much interest to him and he needs to keep moving to learn. No sitting still and listening for this boy! Now that I understood this, our lessons are becoming more effective and productive.

Some ideas geared toward these two learning styles that you can use with your German study:

Auditory/verbal learners
Reading lots of books
Listening to music and audiobooks
For older children, a discussion of the grammar – they may enjoy learning the origins of words and expanding their vocabulary

Visual/spatial learners
Maps – where is Germany on the map – what path did we take when we flew their last time? We love to keep maps handy (map placemats are great) and frequently refer to them when a place is mentioned.
Puzzles – most visual/spatial learners love puzzles. Cut their workbook pages into jigsaw puzzle pieces and they may retain the information easily.
Allow them to draw a picture or model with clay while listening to a story auf Deutsch. When my son’s hands are busy, he’s able to concentrate so much better. And later on you can refer to the picture and ask the child to narrate back the story you told.
Incorporate role-playing into your work. Act out a story using action figures. You can really emphasize the verbs this way. Kids will remember the vocabulary as they visualize what the characters did.
Ask them to visualize. Write vocabulary words in color, ask them to close their eyes and write the word in the air. Ask them to see the word in their mind. If they can visualize it, they will remember it.
Have them build models or dioramas and label the parts in German.
Show them how lessons apply to their everyday lives. Visual/spatial learners need to see the big picture. Encourage them to write to other German-speakers, plan a pretend trip to Germany (where will you go, what will you do, what language might you need to use to get around, etc.)

Coming soon – ideas for tactile/kinesthetic learners.

For more information on learning styles, see this great series at Montessori for Everyone.

It's all Japanese to me

I've had the interesting experience lately of being in many of my customers' shoes. That is, of understanding very little of a language I'm trying to learn. A little background: my 6 year old homeschooled son, NJ, has developed a passion for all things Japanese. He loves Japanese anime movies, Japanese art, and particularly Japanese language, both written and spoken. So we have plunged into learning some Japanese. Since he isn't reading in English (or German) yet, this means I need to do most of the legwork and basically learn alongside him. He has infected the whole family with his passion and we all know a lot more now than we did a few months ago. Even our two-year-old loves to say Konichiwa (hello) on the telephone. :)

Of course being the book maven that I am, one of my first steps has been to search out books! But I don't speak Japanese and since the alphabet is different, I don't even have a chance when trying to decide on a book. Luckily, we have good friends who are able to help a bit and who have pointed us in the right direction. I realize how many of my customers must feel who are shopping for German books but whose German is not sufficient to help them make a decision. I now know how it is! I do feel for you!

So I'm going to try and do more book reviews and more translations to help the beginners. And if anyone has any tips on learning Japanese, we'd love to hear them!

ML doing geography work

ML (2) loves "building" the world! 

Geography lessons for little ones

We use a lot of Montessori materials in our homeschool and my little guy, ML (2), has really taken to the geography materials! I thought I might describe some of the things he uses which others might find useful during summer vacation with their children.

I love doing geography with my children because they make so many connections with the information they learn. It's so easy for NJ (6) to relate a location in a book we're reading with a place on a map or the globe. If it's a place he's not familiar with, we look it up. We're making this into a habit so it will become second nature.

The first thing I offered to ML was a continents globe - I painted an old 6" globe so that each continent was a different color. The result is a very simple representation of the earth - no text, no country divisions, just continents and blue for the ocean. Then we discussed a few things known to ML about each continent - we live here, here's where Oma and Opa live, here's where Felix went when he visited the kangaroos, etc.

Then I made a felt continents map. This is a large blue piece of felt for the ocean with each continent cut out of stiffened felt in it's appropriate color to match the continents globe. ML and I "build" the world map together. He loves this! He's so proud that he knows where he lives and his little tongue gets tied up when pronouncing "Nord-Amerika" and "Europa." And since he loves this game, he really remembers what he's learned! We also take different plastic animals and put them on the map according to where they live - alligators in Florida, elephants in Africa and India, etc. This is also a huge hit. Who knew learning could be such fun?!



My next big splurge will be a wooden puzzle map of Europe - Allison's Montessori has beautiful ones - and ML loves puzzles. This will be a great opportunity to learn the names and locations of the countries and again put our favorite storybook characters into perspective.

Also, Enchanted Learning has lots of coloring pages which are great for geography - I have managed to pull up an outline map of the Caribbean within 30 seconds! NJ has taken to coloring maps, flags, and state crests. They also have many printables in German which can help save a rainy summer afternoon.

A week in Ancient Egypt

It's been a bit quiet here at the Alphabet Garten. The reason being, we spent the past week digging up a little piece of ancient Egypt right here in New Jersey. We were fortunate enough to participate in a homeschool archeology camp run by the fantastic group, The Archaeological Perspective. NJ (6) was knee deep in ancient artifacts, with stories and pictures of Egypt swimming through his head. It was an amazing experience. The kids learned the proper way to dig (no, NJ was a bit disappointed to learn that no pick-axes would be employed), how to map the finds, and most importantly how to put together a story about the people who left the items and how they lived. We had an engrossing lesson in history, geography, culture, with a little math, handwriting and phonics squeezed in by sneaky mom! ("NJ - there are 6 squares to dig in and 12 kids. How many kids will work in a square?!")

If you ever have the chance to work with Geoff "Big Dog" Purcell of The Archeological Perspective, you must jump at the chance! He's a gold mine of knowledge and an inspiring teacher. And guess what else? He speaks German! He runs camps year-round. For more information, visit http://www.dothedig.net/