Ok, here I am, with my brand-new blog, facing a blank page......this is going to be an interesting experience :)
I never thought I needed a blog....not really. But then I started homeschooling, and since I couldn't find what I was looking for anywhere else, I finally had to take matters into my own hands. You see, our situation is as follows: I am German, married to an American, and Mom to a 5 year old bilingual dual citizen. We all live in Alaska. Since we started homeschooling said 5 year old this fall, I've discovered a huge and wonderful homeschooling community with vast resources, great advice, wonderful materials, etc. etc. BUT: It's all in English. And while I am grabbing all the English language material I can find, I would also like to do part of our homeschooling in German. By that, I do NOT mean "teaching German", but "teaching IN German".
And that's where it gets difficult: In Germany, homeschooling is not allowed. So a community like over here where homeschooling is becoming more and more popular just doesn't exist over there. And thus, German teaching materials are fewer and/or not easily accessible. I have managed to collect my own little "homeschooling library" in German, but it's definitely a work in progress. Additional info would always be appreciated :-)
So that's why I created this blog. I'm hoping that eventually we'll all be able to exchange info, share advice, post links, etc. Mainly about homeschooling in German, but also about homeschooling in general. And if not, if my son and I are really just lone Germanicans on this side of the great pond, then I'll just use this blog to collect and organize my own links. So there LOL
So, welcome everyone! Willkommen im Lehrerzimmer der Rhineland Academy. :-)
I just found your blog, and as there is only one posting, I am not sure if you will even see this. I would be very interested in sources you have found. I am an American and 3 of my kids and I are attempting to learn German using the Rosetta Stone. I would like to find more to supplement this learning. I would love to find some beginning German spelling books as well as a beginning German reader, similar to the Horizon readers by Alpha-Omega, the Christian Liberty phonics readers, or the Open Court reading series by McGraw Hill. Do such things even exist? I can order items from Amazon.de, but I do not know enough German to effectively search for such items. I would also be interested in any German sites similar to our PBS, where the kids could watch educational German tv shows. Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteHi Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteyes, this blog didn't get farther than the first post....thing came up and I just didn't have the time. :-(
But I 'll gladly pass on some of my links and information to you. :-)
Since Homeschooling is not allowed in Germany, the material available is a lot harder to find than over here. In Germany, schools are responsible for most of the education, and parents mainly help their kids in problem areas and with homework. :-(
There are readers for beginners which you could find by looking for the keywords "Erstes Lesen" or "Erstleser". The only thing I don;t like is that over there the beginning readers tend to use the "words and pictures" method, i.e. some of the nouns are replaced by pictures. Just not my thing ;) For an example, look for "Lesemaus zum Lesenlernen", that's a pretty good series.
My son also enjoys the "Meine Freundin Conni" books and videos ("My friend Conni", a series about a little girl who's learning various things). I haven't found any phonics readers or programs that would be comparable with the ones here.
There are many workbooks to help with reading, spelling and grammar. A good series is ".....-Stars" (e.g. "Deutsch-Stars", "Rechtschreib-Stars" etc.). For an example, look for ISBN 3637006936, that's a good one. Also maybe ISBN 3788624108 or 3551185336. Otherwise look for "Arbeitsheft" (workbook), "Rechtschreibung" (spelling), "Übungsheft " (practice book), etc. You might have to put a grade with it to filter through the search results ("Vorschule" fuer kindergarten level, "1. Klasse", "2. Klasse" etc. for the following ones).
There are also several "learning systems" that might be of help, too. One is the "LÜK" (very traditional, I even worked with the system in elementary school....almost 40 years ago LOL). It consists of a little box with flat squares that have numbers on one side and a piece to a geometric pattern on the other side. You use those togetehr with a workbook, and if you arrange the numbers correctly and flip the box, you should see the correct geometric pattern. Great for independent practice, too. Unfortunately quite spendy..... Look at ISBN 3894148594 to see an example for a reading workbook (just the book, you'll still need the box, look for "LÜK Kasten" or "LÜK-Lösungsgerät". careful, there are two, one with 12 and one with 24 squares. You need to look at the book to see which one it need. Usually it's 12 for the lower level ones.).
There's also a newer system on the market which is very similar, it's called "Logolino". It's hard to find, though...I found ours on the German ebay ;) Just as an example, look for ISBN 3821228911.
Do you know the TAG reader? There's something similar in Germany, called the "Tiptoi Stift". You'll need either the pen plus books or games, or a starter set which includes the pen, plus whatever else you want in books or games. We just got it for Christmas, and I like it. We have the "Magors Lesezauber" game, and my son enjoys playing it. And it really helps with reading and spelling. The books are pretty nice, too. Only downside is, it's really spendy.
More about TV shows etc in the next answer ;)
Ok, next topic:
ReplyDeleteFor TV shows, we use a website called "bong.tv". It works like a videorecorder: Once a week you go and pre-program all the shows you want recorded from German TV during the week. And once they're recorded, you can go into you account and download them to your computer. They have a free trial (a week, I think), so you could have a look. At the moment, there's an educational show called "Wissen macht Ah", then there are tons of preschool and elementary level "fun" shows (Disney and others) which I let my son watch so he can increase his vocabulary. The "meine Freundin Conni" videos are oine once a week, I think. (For an example, look on amazon under "Meine Freundin Conni DVD"). A while ago, there was also an educational show called "Pixi Wissen" that was great for younger kids, but I think it's not on anymore.
Once your kids are more fluent in German, you might want to think about getting the "Was ist was" DVDs. It's an educational series (there are also "Was ist was" books which have been around since my childhood) about lots of (science) topics. Look for "WAS IST WAS Die Edition Boxset". They have the single topics on DVDs as well, but it would be a lot more expensive than buying the entire set.
Another really great one is the "Es war einmal....." series. There's for example the "Es war einmal....das Leben" about the Human body, "Es war einmal...Entdecker und Erfinder" about inventions and discoveries, etc. Quite spendy, but worth it.
Do you have anybody in Germany who could receive mail for you, collect it and then send all of it in a big package? If yes, you could have a look an the German ebay as well, you might be able to save quite a lot of money that way ;)
(If you are going that route, let me know, there's a German cashback site that pays you money for shopping, incl. shopping on ebay; I'll give you the info. Unfortunately amazon.de doesn't participate, just like over here).
One last thing: A couple of spelling games might be a good idea as well (e.g. "Ravensburger Wort für Wort"). Of course, with a little work, you could make those yourself with the help of a laminating machine etc. ;)
Uff, I think that was it for now. I need to get back to our homeschooling LOL But this should giove you something to start with. Wish you lived around here, I could just show you all the books and games ;)
Let me know if you need more help. :-)
Charlotte
Oh, just remembered something: Bong.tv is by subscription (which I gkadly pay because it's worth it to me), but there's also the "onlinetvrecorder.com" which is free and works pretty much the same way. Lots of ads, though, if you want the free version (they have a paid option, too).
ReplyDeleteAnd another thing:
www.Toggolino.de
An online service which you subscribe to and where the kids can play learning games. They are all based on the characters from the Toggolino TV shows (a lot of Disney etc.), so it depends whether you like those or not, but for my son, it's working great. They give you a one month trial for 1 Euro, if you want to try it out.
Very last one LOL
ReplyDeleteThere's a facebook group, "Kinder lernen und sprechen Deutsch im Ausland".
It's mainly for Germans who are living abroad and are trying to bring their kids up as bilinguals (it's also not very "lively" due to the shortage of members), but maybe you can also find some more info there:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/114679862024569/
Up to now, all the postings have been in German, but they all speak English as well, so if you want to, just join and post there :-)
Thank you SOOOO much for getting back to me and for all the info! Can't wait to check it all out! I just recently learned that my Amazon Prime membership here allows me to order items from Amazon.de for REALLY cheap shipping. I ordered a couple of Christmas dvds and a couple of Harry Potter dvds and paid less than $5 to ship! Unfortunately, I do not know anyone in Germany.
ReplyDelete