Today is a rather pleasant day, although it is still very humid. At the same time, it's a bit cooler than the weather has been lately.
The children have already had their riding lessons today, and both are improving. They even learned how to make Sugar jog today, and I could tell they were having a lot of fun with it. Susanne keeps working on balance exercises with them, and also works on improving their coordination. I always bring a book to read, but I never get to actually read, since Susanne's english is not very good, and so I have to translate quiet a bit. After the riding lessons, Christopher proudly showed off his latest bionicle creation to Susanne, and Annika told her (IN GERMAN!) about how her uncle Eric comes to visit us in Gaggenau every weekend with his girlfriend. Her grammar was not exactly correct, but this is okay. I'm thrilled with any efforts the kids make when speaking german.
A couple of days ago, on wednesday, I drove to the children to the city "Kaufhaus" (department store). They were all eager to spend their pocket money, so we spent most of our time there in the children's department. Christopher is never able to afford much, since he spends his pocket money almost right after he gets it from his Omi. He bought a small Lego set that looks like a helicopter. I think it has options and you can build it in a few different ways. Annika had the most money to spend, and bought a "paint-by-numbers" set for herself. Lily, oddly enough, fell in love with an old-fashioned children's broom that she just had to have. It cost slightly more than the €4 she had saved up, so I discreetly snuck in another euro into the plastic container she uses to keep her pocket money in, and all was well.
Christopher has been doing rather well with his lessons, and has been keeping up with his daily journal. He never writes much, but I see him making more of an effort and I'm pleased to see that. I was very impressed yesterday when he spent some time on the internet researching local (AZ) wildlife for his social studies. He drew pictures of mammals, reptiles, fish, etc. and also labeled them all. I liked how he signed each of his drawings with "by Christopher", lol.
Annika has been working on math, mostly, and she's also improving. I'm letting her have a small bowl filled with red kidney beans to help her figure out more complicated addition and subtraction problems, since we don't have our math manipulatives with us here.
Rassa is here today, to clean. I'm waiting for her to leave before I start on today's lessons. I suppose I prefer teaching when it's really just us here.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
June 7th, 2007
Hah! I did it! This would be my second post this month! Excellent.....
The children's first riding lesson went really well yesterday. Their teacher, Susanne, was able to speak with them in english, so there really wasn't a language barrier. Their german is getting better every day, but it's not enoough to get by just yet. The horse they rode on is named Sugar, in english even!
Lillian complained because she didn't get to ride, but she's really too little. My mother and I sat in lawn chairs and watched and talked idly. I think I will drive the children there in the future by myself, and bring a book to read. We've decided on lessons every tuesday and every friday. It will be great, I think, and I'm really excited the children have this opportunity.
After the riding lesson, my mother took the children swimming. I stayed with my father, to run errands with him. I thought they'd be quick, but they weren't and we were gone at least a couple of hours.
This morning we got up early to drive to Frankfurt. My father left for India today, and he wanted to be at the airport nice and early. We dropped him off there, and also met my brother there. We then drove to my grandmother's home in Sindlingen, which is very close to the airport, and visited with her for several hours. Eric came, as well, and so did my cousin Yvonne and her 1-year old daughte, Zoe, and her dog, Nellie. We had a good time. Then Eric drove himself to his work, and Yvonne left with her daughter. We (that is, my mother, my children, and myself) decided to take my grandmother out to lunch. We were all hungry, but the restaurant my cousin had recommended to us was rather crappy, and we didn't eat well at all. So we went to an ice-cream parlor after the crappy restaurant and ate some really good ice-cream. The kids were pretty cranky themselves and fighting a lot, and I couldn't wait to get back "home" to Gaggenau. So we dropped off my grandmother, and drove the 1.5 hours to G.
It is beginning to get really hot in Germany, and I'm missing the standard air conditioning we have in Arizona.
We have no plans for tomorrow yet. I'd like to rest and work on my LLL stuff, but who knows if I'll have the chance.
The children's first riding lesson went really well yesterday. Their teacher, Susanne, was able to speak with them in english, so there really wasn't a language barrier. Their german is getting better every day, but it's not enoough to get by just yet. The horse they rode on is named Sugar, in english even!
Lillian complained because she didn't get to ride, but she's really too little. My mother and I sat in lawn chairs and watched and talked idly. I think I will drive the children there in the future by myself, and bring a book to read. We've decided on lessons every tuesday and every friday. It will be great, I think, and I'm really excited the children have this opportunity.
After the riding lesson, my mother took the children swimming. I stayed with my father, to run errands with him. I thought they'd be quick, but they weren't and we were gone at least a couple of hours.
This morning we got up early to drive to Frankfurt. My father left for India today, and he wanted to be at the airport nice and early. We dropped him off there, and also met my brother there. We then drove to my grandmother's home in Sindlingen, which is very close to the airport, and visited with her for several hours. Eric came, as well, and so did my cousin Yvonne and her 1-year old daughte, Zoe, and her dog, Nellie. We had a good time. Then Eric drove himself to his work, and Yvonne left with her daughter. We (that is, my mother, my children, and myself) decided to take my grandmother out to lunch. We were all hungry, but the restaurant my cousin had recommended to us was rather crappy, and we didn't eat well at all. So we went to an ice-cream parlor after the crappy restaurant and ate some really good ice-cream. The kids were pretty cranky themselves and fighting a lot, and I couldn't wait to get back "home" to Gaggenau. So we dropped off my grandmother, and drove the 1.5 hours to G.
It is beginning to get really hot in Germany, and I'm missing the standard air conditioning we have in Arizona.
We have no plans for tomorrow yet. I'd like to rest and work on my LLL stuff, but who knows if I'll have the chance.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
June 5th, 2007
I am going to try to blog more than just once a month. There is so much happening in our lives that it shouldn't be very difficult to post more.
Today we decided to drive deeper into the black forest in order to check out this giant slide in a place called Poppeltal, just past Enzklösterle. I purchased a guide for doing outdoor activities with children in the black forest region, and it's really coming in handy. It's called "Mit Kindern Unterwegs - Im Nordschwarzwald" by Birgit Blessing. The drive to Poppeltal was, in itself, an adventure. The road wound its way through densely wooded hills, and everything is so green and wildflowers are blooming. We also passed through a few tiny, quaint villages that looked amazingly beautiful. Many of the houses were built in the traditional black forest style. It took us about a half hour to get to Poppeltal. The place wasn't very busy, judging from the near-empty parking place. Perfect for us! We walked a short way up to where the slide began. After we purchased the tickets, we grabbed our seats. They were rather heavy and we had to carry them to the machine that would take us up. Christopher was not able to carry his own, so that part was inconvenient. Children under age 8 are not allowed to ride by themselves, so my mother shared her seat with Annika, and I shared mine with Lily. The machine that took us up was like a ski lift. Our slide was on these tracks, and then a guy who works there hooked us up to a cable, and that cable dragged us up the hill. Here is a link: www.riesenrutschbahn.de . I got a bit nervous as we were being dragged up, because it was really steep at times, and Lily worried she might fall off. I assured her that I wouldn't let that happen, but really, I shared the same concerns!!!! By the time we got all the way up, we had to get off the tracks and move our seat over a few feet to another track that would take us all the way back down again. Again, there was a guy there whose job it was to supervise to make sure we made the switch easily. There was also a stick in the middle of the seat, and if you push it forward, you go faster, and if you press it back, it acts like a break. I was pretty nervous going back down also, especially during the curves. I knew I'd be embarrassed beyond belief if I fell off the darn thing and had to tumble down the steep hill by myself, so I hung on for dear life and tried to work with gravity as much as possible. I also knew that Lily enjoys fast rides, so I frequently let go of the break and we felt the wind in our hair and Lily screamed with joy. Again, the view of the mountains surrounding us was stunning! If I hadn't had my 4-year old child with me, I would have been tempted to film my ride down with my video camera. When we came down, we decided to do the ride one more time, and we did.
Afterwards, we spent some more time going through the very small amusement park. The kids went on a few rides, but they were nothing special. One noteworthy ride were a couple of giant rubber ducks in a very shallow, man-made pond. For €2 a ride, the children could steer their ducks on this small pond, and they all had a good time. Except you're supposed to steer the duck-boat towards the anchors when you hear the signal, or you risk losing power to your boat when you're still in the middle of the pond. Well, that happened to Christopher, since his duck-boat didn't give the signal! The poor boy was stuck in the middle of the pond, and we had to reassure him that he would not be left there. We saw one of those poles that you can use to drag small boats back, so I grabbed it, hooked it onto C's duck, and dragged him back to the edge of the pond where we anchored it.
After all this we decided to head back home. It had started to drizzle again, and it just seemed like a good time to go. When we were in the car, Annika asked when it would be time for us to have our "middle day eating time". She must have temporarily forgotten the word "lunch", lol. We hadn't gone far yet, so my mother pulled over to this small Inn in Enzklösterle because it looked so warm and inviting. We went in, and ate our meals. We are now home, and the children are watching TV downstairs. My mother has left to spend her evening with a group of friends she has. My father has also gone out with a couple of colleagues. He is leaving for India in a couple of days, and will be living in Mumbai for another month, before returning back to Germany. Who knows where he will be after that, lol.
My father took the children and myself to Baden Baden yesterday for some ice cream. It was really nice, since the weather was perfect and there's just nothing like sitting in an old-fashioned, European Cafe for some ice cream. Or coffee. Doesn't really matter. :-)
My mother has been looking for a farm that offers riding lessons, and she finally found one yesterday. That is, we all got into the car (except for my father, of course), and prepared to drive to a couple of different farms. We ended up really liking the first one we drove to, in Michelbach. Even though they were technically closed, they let us walk around their property and let the children pet their horses, and gave us information about their riding classes. We set up Christopher's and Annika's first class for tomorrow! They are very excited. They will learn how to care for a horse properly first, like some basic cleaning and grooming skills. They will ride towards the end of their lessons. Since we're not really sure yet if the children will enjoy riding, we're careful about our commitment to the riding courses, and are not sure yet how often they will ride. If it turns out that they like it, we will sign up for additional lessons. My father joked how we live in the "wild west" but the children learn how to ride in Europe. I suppose that it is a little ironic, but you can hardly call Arizona the Wild West anymore, lol.
We played some table tennis over the weekend right here in Gaggenau with my brother and Kati and my father in tow. There's a small playground nearby that has a table, and we brought the paddles and tabletennis balls from home. This time it was my mother who stayed home. We had a blast, and I think it would be fun to try and find a used tabletennis table when we're back in the US. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on a new one. We had cake and coffee when we came back home.
It is now time for the children to take their bath. I'm sure they're feeling a bit dirty after all their playing and time spent outdoors. I would very much like for them to go to bed early, so that I can have an evening to myself for once.
Today we decided to drive deeper into the black forest in order to check out this giant slide in a place called Poppeltal, just past Enzklösterle. I purchased a guide for doing outdoor activities with children in the black forest region, and it's really coming in handy. It's called "Mit Kindern Unterwegs - Im Nordschwarzwald" by Birgit Blessing. The drive to Poppeltal was, in itself, an adventure. The road wound its way through densely wooded hills, and everything is so green and wildflowers are blooming. We also passed through a few tiny, quaint villages that looked amazingly beautiful. Many of the houses were built in the traditional black forest style. It took us about a half hour to get to Poppeltal. The place wasn't very busy, judging from the near-empty parking place. Perfect for us! We walked a short way up to where the slide began. After we purchased the tickets, we grabbed our seats. They were rather heavy and we had to carry them to the machine that would take us up. Christopher was not able to carry his own, so that part was inconvenient. Children under age 8 are not allowed to ride by themselves, so my mother shared her seat with Annika, and I shared mine with Lily. The machine that took us up was like a ski lift. Our slide was on these tracks, and then a guy who works there hooked us up to a cable, and that cable dragged us up the hill. Here is a link: www.riesenrutschbahn.de . I got a bit nervous as we were being dragged up, because it was really steep at times, and Lily worried she might fall off. I assured her that I wouldn't let that happen, but really, I shared the same concerns!!!! By the time we got all the way up, we had to get off the tracks and move our seat over a few feet to another track that would take us all the way back down again. Again, there was a guy there whose job it was to supervise to make sure we made the switch easily. There was also a stick in the middle of the seat, and if you push it forward, you go faster, and if you press it back, it acts like a break. I was pretty nervous going back down also, especially during the curves. I knew I'd be embarrassed beyond belief if I fell off the darn thing and had to tumble down the steep hill by myself, so I hung on for dear life and tried to work with gravity as much as possible. I also knew that Lily enjoys fast rides, so I frequently let go of the break and we felt the wind in our hair and Lily screamed with joy. Again, the view of the mountains surrounding us was stunning! If I hadn't had my 4-year old child with me, I would have been tempted to film my ride down with my video camera. When we came down, we decided to do the ride one more time, and we did.
Afterwards, we spent some more time going through the very small amusement park. The kids went on a few rides, but they were nothing special. One noteworthy ride were a couple of giant rubber ducks in a very shallow, man-made pond. For €2 a ride, the children could steer their ducks on this small pond, and they all had a good time. Except you're supposed to steer the duck-boat towards the anchors when you hear the signal, or you risk losing power to your boat when you're still in the middle of the pond. Well, that happened to Christopher, since his duck-boat didn't give the signal! The poor boy was stuck in the middle of the pond, and we had to reassure him that he would not be left there. We saw one of those poles that you can use to drag small boats back, so I grabbed it, hooked it onto C's duck, and dragged him back to the edge of the pond where we anchored it.
After all this we decided to head back home. It had started to drizzle again, and it just seemed like a good time to go. When we were in the car, Annika asked when it would be time for us to have our "middle day eating time". She must have temporarily forgotten the word "lunch", lol. We hadn't gone far yet, so my mother pulled over to this small Inn in Enzklösterle because it looked so warm and inviting. We went in, and ate our meals. We are now home, and the children are watching TV downstairs. My mother has left to spend her evening with a group of friends she has. My father has also gone out with a couple of colleagues. He is leaving for India in a couple of days, and will be living in Mumbai for another month, before returning back to Germany. Who knows where he will be after that, lol.
My father took the children and myself to Baden Baden yesterday for some ice cream. It was really nice, since the weather was perfect and there's just nothing like sitting in an old-fashioned, European Cafe for some ice cream. Or coffee. Doesn't really matter. :-)
My mother has been looking for a farm that offers riding lessons, and she finally found one yesterday. That is, we all got into the car (except for my father, of course), and prepared to drive to a couple of different farms. We ended up really liking the first one we drove to, in Michelbach. Even though they were technically closed, they let us walk around their property and let the children pet their horses, and gave us information about their riding classes. We set up Christopher's and Annika's first class for tomorrow! They are very excited. They will learn how to care for a horse properly first, like some basic cleaning and grooming skills. They will ride towards the end of their lessons. Since we're not really sure yet if the children will enjoy riding, we're careful about our commitment to the riding courses, and are not sure yet how often they will ride. If it turns out that they like it, we will sign up for additional lessons. My father joked how we live in the "wild west" but the children learn how to ride in Europe. I suppose that it is a little ironic, but you can hardly call Arizona the Wild West anymore, lol.
We played some table tennis over the weekend right here in Gaggenau with my brother and Kati and my father in tow. There's a small playground nearby that has a table, and we brought the paddles and tabletennis balls from home. This time it was my mother who stayed home. We had a blast, and I think it would be fun to try and find a used tabletennis table when we're back in the US. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on a new one. We had cake and coffee when we came back home.
It is now time for the children to take their bath. I'm sure they're feeling a bit dirty after all their playing and time spent outdoors. I would very much like for them to go to bed early, so that I can have an evening to myself for once.
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