Last October, my daughter won a lightbox at the funfair in my German hometown. It’s currently sitting on the shelf with her French books, but the message is resolutely German:

(“Logo” is the daily evening news on the German kids’ tv channel KiKa.)

A bilingual French-English friend who is raising her daughter bilingual French-English too suggested the other day (we’re all in confinement at home during the pandemic right now) that my 9½-year-old daughter could read an English book to her 3½-year-old. My daughter was thrilled. She chose a book and read it about six or seven times aloud for practice the night before our Skype call. I recorded one of the last practice sessions.

I Am Going by Mo Willem

The read-aloud was a success, to be repeated, maybe next week. Stay tuned.

Author/illustrator: Mo Willems
Collection: AN Elephant And Piggie Book
Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN: 978-1423119906

After my 9½-year-old daughter brought home her first written English  exercise in January, a month later, she brought home this page of vocabulary:

Two days ago, my daughter came home from her after-school English course with her first written exercise. (Please keep in mind they hardly did any writing during the first three years of her course and that I focused on speaking and oral comprehension with her when I temporarily took over her English education last year. Also, she was only able to join this year’s course several weeks into the school year due to admin complications.)
Anyway, she told me she only asked for help for a few words she didn’t know.

AM 1. Weihnachtstag hatte meine Tochter (jetzt 9½) die Gelegenheit, auf einem Klavier herumzuspielen. Sie hat nie Klavierunterricht gehabt, aber eine Freundin hat ihr vor ein paar Jahren Au clair de la lune beigebracht, und sie hat noch mehr aufgeschnappt. Irgendwann überraschte sie uns mit den ersten Tönen aus Beethovens Fünfter Symphonie: ta-ta-ta-taaa!
“Mama, ich kann Beethoven!”
Wir lachten, dann meinte ich: “Du hast doch gerade schon die ganze Ode an die Freude gespielt. Das ist auch Beethoven.”
Sie: “Ich dachte, das war Mozart.”
Ihre deutsche Allgemeinbildung braucht wohl noch ein bisschen Nachhilfe.

On Christmas Day, my daughter (currently 9½) got a chance to play around at a piano. She’s never had formal lessons, but a friend taught her Au clair de la lune a few years ago, and she picked up more beyond that. At one point, she surprised us with the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: ta-ta-ta-taaa!
“Mom, I can play Beethoven!”
We laughed, then I pointed out, “But you just played the entire Ode to Joy. That’s Beethoven too.”
Her: “I thought that was Mozart.”
I guess her German musical culutre needs still some work.

Hier sind wir nun am Playmobilhaus. Und was macht man, wenn man vor der Haustür steht? Man klingelt!

Meine Tochter guckt gerne die Playmobilvideos auf Youtube mit der Playmobil-Familie Hauser. Neulich hat sie sich ein Handy geliehen und selber ein Video gemacht. Zunächst die Intro:

This school year (grade 4), my daughter’s German class renews last year’s project in which each of the kids writes a short essay on a subject they know something about into a big notebook. Last school year, my daughter wrote about primary school in Germany. This year, my daughter was the first to volunteer for the project, and after some consideration, chose her subject:

(click on the image to enlarge it)

Im Deutschunterricht hat die Klasse meiner Tochter beschlossen, in diesem Jahr das “Ich weiß was über-Projekt” weiterzuführen. Im vergangenen Schuljahr hatte meine Tochter über die Grundschule in Deutschland berichtet. Dieses Jahr schnappte sie sich das Heft als Erste, um dann nach langem Überlegen ihr Thema auszuwählen:

(Klick auf das Bild zum Vergrößern)