Near the place where we used to live is a park with a playground. On the way home, we came past a high school. For some reason, my daughter would make a speech on the steps of the high school entrance every time we came past. When she was almost three years old, I filmed her there.
Three years later, when she was almost 6, I had the occasion to film her there again.
We’ve since moved, but last week, we came past the high school again, and of course my daughter, now almost 8, wanted to hold another speech.
Enjoy.

Mein Exemplar von Eine Woche voller Samstage fällt schon auseinander. Wie auf der ersten Seite zu lesen ist, war es ein Geschenk zu meinem 8. Geburtstag, und das ist nun schon eine ganze Weile her. Meiner Tochter habe ich das Buch zum ersten Mal vorgelesen, als sie gerade sieben war, bevor ich wusste, dass sie es in verkürzter Fassung im Deutschunterricht (2. Klasse) lesen würden. Damit hat ihre Klasse jetzt angefangen, und das war der Anlass für meine Tochter, das Buch heute vorzustellen:

Autor, Illustrator: Paul Maar
Verlag: Oetinger
ISBN: 978-3789119521

Last Friday, my daughter and I picked up an order at the German bookstore. The owner, whom we’ve known for a few months, recommended another book my daughter might like. Something with monsters. After reading the first sentence of the back cover blurb, my daughter was sold, and I could hardly refuse her a new book, could I? But at home, we first finished the books we were reading together (me: Bitte nicht öffnen 2 – Schleimig; her: Asterix und Kleopatra), and then I got started on our reread of Harry Potter 1 (I really want her to understand the Harry Potter books, hence the reread; also, that’ll slow us down a bit, as I consider she is still several years too young for books 4 to 7). I admit I was in no hurry to get started on that unplanned purchase. (We have another sequel lined up that I was hoping we’d read together – Die Nordseedetektive 2.)
This morning, my daughter casually mentioned she’d finished reading the first chapter and started on the second. After my initial surprise at her reading “big” books (and in the minority language too!!!), I told her that was great and, because I was curious, asked her what the beginning was about. Which demonstrated that she’d really read and understood it.

Currently reading:

Mom reading aloud
Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (vierfarbig illustrierte Schmuckausgabe)
Author: J.K. Rowling
Illustrator: Jim Kay
Translator: Klaus Fritz
Publisher: Carlsen
ISBN: 978-3551559012

Reading aloud
Minus Drei und die laute Lucy (Minus Drei Band 2)
Author: Ute Krause
Illustrator: Ute Krause
Publisher: cnj
ISBN: 978-3570158937

Reading by herself
Monsterhotel
Author: Thomas Montasser
Illustrator: Stefanie Reich
Publisher: Thienemann
ISBN: 978-3522184762

Other books mentioned:
Schleimig (Bitte nicht öffnen 2)
Author: Charlotte Habersack
Illustrator: Frédéric Bertrand
Publisher: Carlsen
ISBN: 978-3551652126

Die Nordseedetektive 2 — Das Gespensterhotel
Authors: Klaus-Peter Wolf und Bettina Göschl
Illustrator: Franziska Harvey
Publisher: Jumbo
ISBN: 978-3833734854

Asterix und Kleopatra
Author: René Goscinny
Illustrator: Albert Uderzo
Translator: Gudrun Penndorf
Publisher: Egmont Comic Collection
ISBN: 978-3770436026

Es ist schon wieder einen Monat her, dass meine Tochter (etwas über 7½) das letzte Mal vor der Kamera stand. Sie hatte sich die Einleitung zum ersten Band einer ihrer Lieblings-Vorleseserien ausgesucht, nämlich

Die Schule der magischen Tiere.

Autor: Margit Auer
Illustrator: Nina Dulleck
Verlag: Carlsen
ISBN: 978-3551652713

Now in grade 2, every week my daughter gets a few new sight words to learn in her minority language. When she didn’t seem to understand why she had to learn them, I came up with an idea. I scanned and printed the first page of our illustrated Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone edition and asked her to find and mark all the sight words from her list. The result was enlightening:

Letzten Sonntag hat meine Tochter mich zu einer Theatervorstellung eingeladen. Mich erwartete ein Puppentheater mit der Geschichte “Conni geht zum Zahnarzt”:

Autorin: Liane Schneider
Illustratorin: Eva Wenzel-Bürger
Verlag: Carlsen
ISBN: 978-3551085566

I’ve finally read my daughter the first Harry Potter book. I’d been holding back because she wasn’t interested, but I was increasingly worried about spoilers, especially since many of her classmates have older siblings, and they also watch movies in after-school care. But no the time had come at last. A few weeks after we finished the beautiful illustrated edition, we were at my mom’s, who has the full series on her shelf. My daughter picked out the first book, opened it, and read those famous opening lines herself (and a bit further too):

Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen

Author: J.K. Rowling
Translator: Klaus Fritz
Publisher: Carlsen
ISBN: 978-3551551672

Two days ago, we unintentionally created a joke that you need 3 languages to understand. Here is what happened:
My now 7-year-old daughter was practising looking up words in her new German elementary school dictionary. As she was looking for Fledermaus, she came across a word she didn’t know, and asked me: “Flattratte?”
It’s a funny word, flatt meaning flat and ratte meaning rat, but obviously it doesn’t exist. I looked over her shoulder into the dictionary and saw this:

I told her it was a word from English that is used in German but pronounced the English way. After I finished laughing, that is. Then I asked her to continue looking for her Fledermaus while I wrote the Flattratte down before I forgot about it. On the way to my desk I thought I’d tell her dad, too. Since he doesn’t speak German well enough to get the joke, I told him in French our daughter had read a word as “flattratte”, with flatt meaning plat and ratte meaning rat – a flat rat.
Him: “A pigeon?”
Cue my second fit of laughter.
(In French, pigeons are sometimes jokingly referred to as flying rats (for obvious reasons), and here in Paris often encountered as road kill – flattened.)

See? Impossible to tell this joke without long explanations if you don’t understand all three languages.

On Saturday, we were coming back from one of the numerous birthday parties to which my daughter has been invited this year. It had started to rain, and we were waiting for our tram, commenting on the weather, and my daughter concluded with: Schietwedder!”, which is plattdüütsch (my grandma’s mother tongue, a regional language I still understand but sadly don’t speak).
The lady next to us turned around, smiled, and said: “Ja, richtiges norddeutsches Schietwedder!”
It turned out she was from somewhere between Hamburg and St. Peter-Ording.
It’s a small world.

When I started introducing self-made work sheets for my daughter’s minority language homework (see them all here), she was inspired to make her own work sheet for Mom and Dad – the only difference is that hers is in the majority language, since that’s what we both speak.