Thursday, April 26, 2012

Rainbow of Accomplishments/Regenbogenerfolge



Flora:

She dressed up as a queen today.  Sie hat sich heute als Königin verkleidet. 




Veronika:
She made clay birds with me today.  We also constructed some simple magic wind wands for her and Flora. Reason: to have lots of fun in the front yard.  In between they stopped to marvel at the only two tulips we got this year and some forget-me-nots.

Sie hat heute Tonvögel mit mir geformt.  Wir haben auch zwei einfache Zauberstäbe für sie und Flora gebastelt: So viel Spaß gab's damit im Garten!  Zum Ausruhen zwischendurch wurden dann die einzigen beiden Tulpen und viele Vergißmeinnicht im Garten bewundert. 














We also really enjoyed this picture book about VivaldiUns hat auch dieses Bilderbuch über Vivaldi gut gefallen.





Miriam:
She caught a bad cold and slept for a good part of the day.  I warmed our cherry stone pillow for her because she wanted something warm in bed.  You can find similar pillows here.

Sie hat sich stark erkältet und heute viel geschlafen.  Ich habe ihr unser Kirschkernkissen erwärmt, weil sie gern etwas Warmes mit ins Bett nehmen wollte.  Hier gibt's so ähnliche Kissen.



Charlotte:
Making good progress with the sound lessons.  We went outside and listened to sounds in nature.  Indoors we listened to A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.  We also looked at how letters are formed in our mouths and the larynx.  All this went into the main lesson book.

Charlotte hat prima Fortschritte mit unseren Klanglektionen gemacht.  Wir haben draußen der Natur Geräusche abgelauscht und drinnen herausgefunden, wie wir Buchstaben im Mund und Kehlkopf bilden.  Außerdem haben wir die Instrumente des Orchesters durch Benjamin Britten kennenglernt: Eine deutsche Fassung gibt es hier.  All das kam dann ins Heft.















Jonathan:
He dressed up as a Tuareg while working on his main lesson work about electricity.  He wrote down all the electrical devices he could find in our house and then thought about bigger devices in our town.  We also tried to define electricity and repeated an experiment Thales did, who rubbed a piece of amber with a fur.  Thales noticed that he could attract small pieces of thread -- we used paper  -- with it. Our word electricity comes form the Greek word for ember ( ηλεκτρον: electron).  Right now we are working on more experiments with static electricity.  I will write about them soon.   

Er hat sich als Tuareg verkleidet, während er sich mit Elektrizität beschäftigt hat.  Er hat alle elektrischen Geräte, die er im Haus finden konnte, aufgeschrieben und dann noch über große elektrische Geräte bei uns im Dorf nachgedacht.  Anschließend haben wir versucht, Elektrizität zu beschreiben, wozu auch ein Experiment von Thales gehörte.  Thales hat Elektrizität "entdeckt", indem er ein Stück Bernstein mit einem Fell gerieben hat.  Dabei hat er bemerkt, daß der Bernstein anschließend kleine Fäden, wir haben Papierschnipsel benutzt, aufheben kann.  Unser Wort Elektrizität kommt von dem griechischen Wort für Bernstein, nämlich (ηλεκτρον: Elektron).  Wir haben noch mehr Experimente zur statischen Elektrizität gemacht, die ich auch bald beschreiben werde. 
















Peter:
He bought some wood for building a raised bed for Miriam.  Er hat Holz gekauft, um Miriam ein Hochbeet zu bauen. 



Eva:
I was very happy to hear the good news of the birth of a baby to a married couple of two of Peter's former students.  Per request, I had been writing lots of baby and birthing advice emails to them, which have been very helpful for achieving a natural birth.  Peter said I should publish my "letters" as a book :). 

Ich habe mich über die Geburtsanzeige des Babys eines ehemaligen Studentenehepaares von Peter gefreut.  Ich habe in den letzten neun Monaten viele Emails über Babys und Geburt an sie geschickt (sie hatten darum gebeten) und so dazu beigetragen, daß sie eine natürliche Geburt hatten.  Peter hat gesagt, ich sollte meine "Briefe" als Buch veröffentlichen :). 



8 comments:

  1. Wow, was für ein toller, erfüllter und abwechslungsreicher Tag! Und schöne Bilder.
    Alles Gute für Miriam!
    Ja, Eva, ein Buch von dir wäre bestimmt ein großer Erfolg!

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    1. Danke, Miriam ist heute zu Hause geblieben, also nicht zum Ballett gegangen. Jetzt geht es Charlotte und Jonathan nicht so gut. Mal sehen, wie das morgen aussieht. Das waren übrigens mehrere Tage zusammengefaßt.

      Das mit dem Buch sollte eher ein Witz sein, für Freunde reichen meine Ausführungen, doch zu mehr wohl nicht :).

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  2. congratulations to your friends! don't lose your emails. maybe you really will compile them into a book one day!

    i love flora and jonathan's costumes. everyone is busy and learning and having fun. the wind wands were lovely, as are the lesson books. how extensive the electrical devices list is! charlotte's drawings of the larynx are very good! i'm struck at how much charlotte and chanda have grown these days.

    i send get well wishes to miriam. lying in bed with a warmed cherry stone pillow sounds heavenly to me right now. i better get some sleep! greg and morgana wake at 4:30 to leave at 5. she has a training session at sturbridge village.

    oh! but before i go .. charlotte looks as if she is dressed for summer lying in the grass . . was it warm by you? it was very cold by us! we were shivering and wishing for down coats!

    good night :)

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    1. Thanks, Dorina, we have seen pictures already and the grandfather, a professor here, is very happy also. Actually, I still have the e-mails, I have been sending them also to our ballet teacher, who is expecting her first baby. Who knows who else would like them on of these days. We had been hoping for another baby ourselves, but I think my baby days seem to be over :(. So maybe passing on all my knowledge will be helpful to some younger parents.

      Thanks for your kind words about our work. Yes, Charlotte is getting bigger, not a little girl anymore. For you it must be even a bigger change because Chanda is your "baby" :).

      That's early to leave for Sturbridge Village. Will it be a day-long session? Miriam is feeling better, she didn't go to her ballet class, though.

      We did the "listen to the sounds outside" part of the experiment some days ago, when it was much warmer. Right now we get frost every night and it's not very warm during the day. We've also had some snow again.

      I still haven't had time to comment on your blog, but I have done so in my mind. I'm so behind in correcting the children's math and many subjects in general. We are also peparing for Miriam's First Holy Communion, my sister's visit, house painting, Peter's visit to Switzerland, and I can't remember what else! Wishing you another good night. Seems to be our daily ritual now:).

      Love to all of you!

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  3. I love the larynx drawings-- very clever! And the static charge of amber is fun. We enjoyed doing that, too. --I hope your Miriam is feeling better soon.

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    1. Thanks, Sara, after we had done the experiment with the lambskin, our cat Julius thought it was a litter box. Not very pleasant, but we had forgotten to put it away. Miriam is feeling better, the day of rest did wonders.

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  4. hello eva, i'm up this morning reading this post . . it popped into my head during the night that i had commented on how chanda and charlotte have grown, and i wished to read your response :)

    i do feel sad as chanda is my baby! and as i try to give her big girl responsibilities, i can't help but see that it isn't easy for her to step up to the plate, so to speak. she's used to everyone making decisions so quickly around her. of course she has definite opinions on everything! i empathize with her, being the baby of the family myself. and i like when she babysits without morgana as then she is the one making the decisions.

    oh the baby days! they are so sweet and they grow so fast! i would have loved to have another myself. not so my dh. his plate is full, and he likes it more quiet. i like the chaos of little ones :) one never knows, eva :)

    morgana's training session in sturbridge was actually saturday AND sunday, but she had to leave early sunday morning to come back for an important gilbert and sullivan rehearsal. too many things on her plate! i think she's learned a lot this year about scheduling and how to say no to certain activities. did you see the pics of her dress? (it's under "goings on . . on sunday" - april 29th).

    good luck with your visitor preparations and miriam's first communion. you have an exciting few weeks ahead.

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    1. Oh, I get this too: Waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about something I need to do!

      I think girls have a harder time making decisions in general, but it's also a personality question. It must be difficult for the youngest one to grow up -- I wonder how Flora will be when she gets as old as Chanda and Charlotte. But maybe these days it's better to stay a child a bit longer. The adult days come soon enough.

      It must have been difficult if one spouse wants more children, but the other doesn't. Peter also likes his quiet time, but he also likes children. I haven't completely given up hope, a friend of mine had her last with 46 after her youngest of five was almost five or 6. There's hope, but the chances are pretty slim. Maybe I should be just happy with the five sunshines I have got.

      It's funny that you talked about Morgana's many activities. I was wondering the other day how she does all what she does and still does some schoolwork! I'm always afraid that we don't do enough with ballet three times a week, gymnastics, and things like baseball, fencing, field trips. Maybe I also feel like this because I didn't grow up with the American school system and just want to make sure that we cover everything they are supposed to know (like American history, which is quite foreign to me). I hope Morgana will find her happy medium. Yes, I think I saw Morgana's pictures. I haven't had very much time to comment, though. I thought she looked very authentic. What a wonderful opportunity to do this. We have a similar village in our area, called Mumford Genessee Country Village, but it's quite a drive from here (close to 2 hours), nothing you could do on a daily basis.

      My little sister will first fly to Ecuador to visit our German neighbor and her childhood friend. She will then come and see us. Last time she was here was 9 years ago!

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