Well, “lukuly” my son’s teacher thinks that he is using interesting words in his composition. I wonder when the interesting words will turn into simply wrong ones? Also notice Thomas’s creative interpretation of the word “until”… especially charming since he knows how to spell this one correctly, normally. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be so hard on him, he’s only 8, and he’s doing great. Who knows, he might have been just “tierd”…
The other night, at football practice…
Things aren’t much different in Germany since I’ve been here last, in 2007. It’s been three years, but they still have the same foods in the supermarket, and a few more, and they still watch the same shows on TV, and a few more. The same re-runs, the same American Sitcoms, the same German original content that nobody watches. The yogurts are still the same, the cheeses, the chips. The chocolate aisle is the same length (yes, a whole aisle just with chocolates), but the types are a bit different, a bit more refined, a bit more exclusive. I still would like to eat my way across that whole aisle, backwards and forwards, but I’m still not allowed. There are a few less small stores, because the economy isn’t kind to the mom and pop store at the corner, and a few more immigrants because the economy here is better then elsewhere. There are a lot more ecological products available, Bio-This and Eco-That, even Ikea sells Biopasta on the kids menu. They only Walmart they had went under, and the milk is sold in bottles. The neighborhood looks the same, but the trees are bigger, and the cars all look even smaller. Yes, they have pretty small cars here. Hardly any Smart Cars, because most of the cars I see are not much bigger then those, and cost less. And because there are smaller cars, and the gas costs more, the streets have become a wee bit slower. A wee bit, not much. I drove to Ikea today with Thomas in the backseat, and at one point I made him notice that we were driving indeed 170 km/h, and he was stunned.
“Aren’t there any speed limits here?”
“Not here”, I said. He wanted to know anyhow what the limit was.
“There isn’t one,” I kept insisting.
“So nobody can give you a ticket for speeding?” he wondered.
“Nope,” I said, “not on this Autobahn.”
“I love the Autobahn,” he stated.
Best Playground… EVER. What a glorious July afternoon. It was very warm, but the water was a wee bit cold for swimming, but never too cold for playing in it.
My son has a problem. For some, it might not be a real problem… but for me it is. Well, he forgets stuff. He forgets everything that is not important to him at the time. It might be important afterwards, after he has forgotten about it, but by then it’s already too late.
Take his Planner, for example. He keeps forgetting to bring it home from school. His planner is important. Stuff is written in his planner. Appointments, notices from the teacher, things to sign. His homework. His spelling words. But what good does it do if he writes it all in his planner and then forgets the planner in school? I really got fed up with it. The final straw has been reached. So today I threatened him.
Don’t drop him!!!!
Fun at the PNE
Thomas wants a story every night before falling asleep. Of course. Reading is important.
Every thursday, Thomas’s kindergarten class gets to go to the library and pick up a book to take home for the week. Thomas chose a dinosaur book, like most thursdays. The other days he chooses books about snakes, spiders, bats, rats, sharks, bears, and so on. One day he actually brought a real story book. I was in tears.
Well, ok Thomas. Let’s read the dinosaur book. Here is an excerpt:
“The Family Tree.
The Ankylosaurus was an ankylosaur. Ankylosaur dinosaurs had armor and horns. Other ankylosaur dinosaurs were the Panoplosaurus and the Edmontonia. These ankylosaurs were smaller than the Ankylosaurus. The Ankylosaurus was the biggest ankylosaur.
There were two groups of ankylosaurs. One group was the ankylosaurids. The Ankylosaurus belonged to the ankylosaurids. The ankylosaurids had club tails and wide heads.
The second group of ankylosaurs was the nodosaurids. The nodosaurids did not have club tails. The nodosaurids had spikes on their sides. The Panoplosaurius and the Edmontonia were nodosaurid dinosaurs…”
By this time, your tongue is in nots and you don’t even know anymore what you are talking about. You just keep reading and hope that the “story” is going to be over and done with soon, and you secretly hope that you can find a little nook into which make this book disappear until next Thursday, when it’s due back to the school library… just in case he wants you to read it again!
