Endlich Sommer

Finally, the last week of school is here! And summer vacation begins on July 31. It has been an interesting year academically, especially for Philip. He started Realschule this year, and initially, I was relieved that he wasn't going to Gymnasium. I was told that Gymnasium was harder and moved a lot faster than Realschule. If this is true, how come more kids aren't dropping out of Gymnasium?

I was surprised at what Philip was expected to learn in Realschule. First, he had algebra and geometry classes this year, fifth grade. I didn't learn algebra and geometry until I was in eighth or ninth grade. And they moved fast--it seemed that he had only a few days to grasp a concept before moving onto the next one. Luckily, Philip picks up math quickly. Unfortunately, he made a lot of mistakes on exams, so his grades didn't reflect his understanding. He's passing, and his grades improved over the year, especially when I stopped helping him.

Second, his biology teacher taught biology to fifth graders the way I taught Intro to Bio to freshmen at Northeastern Illinois University. For example, he was expected to memorize the names of all the major bones and muscles in the human body (even I didn't make my students do that), the entire circulatory system (this my students had to learn), animal classifications, and botany. They're finishing up the year with human reproduction, also known as sex education.

In Deutsch class, he had to write grammatically correct essays from the beginning of the year. His teacher in fourth grade made them write one essay after another, so he was used it. But Philip still has problems with grammar, so he's passing but not with good grades.

English was his best subject. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise, but Philip was never a good speller. I was really worried at the beginning of the year, because he had to learn a long list of vocabulary in a short period of time. And he did have problems at first, but he's developed into a very good speller, in both English and Deutsch.

Overall, Philip did better as the year progressed, and so did Alex. I have to admit, I'm so happy that Alex isn't having the same problems in elementary school that Philip had. Alex's teacher told me that he makes the same mistakes that the German kids make. In other words, he's learning at the same level they are and should be able to get into Gymnasium or Realschule without any difficulties.


Other than school, Alex finished a triathlon. He swam 50 meters, biked 3 kilometers, and ran 500 meters. He finished somewhere in the middle, and everyone got a medal.


Philip played piano in his music school's annual concert. He played well and was proud of himself. Unfortunately, we didn't get any good photos of him while playing. After the concert, we celebrated at a local Biergarten.

Happy 4th of July!

The 4th was uneventful here, except that I realized that I haven't updated my blog in a long time.



Since our biking trip around the Chiemsee, we've hiked to the Teufelstisch (Devil's Table) in the Fränkische Schweiz.



Biked around another lake, the Brombachsee, not far from Nürnberg. The Brombachsee is actually three lakes, and the largest one in smaller than the Chiemsee (about 17 km around vs. 60 km), so this was a day trip.



Of course, there was the Bergkirchweih with a new ride this year--River Rafting.

During Projektwoche (Project Week) at Alex's school, his class was learning about the USA, so I came in to talk about the elementary school system in the US, the sports kids play, and Chicago. And I had to use my broken German! I was more nervous speaking in front of a 3rd grade German class than I ever was speaking in front of college-aged Americans. Alex also gave presentations on the Empire State Building and Mt. Rushmore--he was not nervous.


Alex and his friend, Felix, played guitar during mass at the local Catholic church. This was their first public performance, and they were cool--that is, until that Sunday morning. Nevertheless, they did a great job.

We celebrated Philip's birthday at a local indoor/outdoor playground, Tucherland. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, because they were busy running around for four hours.


And then there's been the World Cup, or Weltmeisterschaft in German. And Germany is doing quite well. Every time they win, the police close off the main streets and intersections so that people can celebrate, and celebrate they do!