Children's Picture Books in German

I've always been fascinated by books written in another language. When studying Latin, how can you forgo owning Cat in the Hat written in Latin? Years ago when the children were little and studying French for a year, I found children's stories on audio at Barnes & Noble and knew that would be a really fun way to implement our lessons.

This all leads me to tell you about a new discovery this week. Alecia Rolling is currently writing a series of blog posts reviewing German children's books. Alecia teaches Latin and German for Homeschool Connections. Also, German is the primary language spoken in her home. Another fascinating thing to me -- her children are growing up in a bilingual home.

So, if you're learning German in your homeschool, or are planning it in the future, you absolutely must click over to Alecia's blog.

You may be able to find some of the books she reviews through inter-library loan at your public library but it would be nice to own a few for your home library too. Alecia has set up a German bookstore for your convenience. She's even put in a Euro-Dollar converter at the bottom of the blog page.

So, go check it out and see what German literary treasures you may discover.

Ana's Picture Book of the Week

The first one, The Road the Bethlehem by Elizabeth Laird, is from the ancient Christian traditions inEthiopia. The pictures are exactly like the ones Husband brought from his two trips to that country! Next is a fable-like tale from India, Cloud-Tea Monkeysby Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, and beautifully illustrated. The last one,Biblioburro, a True Story from Colombia by Jeannette Winter, tells of a still-current story of a man who volunteers to bring culture to remote places in Colombia. All delightful and telling us about the richness and the universal values of goodness, beauty and justice in far away cultures...

Easy Games for Beginning Latin

(cross posted from Chez VH)

I brought these ideas up at park day last week when a mom asked about when she could start working on Latin with her young children, which made me think some of you might like to hear about them too.

 “The Slapping Game”

Get a set of English from the Roots Up Cards (there are two sets available). Or you can make your own (with help from a website listing Greek and Latin roots like this one). Root word is on the front (a color can be used to identify whether it’s Greek or Latin), English translation and possibly derivatives on the back. My kids (and  their friends when we’ve done it as part of a class) love what has come to be known as “The Slapping Game”.

Lay out about six cards at a time with the root word facing up. You call out the English translation and the kids try to be the first one to slap the correct card (they should keep their hand on the card until you tell them which one is right – sometimes there are two correct answers if you have the Greek and Latin versions of the same word out at the same time).  To make the game more smoothly I have a rule that they can’t talk during the game unless they raise their hand. If they do talk, they have to give up one of their cards. We’ve had a lot of fun with this game and found it very motivating for the kids to study the words at home on their own.

Root-Word Certamen

Certamen is kind of a team game show played by Latin scholars in Junior Classical League competitions and such. (You can read more about Certamen on the hand-dandy Wikipedia page.) The game consists of 15 or 20 questions on a wide variety of topics. These “toss-up” questions are worth 10 points each. If your team answers a toss-up question correctly, they also get a chance to answer two bonus questions, worth 5 points each.

We do a simplified version of this, also with the English from the Roots Up Cards. I hold up a card that everyone gets a chance to translate. The team with the correct translation gets 10 points. Then they are invited (for a possible 5 points each) to identify English derivatives of the word.

Ana's Picture Book of the Week

John Mary Vianney: The Holy Cure of Ars by Sophie De Mullenheim, 2010 Ignatius Press, Hardcover.

This book deserves a best-of-the-year award! I purchased it for a Christmas gift and was enchanted by both text and pictures! The Cure of Ars, born and raised in poverty during a post-revolution France, became well known in all of France still in his lifetime because of his holiness and his ability to bring souls to repentance and to God. The life of the humble and saintly priest who changed a whole town and the hearts of so many is all there, and in wonderful illustrations as well. Thank you Ignatius Press for publishing high quality children Catholic picture books!

Ana's Picture Book of the Week

Brother Wolf, Sister Sparrow by Eric Kimmel, Holiday House, NY, 2003

I found this while looking for more Brendan the Navigator stories for history class. It is a delightful book about animals and saints stories.

This Amazon customer review says it very well:

Saint Francis' "Sermon to the Birds" precedes the stories. Though we are not birds, in a way it prepares us, the readers, for the wonder and mystery that is to follow. The stories are quite interesting. Each tale ends with an informative tidbit about the Saint. For example, "Saint Notburga is the patron saint of poor
farmers and hired servants. Her feast day is September 14. Her emblem is the sickle."
John Winch has made two types of illustrations in this book. Before each tale there is an intriguing representation of an artifact representing the Saint. One looks like a painting on wood, one looks like a small statue, another looks like a coin. These gray illustrations also mention the country and rough dates that the Saint lived. I like these symbolic illustrations even more than the colorful acrylic folk paintings that plainly detail the stories.
The verso mentions that "The author's principal source for this book is Butler's Lives of the Saints (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1956)."
The author's note is brief and explains what makes a person a saint and the canonization process. The author concludes, "This process does not make a person a saint. Only God can do that. Through canonization, the church recognizes what God has already done."