Buchstabenfest

Speaking of volunteering and getting involved in the local community--today was the first grade's Buchstabenfest. You know how in the States, the Hundred Day event has taken hold? (celebrating the 100th day of school with all kinds of games and crafts) That's what this was like, only with letters. German's pretty phonetic, so once you have learned what all the letters say, congratulations, you can read. I went as a parent helper. In the morning they worked with a classic story by Ottfried Preussler about a little witch. They did a number of activities, including gathering sticks to make a small witch's broom. Try that in Georgia, will you! I can see the woman who sued to take Harry Potter off the school shelves turning purple already. Then in the afternoon there were different stations, run by parents. Mine was outside. The kids jumped from letter to letter, then syllable to syllable, then word to word to form words and sentences. The more they got, the more gummy bears they earned. The fun was only slightly marred by the fourth graders taking a bicycle safety test with the police on the pavement right next to us. None of us were hit, but a fourth grader spent some time lying inert on a bench, with a cop and a school official anxiously hovering over her. The whole letter event ended in alphabet soup and the sending-off of balloons with a story each kid had written tied to the string. All in all, a fun event. My first grader had a great time, and it looked like his class did, too.

I hate technology...

...especially when things like easy cell phone access makes it impossible to strand a small group of teens whose car breaks down on a group date. It was easier to come up with fictional problems before timesaving machines were invented.

Just saying.