Gifts

Do you ever feel that you have certain talents that you don't use? When I was in college, I loved studying foreign languages, German and Spanish in particular, and was fairly good at them. I also enjoyed the smattering of Hungarian I picked up from a Hungarian friend. I was sure I had been given these gifts for a purpose, to make use of them in my future. Unlike Miss Kate, I don't have the gifts necessary to make a good teacher, so I gave up on that idea, but I still felt somehow something would come out of my abilities.

Well, here I am twenty years later, and I use a small bit of German when I talk with a friend who originated from Bavaria. I've started to pick back up on the Spanish since the Musician started it this past school year. Of course, after three years of Latin, Spanish was fairly easy-peasy for her. She'll actually be in Honors Spanish at the high school this year.

Of course, my German was extremely valuable when I visited relatives during a ten-week college trip to Germany and Austria. I spent a few days around Christmas with my mother's first cousin, her husband, children and grandchildren. Only one of the grandchildren spoke much English, and I didn't bunk at his apartment.

My Spanish brightened someone's day at a food trailer during that same trip to Germany. I can only assume this guy was a migrant worker from Spain who had come to Germany for opportunity, and he was buying something at the trailer. I don't know how I picked up that the guy was from Spain, probably something the food trailer guy said. They seemed to know each other. So I spoke to him in Spanish, and the man seemed thrilled with this little touch of "home." I can still remember him exclaiming excitedly to the man behind the counter, "She speaks Spanish!"

And I had a fun time on that same trip when the future Mr. Evil Genius and I ate dinner one night at a Spanish restaurant. The menu was dual German/Spanish, and I ordered in Spanish. The waiter began his very own version of Germish, along the lines of, "Gracias, Fraulein." Poor Mr. Evil Genius was very lost.

Who knows what the future holds? I'd definitely have to brush up on my foreign languages if I was to make use of them again in the future. In the meantime, I sometimes wonder, "Why?"

Schreiblesefibel

The next time your kids complain about learning reading, or phonics, or handwriting, show them these pictures. They are from a book I happened to find on ebay. It doesn't appear to have a publishing date, but it obviously dates to way, way back, and belonged to someone who lived in Detroit, Michigan. It's called a Schreiblesefibel, which roughly translates to Reading and Writing Booklet.

It was published by Concordia Publishing House in St. Louis, Missouri.

First, the child learned simple phonics and handwriting, like l for Lampe and r for Rad. In German script.

The child also learned the sounds of letter combinations.

There were reading passages, like this doctrinal gem: Jesus, the Good Shepherd. A shepherd watches over the sheep. Jesus is my good shepherd. He leads me to pastures. I am Jesus' little sheep. Jesus gave His life for His sheep. He also died for me. Jesus redeemed me from my sins. He is my Redeemer. In baptism, I became Jesus' little sheep. Jesus loves the children.

There are other sections of reading and writing exercises.

Here are two pages that show the alphabet in upper and lower case. Looks fun, doesn't it?

Lastly, a page of prayers, and a page of I'm-not-sure-what. Some of the squares almost look like quilt blocks, don't they? Is this prayer familiar to anyone? Komm, Herr Jesu, Sei unser Gast, und segne, was du uns bescheret hast.

Seasonal Fun

I bought a little game on ebay for my youngest daughter, who loves bunnies, and we played it for the first time today. It's made by Playmobil, it came from Germany, and it is all in German, so it was fun and educational at the same time! It's called Wettlauf um die Möhren, or Race to the Carrots. See, the bunnies have escaped their hutch and they're trying to get to the field of carrots. But if you land on a circle with the picture of the farmer, or Bauer, you get stuck with the farmer figure, and you can't get into the carrot patch if you have the farmer figure.

We christened him Jack Bauer. I wonder what he's gonna do with that pitchfork. :)

Then there was a rousing game of bunny Jenga.

A Little Discussion

I'm very tired. I spent most of the day running, put over 100 miles on the car today alone. All important things that were accomplished, but still, I'm worn out. So here's a little something I've been thinking about. Was there any class in high school that you still find of practical value today? For me, it's touch typing, for obvious reasons! It helps so much when blogging and IM'ing. Not to mention all the papers I wrote in high school and college that I typed. Did you know that I'm so old, that when I started college, I used an *actual typewriter*? No, really! By the time I graduated, though, the college had a computer lab.

Somehow, my husband, who works on computers for a living, has managed to create his own sort of touch typing. Kind of the Christopher Columbus method, find a key and land on it. I didn't make that one up! No, really!

I did take computer programming in high school, so I guess I can't be *that* old. Okay, it was on an Apple IIe, and we learned BASIC, but still. It helped later on when I actually had a job programming in COBOL. Yes, I'm ashamed to admit that. :)

What about what high school class(es) you most enjoyed, helpful or no? I enjoyed history classes, for the most part, and German and Spanish. I've used my German and Spanish, even went on to major in German and minor in Spanish in college. I don't know what I would have done with them, but I've used them in lots of non-career scenarios. And I'm teaching my daughters German now, so that's useful. I got to know my husband partially by being his German TA, which was *very* useful! ;) Plus the ten-week trip to Germany/Austria. I probably would have learned most of the history on my own, because of my own weird interests in reading. But I suppose it's just as well they be required, for those who don't/won't read on their own.

The classes I think were the least useful, you can guess, were the math and science classes. As a matter of fact, I forgot all the formulas I was supposed to learn for chemistry before I even took the final. Which is why I flunked the final. I think I would do better in science and math classes today if I re-took them. I have more life experience, and being around my math and science geek husband for so many years now does not hurt. Actually, I wonder if style of teaching does not contribute something, because I actually did fairly well in Algebra II. Of course, I don't remember any of it now. Explain to me again why we need advanced math and science courses for everyone?

Night Out, Mom Style

I went shopping for some fabric Monday night, at the store where the Quilter works. (By the way, did you know this blog recently came up #11 on Google.de by someone searching for "steppdecken Amerikanische comforter"?) Anyway, here's the fabric I bought. Now I need to get busy and make stuff with it!

After shopping, I took the Quilter out to Steak 'N Shake to celebrate her birthday. Mmmm, milkshake! We enjoyed our "girl time" so much that we didn't leave until after midnight!!

Glad the month of February is almost done.

A Break in the Weather

I'm glad the sky is nice and blue and sunny again today, after the day we had yesterday! It was so foggy for most of it that I could barely see the neighbors' houses at some points. Good for a Victorian London murder mystery, but not much else.

The girls are busily teaching their baby dolls their new German vocabulary they just got yesterday. Love it when they do my work for me! However, the cross-stitch projects I started with the girls are not progressing so smoothly - so far. I can't really even take a picture to show you, because they only have a few X's each completed. :) But they're still interested, so that's something.