For German Families: if you were placing an amazon.de order for your 6-year-old...

[EmilyGF]

What would you want to put in it?

I have three kids (6,4,2) and they all understand German but only speak a little.

My list so far:

Gombrich's History
Wieso, Weshalb, Warum CDs
Rolf Zuckowski CDs
Grimm's Märchen
maybe a version of Aesop

What about "living" children book collections?

I speak German at C1 level (but not as my first language). We don't really watch TV. We currently speak about 1-2 hours of German per day and do German school one day a week. We have access to a small but slim German library, which is how I am aware of the type of things I'd like more of!

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Emily

[skueppers]

I have placed quite a few Amazon.de orders over the last six years. Here are some things that have been big hits here:

* Anything from the Lesemaus series. Of particular interest may be the Christa Holtei historical ones, like "Ein Tag im alten Rom." We have at least 30 Lesemaus books, and I can't think of one we don't like.

* Wieso? Weshalb? Warum? books

* "Eine Woche voller Samstage" and sequels -- these are chapter book read-alouds that would be best for ages 5 and up; I don't think they would hold the attention of a younger child. Magic is involved, in case that bothers you.

* Kleiner Eisbär books -- there are several, all very sweet.

* Der Kleine Drache Kokosnuss -- there are many volumes

I've recently ordered a bunch of stuff that's primarily for next year, including:

* Duden Grundschullexikon -- I've been reading a couple of articles aloud every night over dinner. I bought it thinking that it would be nice to be able to read brief information out loud about a range of topics as they came up.

* A number of WAS IST WAS (http://www.wasistwas.de/) books, mainly on historical topics we'll be covering next year. They seem like they will work out well for us, but I haven't yet actually used them so I can't provide a real review. Every page is well-illustrated, but they have more continuous text than something like a DK Eyewitness book.

[loesje22000]

I like this thread :-)
I ordered last few weeks several books cause dd wants to start German.
dd is 8yo but I'm definetely not a C1 speaker...

I ordered (off course!) Grimms marchen, bus also
Leo Lionni 'mausegeschichte' , I know he isn't German but we learned that way also English ;-)

I ordered also some 'longe term' books like Momo from Michael Ende (10+) and 'Das doppelte Lottchen' from Erich Kastner. Both stories are very famous in house (in Dutch)

We read a lot from Christa Holtei in Dutch and these are great books!

Not a real book, but something we know from the Netherlands is LUK (in dutch a.k.a. LOCO) I ordered this: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3894149116/ref=oss_product to start somewhere with learning German, and dd did already know how the system worked. They have also materials for 'normal' German lessons, I ordered so far the 'Deutsch als Fremdsprache' series.

[matroyshka]

If you want to do some early reading stuff with your 6yo, Klett's Kunterbunt Fibel (http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?__mk_de_DE=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kunterbunt+fibel&x=0&y=0&sprefix=kunterbunt+fibel)is very good. My kids' German Sat. School uses it in 1st grade. It has a text and workbook, and also a series of early readers and comprehension pages to go with them. I think if you go to the Klett website it might better explain the different components and how they fit together. You can pick and choose which make sense for you.

The other stuff you have looks great. Love Rolf Zuckowski here, and Gombrich's book is great too.

Oh... DVDs (get a multi-region player)! When my kids were little, I didn't allow any DVD time except in German. :D

Benjamin Blümchen (animated elephant - my kids loved these)
Petersson und Findus (animated, old man and cat, from Sweden)
Felix (animated, world-travelling stuffed rabbit)

The Felix books (http://www.amazon.de/Weltbeste-Briefe-von-Felix-kleiner/dp/3815724007/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301089874&sr=1-6) are also great.

And of course anything by Astrid Lindgren, especially Pippi and Michel. :)

[Yenisei]

Henriette Bimmelbahn seems to be quite popular here.

[WendyK]

Oh... DVDs (get a multi-region player)! When my kids were little, I didn't allow any DVD time except in German. :D

That's what I do.

My kids really enjoy the Maus DVDs. What's great is that they talk about a wide variety of topics on the shows.

I'm lucky in that my in-laws regularly send us stuff and we stock up when we go to Germany. ;)

[skueppers]

My kids really enjoy the Maus DVDs. What's great is that they talk about a wide variety of topics on the shows.

This is off-topic from the original question (what to order from Amazon.de), but there are a bunch of interesting shows now available as podcasts. The informational segment from Die Sendung mit der Maus is available every week as a podcast (though not any of the cartoon parts). There's also a really nice news show for kids, Logo!, that's available every day as a podcast. We watch it after dinner.

My kids also love the "Wissen macht Ah!" podcast. They have recently discovered "Kopfball" and "neuneinhalb."

[WendyK]

This is off-topic from the original question (what to order from Amazon.de), but there are a bunch of interesting shows now available as podcasts. The informational segment from Die Sendung mit der Maus is available every week as a podcast (though not any of the cartoon parts). There's also a really nice news show for kids, Logo!, that's available every day as a podcast. We watch it after dinner.

My kids also love the "Wissen macht Ah!" podcast. They have recently discovered "Kopfball" and "neuneinhalb."

Awesome, thanks.

[EmilyGF]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I'm postponing my order, however, because I happened to get a toe-hold into the local German community and have two people who are selling me their used books.

I'll probably make an order after I've exhausted my cheaper, local resources.

We'll probably take a route of German language arts and history (with state and American history in English) and other subjects in English, so I'll most likely make an order for history-related books.

This is so helpful!

Emily

[Steven]

My daughter happens to be 6 this year, so I can easily discuss what we buy: basically almost anything that is on sale! I operate on the principle that it is too hard to accurately guess what she will like, so if it is on sale and seems age appropriate, I buy it. We go to Germany almost every year, and always hit the remaindered bins in the bookstores and department stores. Get on the e-mail notification list for Amazon.de, and they will periodically remind you of Restposten (remaindered books). I also buy books and CDs that go well with our history curriculum (e.g., Greek myths). When making choices on Amazon, I look closely at the reviews.

Keep in mind that Amazon.de does not charge the value-added tax on books that are shipped to the United States. I think the tax on books is 7 percent, so if you order enough, the flat shipping fee of 14 euros is at least partially covered. And if you order remaindered books, you can get a lot for your money.

Some of the stuff we have bought has not worked out, but a lot of it has. Generally, CDs have worked better for us than DVDs. The truth is that in spoken dialog, not that many words are really used, and there is a shortage of good movies in German that are not dubbed. Books and their CD versions expose kids to more words than DVDs do.

Keep in mind that for many books, CDs come in two versions. One is a reading of the book (some are abridged) and the other is a "radio play" version. Radio play versions are probably easier for beginners--more back and forth dialog and less description. But the unabridged books are great for developing vocabulary.

One reason the CDs work well for us, is that we spend a lot of time in the car.


Some of our luckier finds are:

--Nate the Great CDs in German (his called Nick Nase in German). We had never seen the English books, so the German CDs were our introduction to him.

--Die Playmos. These are adventure stories built around three Playmobil characters.

--Gombrich's Eine jurze Weltgeschiche. It has been a great supplement to SOTW, but I am sure its target audience is higher than age six. I am not sure it would have been as successful without also covering SOTW.

--Bibi Blocksberg. I believe this is an old radio series, a story about young girl who is a witch. There are tons of these.

--The Wieso? Weshalb? Warum? series. My daughter especially likes the body book (Wir entdecken unseren Körper--we have the book and the CD.

--The Benny Blu series. We have Ritter, Raumfahrt, und Dinosaurier on CD. Each one is long (2 CDs) and very didactic, but my daughter loves them

--The Karo Karotte series. We have several on CD. They are best described as the melodramatic adventure of a hyper pre-teen (or is she suppose to be a teenager?--I have never been quite sure).

--Die Kleine Hexe by Otfried Preussler. We have a CD

--Otto, der kleine Pirat. This is from the Sonne, Mond und Sterne early reader series, but we have it on CD.

--Die Fürchterlichen Fünf by Wolf Erlbruch. We have this as a CD. It is the amusing story of 5 repulsive animals (rat, bat, toad, spider and hyena) who open a jazz cafe that specializes in pancakes.

--Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer. We have this on a CD. We have a radio play version.

--Die fünf Freunde series. We have these radio plays on CD. They are based on a British series by Enid Blyton. I don't much care for them, but my daughter loves them.

--Griechische Sage by Dimiter Inkiow. There are several of these CDs of classical myths retold by Dimiter Inkiow. They work well in conjunction with Story of the World. But they are less discreet about Zeus's philandering than most of the English versions we have.

--the Gespensterpark series.

--Joppe by Gunnel Linde. A boy who is constantly losing his favorite stuffed toy, Joppe the Mole. We have the CD.

--Petterson und Findus. We have the DVDs (the first set is much better than the second set) and a couple of CDs.

--Die Weihnachtsgeschichte: Ein Weihnachts-Musical. I can't stand the pop music on this Christmas CD, but it's a hit at our house, as is the companion CD about the Three Kings (Die Geschichte von den Heiligen Drei Königen: Ein Weihnachtsmusical).

--The Zauberreise series. This is roughly equivalent to Magic Tree house--a time traveling au pair. They run about 100 pages. We have been using them for reading class.

--Zum Gluck bist Du nicht Kleopatra. This is a translation from the American series, "Be Glad You're not ..."

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Of course, we have had our losers. Most of these are because they turned out not to be entirely age-appropriate. Momo and Unendliche Geschichte were rejected by my daughter.

[Joan in Geneva]

This is not from Amazon but the shipping shouldn't be bad if that is the issue.

Rod and Staff has children's books in German, Spanish, Russian, and some other languages.

Foreign language books (http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/list/Foreign_Languages/)

I haven't actually gotten them before so I can't really say how "Christian" they are. Some are clearly Bible stories, but others could just be stories with a moral (The Hungry Cat). And you should read the descriptions because there are a few that are just coloring books...They are quite cheap though.

Joan

[cathmom]

I have those Rod and Staff books. Each book has very short stories. In Die Hungrige Katze, there are 13 different stories. Most of the stories have one black and white picture that shows Amish-style dress. Some of the stories (I have not read them all) have at least small references to God. Some are totally religious, like Was Ist Fasten?

[Joan in Geneva]

Did your children like them? Are they worth buying?

Joan

[cathmom]

I haven't read them with my children. I've read some of them myself. They're sweet stories, but some children might find them too cheesy. They're so cheap though, they're almost worth buying just to see. I got the 4 books for about 10 dollars, I think. When I was looking at them last night, I thought, "I should read through these. I forgot I had them!