Boys And Their Toys.

My gosh, they do start young...

Somehow you get used to the bigger boys ( i.e grown ups ) boasting about their lot in life. The better car, house, holiday, wife and smarter children. Oh, the list is endless. But who knew, that it already starts at the age when they attend kindergarten?

It must have been the remnants of Christmas spirit because I can't explain it any other way. My two English students ( age 4 & 5 ) were angelic from the first minute to the last. It doesn't say much for my managing ability to admit that this is not normal. Whereas I drove my parents crazy with the eternal phrase used in any backseat of a parental car:

" Are we there yet? "

often the boys drive me crazy with :

" When is the lesson over? " which is far from nice to hear 5 minutes in and makes me quake in my boots! At times, 60 minutes seems like 600 minutes.

Anyway, as it was the first lesson after Christmas I asked them what the " Kristkindel " brought. Oh yes, they are still at that age. Lovely. Their eyes were sparkling and it almost seemed like they didn't have enough time to devote to all those gifts they had received.

" I got a helicopter."
" And I got a big police station. Bigger than any helicopter! "

It was amazing for me to see the two boys thinking of ways to outdo each other in regards to their Christmas presents. At one point, if I hadn't intervened a small display of fisticuffs might have ensued. Really boys?

As young as they are, they know instinctively how to wound the other one with deeds and words. The most important invite they could get and give at that age was used as the proverbial dangling and just out of reach carrot:

The invite to each other's Birthday Parties. Of course when I asked them when their party was, they were a bit clueless, apart from who to invite, who not to invite and of course the divine cake their mums would bake for them.

Seeing a few glimpses of life through their eyes is rather educational, fun, never boring and a privilege. Oh, and I almost forgot to say, that I am beginning to realize how much power a 5 year old can wield in his realm.

Biggi

Easy Peasy And So Forth...

Oh and Bob turns into Super-Bob-The-Artist!

We drove to a neighbouring village for an English lesson yesterday. Great kids and all still in kindergarten. At the moment their repertoire is restricted to numbers (1-10 ), names of the major animals and of course the different colours - dark green and light green included. English, that is. But they are bright sparks indeed and understand a whole lot more then we might think.

We do take crayons and paper along to do a round of drawing. Always a good idea with the little ones. You do need an imagination of course, because what they say is " a picture of you ", sometimes looks nothing like it. In fact it is jolly hard to keep up your smile when the drawing resembles everything and anything but you.

Between Bob and I, he is the chosen one when it comes to drawing. It was so cute yesterday because the one kid especially wore a t-shirt with a picture of chimps in different guises. The minute he saw us, he beelined it to Bob and commanded him to draw the apes.

After a few minutes of drawing, he was a bit dejected:

" Biggi, please tell Bob that this looks nothing like
the monkey I wanted him to draw "

I tell you, Bob was in a bit of a pickle. Try as he might, his drawn monkeys didn't look like the requested ones. Throughout the hour, different requests were bandied about and one could see a lively imagination at work: A shark / fighterplane / shark eating a fish with a diver next to it / castle...you get the idea. Bob was stretched to his artistic limit....

We had three kids for the lesson, and I was doing a puzzle with the little girl at the next table. All of a sudden, I heard Bob utter:

" Easy Peasy "

( he was maybe drawing an orange? ) and wouldn't you know it, this turned into the preferred phrase of our afternoon. All three of them were throwing the " Easy Peasy " about like seasoned English speakers.

After we had explained what it meant to them, there was no stopping them. Everything was easy peasy, and at one stage when a piece of puzzle didn't fit, this bright little gal said to me:

" Nicht Easy Peasy "

If this was a Twitter report, I would end it with the hash tags #speechless and #proud!

Biggi

Can You Remember Your 1st Pair Of Really Snazzy Shoes?

A pair so fabulous you had to sleep with them on?

It must be around the grand age of six that we cross this particular rite of passage. A new pair of shoes. Not just any shoe, but the snazziest and trendiest at the time.

Even at that age, it was a battle of will between Mother & you over which shoe to buy. A case of durability over style. Boring and yukky at that age. We wanted a style that we thought was the Bee's Knees. Mothers tended to look for shoes that helped a possible bad posture / instep and would outlast vigourous wear. What did we know then anyway. All that counted was to be noticed and admired in kindergarten the next day.

Can you remember having to try on the rather nerdy shoes first. Parents can be so cruel at times. Imagine getting shoes that don't blink, shine or overpower your friends? When we did get one of those snazzy lot, most of us couldn't sleep. Did you also paraded around the living room and did you also sleep with our new best shoes on your feet? Or at least next to your pillow?

Even our outfit that 1st day of showing off was chosen to highlight the new shoes. Wearing shorts / short pants / or skirts just to ensure they get noticed? Oh, those were the days, where we still found joy in the normal mundane stuff.

One of the boys arrived for our English class yesterday sporting a new pair of shoes. Good golly, you couldn't miss them and just in case we had missed his new footwear, he made sure to sit with his feet predominantly displayed at the table. To give him credit, he didn't plonk them on the table.

Oh, he was so chuffed with his new shoes. They still had brilliant form and colour which, I have to mention is not often guaranteed with boys. Puddles, fields and some such tend to be huge attractions.

" Oh, let me see your new shoes."

was the one question, that brought a huge proud smile onto his face. He was beaming from ear to ear for almost the entire hour. Isn't great when the ordinary things still make a difference to children.

Biggi

Extremely Well Behaved Kids, Dried Kidney Beans & A Glass Jar.

Simple Works...

A friend told me, how her parents used to have this ' bean-counting ' game at home. As with all good ideas, it was extremely simple. Something Bob and I could do to make our English classes a tad more fun and exciting.

As soon as the shops were open after Christmas, we ventured into town and started to scour the shops for glass jars. Remember, we needed about 10 of them. Price was an issue. In great style, we also bought labels so that each kid could put their name on the jar. After all, Bob and I would keep them between the lessons. The kidney beans were easy to get at the supermarket.

The rules to go with this are simple, and I explained it to all the kids in German:

• Each competition lasts a month. At the start of each lesson, each child gets 10 kidney beans for attending.
• Winning at Uno or other games...2 beans.
• Knowing some English terms or reading in English....1/2/3/ beans.
• As to speaking German in the lesson, which they were all fond of doing with each other, we told them that each lesson we would take a piece of paper and make a column with each name. Each time someone spoke German, they would get a tick in their respective column. The one with the least ticks at the end of the lesson...3 beans.
• If anyone was naughty or swore or hurt another kid....minus 2 beans. ( they have been little angles since then )
• At the end of the month, the one with the most beans in their jar would get a huge bar of chocolate.

Bob was a tad bit sceptical whether it would work. From the start, I explained it in detail to the crowd ( 7-9 years ) and as they say, warts & all. I made sure they understood about the minus points for speaking German. Bob at times thought I was too strict but from the first minute, as soon as I heard German uttered, the mighty pen struck a mark.

In a way, a lot of adults underestimate how important consistency and rules are for kids. In fact, they thrived on this point of not speaking German. As soon as they noticed that I meant business they got with the program! ( I did tell them that even if they only say YES or NO, that is fine but no chatting in German with each other. )

At the start of the second lesson, the plot thickened. The crafty kids had had their Mums teach them how to say " I don't know " or " I am not sure ". Others almost bit their tongue the whole lesson and resorted to shaking or nodding their head. Too funny but also an extremely impressive display of willpower.

The moment a German word or phrase was uttered, they would quickly bat their eyes in my direction whether I had heard. Naturally I had and a tick resulted. On the off chance that I hadn't heard it, I had plenty of eager little helpers pointing out the fact that someone else had talked in German. Even after a two week holiday, the kids came back and were raring to go and earn beans.

We had our first winner yesterday. As there are lessons on two separate days, we made each child count his or her own beans. That amount got written on a piece of paper and I explained to them, that they would have to wait a week before the winner gets his prize. As young as they are, they knew exactly what was what!

Our lot are ingenious to boot. As the last bean was counted, one girl asked me what would happen if there were 2 winners.

" Of course you each get your own bar. "

Then she asked me what would happen if all of them got the same amount.

" Oh, that might be too expensive for Bob and I."

and sangfroid she replied:

" Oh, that's okay. We will lend you the money so that you can buy us all a big bar of chocolate! "

Life in Burgenland...fabulous!

Biggi

That Lousy Nit Causes Mayhem!

So small yet so irritating and hated.

On the whole, Mums are pretty fearless until you mention that mighty foe called ' louse '. Almost all kids pick it up at some time or another in their school careers.

Yesterday, I heard two mums exchanging info regarding a letter sent to them by the teacher. It had the hallmarks of some sort of medical thing. Seeing that we were having an English class with some of their kids, I felt entitled to ask what it was. I couldn't believe it when they mentioned a lousy louse attack at school. Really, in the colds of winter?

It goes without saying that I instantly scratched my head like the proverbial monkey. It was itchy! Bob, when I told him, moved slightly off side from the table. Lucky for him, he is always wearing that Beanie ( fashion statement or for the cold? ) and might be safe from the lousy louse attack...

Some of you might know, that I worked in a Hair Salon for ages. I manned the desk, which incidentally is the first port of call for freaked out mothers.
" You have got to help me. This child of mine has nits and lice. The school sent her home and told me to sort it out. Do something please! "....If only they had realized that those few sentences sent our Salon into an automatic lock - down of sorts ( along with a good dose of fear ).

Lice and nits should enter the Olympics as they can jump incredible distances. They also hang on for dear life on just about any surface: Hair, scalp, comb, towel, chair, clothes....you get the idea. One universal problem is that they are so small and hard to notice.

Sometimes, mothers tried to sneak their children in hoping that we

A: would get rid of the lice and
B: wouldn't notice.....which would have made us a real lousy Salon!

But oh boy, I used to dread having a panicked Hairstylist rush to the desk and whisper in furious tones along with turbulent hand gestures that their client had a nest of lice & nits! All the staff were told just the one word - Lice - and like a well trained unit we would go to work, hopefully without causing too much panic...

Unobtrusively yet with precision we would backtrack the journey of the child through the Salon and disinfect everything he / she had come into contact with. Often we had to sent he / she home with half a haircut. Quite a few mums were cross and horribly upset that we hadn't sorted it out. But if you have an unwanted presence of lice in your Salon, you have to close your business for a few days in order to sort it out...

Today, I think Bob and I will sport a partner look. There are some beanies and scarves that might hide my hair totally. This might upset the mums, but trying to de-louse oneself is not much fun and jolly hard work!

I remember that we were told at the Hair-Seminars, that you can get a Shampoo, that usually repels lice. A sort of pre-strike! I'll post a link of good ones at the bottom.

P/S: Let me know if you scratched your head while reading this! ( just click below: Like / Share / or comment )

Biggi

Amazon.com:Tea Tree Shampoo
Amazon.de/at:Tea Tree Shampoo
Amazon.uk:Tea Tree Shampoo

Entertainment Value Of A Simple Sharpener!

Who knew that a humble and simple sharpener could provide so much fun?

What I like to call our faithful English kids, have been with us for over a year now, more or less 1 hour per week. We have seen them progress from an age with all their milk teeth in place, to one where the front two are glaringly missing.

Isn't it funny how we would hotfoot it to the dentist while they are extremely proud and chuffed with that gap. That GAP shows all and sundry that they are no longer little! ( Trying to pronounce some English words through that gap can be rather funny though. )

I won't bore you with the gory details we were told. You know the details of how those teeth left the gums. Not by themselves I gather. It involved a thread, door handle and a not-so-squeamish Dad! When those two front teeth were still dangling in the gums, she wanted to pull them out in our class. Bob nearly had a cadenza at the thought of what he would see. It took him all his effort to deter her.

Last year Bob and I bought a box of wax crayons for the kids. Over time they became well used and rather blunt. For weeks I was reminded by one girl to please buy a sharpener. In fact her
" Oh no Biggi, you forgot again! " comment made me rush out and buy a sharpener.

If I had known how much fun they would have with it, I would have bought one sooner. Yesterday was a surprising and eventful class for us. The quietest kid in the group opened the crayon box, saw the sharpener and said in English " Oh, a Sharpener ". Goodness, I was so proud that he could recall such a difficult word.

Then he started to sharpen one of the wax crayons, successfully. Not such an easy task with a pencil sharpener. Once he had turned to the next crayon, the bits falling from the sharpener created a nice mixture of filings. All of a sudden, the others noticed his efforts. The Uno game in progress was stopped halfway. Clearly the sharpening affair was far more interesting!

It took about two minutes before the sharpener was wrestled from him and the next one had a go. The pile of filings grew larger and more colourful. To be honest, I would have liked to have had a turn as well, but all three were fighting over how many each could sharpen. Just in case they would run out of crayons to sharpen, one girl ingeniously ( oh yes, the one with the GAP ) took a crayon and broke it in two. Instantly more sharpening material...

Oh yes, I was once again reminded that the simple things in life can be and are so much fun.

Biggi

The before and after. Clearly hours of fun still ahead..

Who Can Remember " Perfect Continuous " ?

Sorry if I dredge up bad moments from your past.

This will take you back to a time when you were in short-pants. Oh yes, schooldays. Dreaded by many and liked by a select few! To be honest, when I heard this " perfect continuous " yesterday, I broke out into a cold sweat.

For those of you still wracking your brains, I will tell you what it is: A past tense. Oh yes, remember those days of English Grammar...

A high school student asked us whether we could help her with English grammar and of course we said yes. Bob is known in the village as a proper English speaker and I am the next best to it! So, it was intended to be Bob who would give the extra lesson.

Of course, before she even came to our house, Bob had designated me for the task. " You know I hated school and never listened. Your English is better than mine !" Lousy excuse, but he can dig his heels in better than a donkey on a lead not wanting to go home.So it was that she and I sat at the kitchen table with Bob stationed around the corner in the lounge.

History was made yesterday because this was the first time that those dire predictions banded about merrily by most teachers finally came true: " Listen up, you'll need this some day! ".

Perfect Continuous had me stumped from word go. Jeez-a-lou, you even had to change the words!
( Who does that and do we ever use it? ). Reading out loud the various options that I thought were right, rendered a
" Honey, I don't think this is right " response from Bob ( Yeah right, all of a sudden he could hear a pin drop! ).
Admirably I restrained from telling him " you do it then "....

Honesty was the best policy, and I told her I would read up and study the relevant parts. She is coming back on Thursday and I hope I will be able to explain in a way that she will be able to understand it.

After she left, Bob just looked at me and said: " Did we ever have to learn this stuff at school? This is difficult and I have no recollection of it ! ". Well, join the club!

Maybe my parents should ask for a refund from my school?

Biggi

Fantastic Way To Predict The U.E.F.A. Cup Winner.

Boys and their ideas !

English class was far from easy yesterday. The boys were unsettled and restless. Oh dear, to rein them in seemed close to impossible. Nothing would interest them.

Our group was made up of four boys, a baby ( little brother of two boys in the group ) and myself. The boys are rather soccer mad and therein lay the problem. We had just had a major storm and slip sliding around the muddy fields was out of the question. Whatever I tried to keep them riveted or even awake failed miserably.

Well I thought, there are so many ways to catch a monkey and with cunning I threw out a few baits. " Are you boys going to watch the big match on Saturday ? "
The noise level dropped a bit and I got a " What match do you mean ? "
" The only important one of course. Borussia Dortmund against FC Bayern Munchen. " That did the trick. Everyone's attention was mine. Just to show them that this girl knows something about soccer, I asked " Who saw the mighty Ronaldo red carded last week ? "...Hook line and sinker !

Dortmund is my team for the match and clearly I was the only one. It almost caused a riot when I predicted the final score would be Dortmund 2, Bayern 1. Cries of " Never " and " Bayern is the only good team " were doing the rounds.

Naturally I stirred the pot a bit longer and persisted vocally that Dortmund would win. In desperation one of the boys ran to the table ( we were all huddled on the floor next to the baby ) and I saw him furiously scribbling away. Oh please let there be no tears. Ha, what was I thinking. He raced back to us with two small bits of paper in his hand.

He held it up and one had Bayern written on it, the other one Dortmund. With dexterity and ingenuity that can only stem from little bright sparks, he told us " We will let my baby brother decide. Let's put the two papers in front of him. Whichever one he grabs first will be the one winning the match. " Logic you can't argue with but bear in mind that the baby can't talk or walk yet.

Oh, the crowd was wild with excitement. The baby sitting on the floor, with those two bits of paper in front of him was all of a sudden surrounded by cheering fans egging him on to take their teams paper. The older brother shooshed them off and told them to keep quiet. Eh, I didn't think the baby understood the shouts of " take the left one."

Being a good baby brother, he picked Bayern. ( He is a baby, what does he know about soccer ! ). The boys feeling like they were on a roll and also to prove it to me in style, did the paper trick a few more times. Lo and behold, the baby went for the wrong team every time....

Biggi

Marketing's Magic Key !

Word of mouth, might be old fashioned but it works.

With the enormous speed and expansion of anything to do with social media, or dare I say Internet, it is understandable that the rules and pointers off marketing are also changing or rather adapting. In fact, it can keep your head spinning for ever, trying to find your own path through the maze of ( online ) marketing.

As you know, Bob and I hold English Conversation classes. It is so nice that our community has embraced this opportunity of having two native English speaking villagers ( Bob and I, of course ). The Mothers have given us their stamp of approval, no question about it.

But, as we are finding out, when the children are between 5-7 years old, Mothers kind off loose the upper hand. Almost like the proverbial donkey, once the kids don't want to go, they just dig in their heels and that is that. The toughest crowd on earth.

Entertaining such a young audience ( don't forget they hardly understand us ) is far from easy. Attention spans are shorter than short, and the boredom factor is always present. Bob and I try and vary it a little bit, but the basics can only be done by repetition.

Once, as a last resort ( bored kids infect each other ), Bob took a piece of paper and made a paper aeroplane. Remember, we grew up the old fashioned way...without computerized toys ! Well, one by one, the kids perked up and all of a sudden they were enthralled by Bob's plane.
Shouts of: " Bob, make mine first. " or " Biggi, can I colour mine Silver and Gold " were everywhere.

Yesterday, we had a young boy come back to our class. He hadn't been for a long time. As he settled in at the table, I heard him say " Bob, can you make me a paper plane like you made for Simon ? "....Aha !

You see, word of mouth, even in Kindergarten, is still the only way. We could have dropped flyers, created advertising and banners, but the only thing that counted for this little fellow, was the fact that Bob made paper planes in English class. Word of mouth it seems is the magic key...

Biggi

Paper planes built both for speed and agility !

Kids, The Fountain Of Truth.

A painter's outfit.

Have you ever painted your own walls ? You know, wielding the roller or paint brush up, down and across your walls. Somehow it always looks easier than it really is.

Didn't we all start our painter's journey as teenagers by putting our stamp of " I am different to you / I am not like you " on one of their bedroom walls. Depending how much we wanted to irritate our parents, the colours would range from plain pink right through to a dark turbulent black !

Of course when we finally took that yearned for first step out of home, painting the walls of our new abode morphed from a rebellious act into one of necessity. Ironic, how we only find what a cushy life we had as kids, once we have to feather our own nest ! Maybe that's why there is this resurgence of " Hotel Mama "...

Anyway, painting walls apart from being jolly backbreaking work, is also extremely messy. It doesn't matter how carefully you place that roller because it is nine times out of ten surrounded by an entourage of a fine mist of paint that views us as its desired destination.

Yesterday, proudly sporting my painter's outfit, I was waiting for Bob to finish a task at the Village office. A bunch of our ' English ' kids bounced passed me. Bounced is the right word, because they were like puppies, hopping from one place to the next and talking excitedly to each other. They waved gaily and greeted me in English, making me feel proud.

The main pup, Maxi, is known for talking almost non-stop and flitting from one topic to another at incredible speed. Yet, all I got from him, was that he was glad school was over, because it was
" boring "...Stupid question, because who of us found school exciting ?

One of the slightly older boys, stood, turned while at the same time taking one look at my outfit. He preceded to raise his eyebrows while having a smile on his face. A smile that meant; ' good grief, what was she thinking ? '

A pair of my old jeans, an old jersey and an over sized pair of Wellies had been designated as my outfit for painting. Secretly I thought that I had achieved a look that said " painter-chic ". Delusional, as it turns out !

Please, please let me not be one of those " Mutton dressed as Lamb types "...The scary things is that once you are, no one has the guts to tell you that you are a Mutton in disguise !!!

It definitely was one of those moments, where you can't wait to explain the ' where / when / how ' of something. In my case it was my outfit. But typically, before I could even say one word, the group of ' pups ' had moved on. From now on, I will most likely be described as the " mad painter "...

Biggi

Children's View Of The Food Pyramid.

Children tell it like it is !

In Tuesday's English Conversation group, we have a future artist. He may be only five now, but he paints like no other five year old. Each time he sits and ponders what he might draw and then proceeds to draw it with ingenuity, determination and talent.

He already has a loyal follower. His best friend ( she too is a wise five year old ) usually tries to copy his themes. It is heart warming to watch how at times he helps her or other times corrects some of her lines. Now and again he paints a picture for me to keep. Naturally, I make him sign it there and then !

Yesterday he chose to draw the food pyramid. You know, the different layers of what is healthy to eat, what should be eaten less often and on the apex the no-no's. Oh yes, it was a strange topic, but I think it was taught this week by the kindergarten teacher. If they had only told me at that age, I might have had less fillings !

While he was drawing it ( with his faithful shadow copying him ), I asked him about the various placement of food items. Straight off he told me with a wagging of his finger, that ice-cream and chips, which he had rightly squeezed onto the top layer, are a ' NO-NO '.

Yet the two of them proceeded to have a heated discussion over where to draw yoghurt in their respective food pyramids ! Eventually they settled on plain yoghurt being the thing to have...Great kids, aren't they ?

Looking at the food pyramid, I noticed that he had drawn a bottle on the middle layer. When I asked him about it, he told me: " This is a bottle of wine ". You must remember, that we live in the midst of a wine growing area, with almost everyone ( including his Dad ) producing wine.

One of the older girls ( seven years old yet wise beyond her years ), had been listening. She quickly leaned over to him and told him that he was wrong. It always amazes me how it seems that they pay no attention, yet they hear everything.

" Wine must be on the bottom layer ". When he asked " why ", he got a great answer from her :
" Grapes are a fruit and fruit must be eaten every day. Silly, wine is made from grapes ! " ...Children tell it like it is !

Biggi

Uno-Great Fun To Play At Any Age !

Uno is a great tool to help teach English as a Second Language.

We have been using the Uno pack almost from the start. A wonderful way to teach colours, numbers and expressions. By now, all the different kids can describe each card they use in minute detail.

We tend to have a democracy of sorts in our lesson and usually the kids tell us what they want to do or play. At times it seems like a reverse dictatorship, as the kids can be rather adamant.

Bob was having an Uno-duel with one of the little girls ( five years old ). At first, Bob kept back all the ' interesting ' cards. You know, plus 4, miss a turn and change direction. He didn't want to upset her by winning...That is until he realized that he was dealing with a professional Uno player !

It was comical to watch. Bob studiously considered his cards, while she multi-tasked and kept on drawing a picture at the same time. When she cunningly kept the plus 4 as her penultimate card, the penny dropped for Bob. Game two. Now Bob wanted several re-matches to assuage his ego. No good, she won every game but one...could she have had pity on Bob ?

In the past, when Bob or anyone else had dealt me an ' interesting ' card, I sort of said " Oh no ! " in a slightly theatrical voice. Well, sitting next to the two of them, I now and again heard the little girl say to Bob; " Oh no " pitch perfect.

As almost an aside ( or stroke of genius ) I have tried to teach them to say ' please ' and
' thank you ' in English. Imagine my pride, when the little girl rushed up to her Gran and asked her if she knew how to say ' please ' and ' thank you ' in English. Before the Gran could answer, she proudly told her the correct words...

Biggi

Our " Little League "....

Our English Second Language lesson for the Toddlers.

Those in the know, nod sagely at our adventure and courage. It's not so easy to impart knowledge to a group of toddlers. Well knowledge is a bit over - exaggerated. We trying to immerse them in an English Speaking environment.

Since January we have started a new group in a neighbouring village. The average age is 3, yet somehow they seem to have formed their own character already. Rather interesting to witness the interaction among them.

Each week a parent brings a different toy of sorts, one that we can interact with in English ( we've had Lego, memo, building blocks and mini tractors ). Naturally it can sometimes get a bit hairy as more often than not, the kids are still learning to share...willingly.

Their is one little star in the group, who goes out of his way to share with the others. Food, sweets and his toys. Too precious.

For us it is not always easy to see if the kids are liking the hour with us or are learning anything. Well, Friday was a great revelation day for us...
One of the mums who has been sick for a few sessions, told me: " You know Biggi, he is getting cross with me because he is missing all those English lessons."..Yippee.

Another Mum, who has two in our group, dropped off her son and he came rushing eagerly up the stairs. But the nicest thing that happened was that she came back 15 min later with her daughter;

" Sorry, she was napping and when she woke up and realized that her brother was at English already, she demanded to be taken to English as well. " Just fabulous for us to get feedback. She is actually a kid that hardly ever speaks and keeps to herself....

Naturally little ones also have other surprises. When they suddenly want to go to the loo...and not for a number one either !

Biggi ( Twitter:@Simplyburgnland )

Children... Mini-Comedians !

Where do they come up with it ?

On Wednesdays, we have English Native Language with the older children ( ages 7 to 11 ) and it is always fun. They understand most things and we can have great interaction with them.

It's not often that they render Bob speechless, but last week they did. I was not feeling well, so Bob was on his own. When he got home after the lesson, I couldn't wait to ask :
" Bob, how was it ? Did anyone miss me ? "
" Not really, except for Maxi, who swaggered up to me, put his hands on his hips and asked :
" Bob, where is your Woman today ? "...

Well, that was it for Bob. He didn't know whether to burst out laughing, or correct him in his phraseology. Bob, I am sure, had instant visions of cave man scenarios. You know the kind where he hauls me over his shoulder, or where I am at home in the kitchen with apron and cooking up a storm.

Incidentally, Maxi is too funny for words. Often he regales us with stories of his adventures
( imaginary of course ), yet all in English. His favourite is a trip to Las Vegas, flying First Class and being driven to the Hotel in a black stretch limo. At times he even tells us what drink he got at the bar..

A great kid with great stories. Bob and I wonder how he comes up with his stories, but as he tells us in English we don't really mind. What a privilege to have these kids for English conversation.

Biggi

Soccer Always Looks So Easy On TV...

My short lived career...

I thought it would be fun and really just a game of backyard-soccer. Bob, a group of five boys who speak English with us, and me. The boys ( aged between 7-12 ) are soccer mad. Well, par for the course. Of course I didn't remember how fanatical and good they are.

We played in a backyard with only one goal. Brazenly I volunteered to man it, thinking it would be easy. Bob did his stage whisper of " don't, they can kick the ball really hard " but I thought, why not. A few of the boys already had a glint in their eye, imagining the ball connecting with me.

Of course Bob then changed tactic and shouted for all and sundry to hear " Boys, careful, Biggi is in the goal so don't hit the ball too hard ! "

He needn't have bothered. My efforts in the goal were worse than bad. Even I saw that, when I failed a few attempts to kick a stationary ball...The boys rather speedily got me out of goal and made me a side-line ref. Oh yes, even more disastrous.

As young as the boys are, they are unbelievably agile, talented and fast with the ball. Naturally they are very clued up on the rules and I kind of put my foot in it ! Every now and then I called out penalty ( it looked like it was and I wanted to be part of the game ) or corner.

Oh dear, that launched a rebuttal worthy of a trial lawyer. In minute detail I was shown the error of my ways. In fact they were almost in tears at my next attempt to keep order...cunningly I told them that they could only argue with me in English.

Eventually and not a minute too soon for the boys, I stopped participating. In the future I will be the one sitting on a chair, a safe distance from the field, just watching !

What was so amazing to me, was seeing these five best friends on the soccer field. They tripped each other up, unnecessarily hit shins and called each other names. But when it was over, they were best friends again in the vain of " one for all and all for one "....Small village living, just fabulous and fun to be a part of !

Biggi

Boys Tend To Be The Same, No Matter What Age.

A sudden ' woohoo ' from the class !

We have a small group of boys ( ages of six to eleven ) who come to us every week for English conversation. For us it is great fun and hopefully for the boys as well.

Naturally at that age a few of the things we do are considered boring and not fun. Especially as we unplug anything computer-like and they are not allowed to bring anything resembling one ! In the beginning it was rather a bitter pill to swallow but they are sort of used to it by now.

Yesterday I was playing Rummy with Sam in the kitchen and the rest were playing Memo with Bob in the lounge. Suddenly I heard the TV. Someone had found the remote and used it. As it was on the CNBC channel and in English, I kind of said to Bob to leave it on if they wanted. Soon they would grow tired of the business News and switch it off.

Oh yes, I could hear the moans of boredom. Well...all of a sudden, there was a collective and extremely loud ' woohoo '. The youngest boy came running through to us in the kitchen, giggling and blushing simultaneously and lent in to whisper in Sam's ear. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.

A further clue was Bob's comment : " Darn, I pressed the wrong button on the remote, help me ! ". All the time, there was great giggling, laughing and surprisingly whispering as well. Sam in his haste to see had thrown his cards on the table and galloped to the lounge. He didn't want to miss a thing !

But Bob had already found the ' off ' button. I think he was more embarrassed then anyone. Our remote for the satellite programs is old and at times the buttons tend to get stuck. It's rather annoying when it takes a while to land on the channel you want. Bob had wanted to get CNN on channel 123 but instead had got channel 1233.

For those of you who take the trouble to surf to such high numbers, it will come as no surprise, that the programs aimed at a more mature audience reside in this range ! These are pay per view and we don't have them connected but they do show a title image if you happen to stumble
across it. Enough to cause a " woohoo "...

Well, I must say, it was a class to be remembered. Certainly Bob and I won't forget it in a hurry. P/s next time the TV will be unplugged at the wall...

Biggi

Chocolate & Quiz...

The perfect combination ?

It did not take long, for Bob to start some kind of Quiz round, here in Burgenland. As his German is not in the league of " Quiz Master " yet, he did the next best thing...an English one !

Of course, the English one is actually for the older group of kids, that we have for English Conversation. The quiz itself is just a round of maybe ten words to translate into English, but Bob organized teams. The duty of scoring the hits and misses came to rest upon my shoulders..neutral like Switzerland ! But the kids like it.

At the moment, there is still the general confusion, as to whose question it was. Sometimes the answer gets shouted out in great excitement with no regard to the team. Great to see that they are getting better and better in English. From my side the work was not so easy. Every point that was scored ( or not ), one of the boys would run over to my side to watch where I put the tick. In fact they had memorized who had what, and were still double checking me.

It is amazing to realize just how clever children are, when they want to be. Bob had introduced chocolate for the winning team. The first few times, I bought the first chocolate that I saw, with no brand loyalty. No complaints yet.

Last week, I discovered Milka bars, with a sticker on it showing the chance to win Euro 1111. Never one to pass up a chance, I bought two. Before the boys arrived, I opened one bar, to see how the competition worked and also whether I had won.( NOT )
When Bob gave the other bar as a prize, I explained to the boys how special this bar of chocolate was. In fact, I made them open the wrapper and showed them where they had to look, in case they had won something...also not !

They seemed excited about this but, I thought, not overly so. Well, was I wrong. Yesterday, when Bob was handing out chocolate ( the shop did not have more of those ) to the various winners, we got a definite feedback.

The general response to getting a prize of chocolate was rather lukewarm. I even had a few questions, " Can you also win Euro 1111 with this ? "
" Where did you buy the other chocolate "
" Can you buy more of the other one ? " This is obviously something that parents the world over know already, and Bob and I just learned. Kids never forget a thing and we had better find some more of these Milka Bars...

Biggi

Amazon U.S.A. World's Best Milka Chocolate - Alpine Milk, 10 Bars

Amazon U.K.Milka Alpine Milk Chocolate Bar 100 g (Pack of 22)

One Sentence Can Make All The Difference !

Learning a new language is not always easy.

As you know, once a week, Bob and I are having English conversation classes with the local children. We don't teach them per say, but just speak with them, and only in English. It sounds deceptively easy... Yet it is not.

Imagine that you had to explain the rules of a new game to your little child, but all in French / Russian / Danish, a language that they do not know or understand ! Of course at the same time, you need to keep their attention focused on a task that they are not quite sure how to do.
One of the important points is that we don't speak any German with the children but the use of mimics and gestures is invaluable at times.

Each week, we do a lot of the same things, with a little new ' bit ' thrown in. We all like to have a feeling of success in our lives, and Bob and I think, that by doing a few games over and over, the children will start to understand and most importantly have a sense of personal achievement, when they do. It would not be nice, if each week we play and speak a whole new lot of English, which they would not understand.

It always amazes me, how intelligent the children are and we never underestimate them ! Just playing a game of Bingo ( Kids version ) with them yesterday, it was great to hear them start to use the odd English word in their conversations. They did not realize that they were doing it... Of course, they are highly amused by their names being pronounced the English way !

Let's get back to the sentence, that started me along this train of thought. As we were finishing off yesterday, I asked the children to help put the cards away. One of the girls turned to me and said, " This sentence I don't understand. "
Wow, I was pleased as punch. She sort of told me, with that little sentence, that she normally understands what I say, but only this time she didn't !

It was a great feedback to get. Like anything else worthwhile, it takes time to do it properly. At the moment, most of the parents will hear a lot of ' Hello, yes, no and various colours ' repeated at home. Don't despair, soon it will progress to, " Mum, please will you buy a toy for me ".

Biggi

Discovering A New Use For Clothes Pegs.

Making a Pizza dough with help from a few kids

Yesterday was rather an action day for us, as we had a bunch of kids over. The order of the day was to only speak English, a sort of English holiday camp. Great stuff for us. Bob and I were pleased as punch to have them and planned different activities to keep them interested for six hours. The ages ranged from young to just pre-teenager.

Anyone who has children, knows that it is not so easy to keep them riveted for such a long time. Especially since we took the computer away and did not use the TV...Yes, quite a feat ! We played a lot outdoors ( I even did a stint as goalie, not realising how hard these guys kick a ball ) but we also played the different board games inside.

For lunch we made a pizza from scratch. I wasn't sure whether any of them would be interested in watching, yet alone helping me. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. They all fought to help out. From kneading the dough, stirring and seasoning the tomato topping to artfully placing the grated cheese on top.

Now this was rather educational for me. Not having children, I did not realize how precise they are in certain things. The cheese for example. Each bit of cheese ( grated Mozzarella has many ) had to be place strategically. Considering there were 7 boys and only 2 girls, I think that the whole Pizza making could be called a success !

Of course I was silly enough to make the dough with the live yeast. The boys bravely volunteered to crumb it in, with the one proviso... they all pleaded with me to give them clothes pegs for their nose ! It was the funniest thing to watch. The boys bravely did their job and afterwards asked me to take the peg off.

Even though they were all involved in the whole process, when it came to eating it a few unfortunately remembered the smell of the yeast. You could hardly taste it, but you know kids...! One win for me was that they all tried it and a few had seconds. It was fantastic to see how they all helped but while they were eating it, I heard a shout of " I rather make a frozen pizza ". Oh well you can't win them all.

When the parents came to collect them, I warned them that a they might hear a moan or two about the kids not being able to use the computer. Just in case we came across as " baddies " for denying access to the computer. There are a lot of things I need to learn...one of the Dads almost did a dance of joy at hearing that his kids did not use a computer all day !

Biggi

The Universe Provides.

In surprising ways.

Moving to our new home also meant starting from scratch again. Exciting yet often also nail biting stuff. As is done in millions of households the world over, we also have our survival worries.

There is a sort of intrinsic belief in me, that things are always going to work out fine. It is a great feeling to have, yet modern life and its ideas kind of make this feeling outdated and silly. But is it really ? You know how calming it is to know that there is always a universal safety-net under you ? It helps you make decisions easier and not to be scared of failure.

Our Village is a very small one, yet it has a lot of young children. The life here is idyllic for them and all those adventures we only read about in " The Famous Five " ( Famous Five Mysteries Collection~Enid Blyton [Hardcover] ), are things these kids can do on a daily basis, if they want. Building forts, climbing trees and just walking over to your best friends house, are everyday occurrences here.

Bob and I of course are English speaking and we now have the opportunity to do " native English " conversation classes. From the Kindergarten kids to the pre-teens. I tell you, what a privilege. We get to speak English and earn an income.

We did a introductory class yesterday. So many kids took part and the most fascinating thing for me was, how eager they all are. Not a cross or angry child in sight. Even the shy ones were trying to listen and speak English. Granted, we did mainly ice-breaking stuff, but it was fun.

I see this as a wonderful opportunity to meet everyone, spend time with the kids, talking ( English ) the hind leg of a donkey and reliving my youth. Doing Nursery Rhymes, painting pictures, reading fables, having ordinary conversations or watching Disney Cartoons.

When I said thank you to the lady who organized it, she floored me. She turned to me and told me, that we are an asset to the community and that she is very grateful that we offer these conversation classes.
The universe provides perfectly. The coin always has two sides. Win win.

Biggi