Thanks, @wendyroo. This is not one I’d heard of before. Do your kids in the 7-10 age range use this? What do your kids like about it? Computer-based is not a show-stopper, and I like the idea of getting them speaking. That’s something that neither French for Children nor Duolingo do all that well (I’ve heard some people get a speaking component to Duo but I’ve never been able to get it to work).

I’m looking for suggestions for intro French materials that could be used for a Gr. 2 and Gr. 5 student together, if possible. I have used Whistlefritz but I’d like something with more direct instruction than that. I’ve also used CAP’s French for Children A and B with my 13 year old, but found the videos way too long, and too grammar-heavy for my two younger kids at this point. Duolingo has only been moderately successful for these two, with other languages, though it worked well for my oldest for a while. I’d rather it not be all on the computer. Anything that’s worked well for you?

I like cabbage anyway but this is the best cabbage! I also looked for new root veg and cabbage recipes from German (as well as Polish and Russian cookbooks) when we had a CSA veg box that sent a cabbage weekly all winter. They know how to work with those vegetables.

Good luck with this project, hope you have fun making them!

The ones we have are metal like this, but without holes. I haven’t tried the one with holes or ceramic.

I’m sure it is, and the ones I’ve made were very tasty, just not the same. This could just be how I’ve made out with them. If you try this, don’t spray the glass. My partner broke the oven door glass this way.

Botanically, isn’t eggplant a fruit? Then it would not count.

I like most veggies a lot, but I can’t really get on with fennel. It’s the liquorice flavour. Roasted, it’s possible to eat it, but hard to enjoy. I wish I liked it because it looks so interesting.

Yes, but the taste and texture do not match bakery baguettes. It is difficult to get them formed up really nicely. Letting them rise for a longer time (3 hours by my recipe) than typical yeast bread helps the taste. A baguette pan helps them keep their shape better than a flat pan. I wouldn’t say they are harder than other yeast breads, but they may look a bit funny. At least when I make them!

My sister uses the word niblings to refer to my kids, and I’ve always thought it was cute. I hadn’t heard of piblings, but it could catch on in my family too…maybe shortened to pibs….Auncle sounds too much like Uncle to be a distinct term to me. ETA: I don’t think Pibling/Pib would sound quite right as a title, though, more as a description. I don’t think I’d call someone Pib Alexis at this point. I do like the idea of a gender-neutral term, though.

Where we live, we’re currently between waves (had one this Spring) so this is our calm period. I’m not sure when the next wave will come, maybe October? We have a small population in my region so it doesn’t take more than 10-15 cases a day for it to blow up to a high rate per 100,000. This means there is little warning time, since we can go from background stable levels to a problem in a week. Maybe it’s like that everywhere? Exponential growth is kind of counterintuitive. Our health officials are very cautious, and the residents are pretty supportive of that in the urban areas, less so rurally because they think it just won’t get there. We’ll lock down again when it comes, but right now we need this time as our breather to go do things with people (mostly outside) for our ongoing mental health. Masks are still mandated here for inside activities and people are mostly going along with that. I’m actually not sure why people are so laid-back about masking, etc. here when some others in other places (in the same country) are really upset. I guess the people who live here tend to be risk averse. And a high proportion of seniors.

That’s so disappointing. It feels like some jurisdictions are just giving up. I know of one where quarantine if you have covid is no longer required, and they are also stopping testing except for medical care decisions. So no one will even know if they need to take extra precautions, for the most part. I’m sorry you have to deal with very unhelpful health officials and inconsiderate neighbours!

Maybe this is discussed upthread, but I’m trying to change over my thinking from short-term emergency to long-term adapting. With measures like you mentioned for the similar groups with kids that I’m involved with. This issue is going to be with us for a while, and since health officials here will do a partial lockdown as soon as there are more than a handful of cases, there won’t be more than a few days’ notice. So I’m trying to have a sort of accordion-style flexibility to everything— expand when circumstances allow, contract when we need to.

Could you set yourself a threshold number of cases per day for your area? If exceeded, it’ll likely happen clearly.

I find this quite horrifying that people who know they have Delta aren’t masking. I didn’t realize how lucky we are here. Everyone, nearly, would be masking in the halls nearby. It’s a puzzle to me how very different expectations are in different areas. Some expect an immediate reaction by government to a rise in cases, and some don’t want the government to test so that no one even knows how many people have it, along with no restrictions at all. We just finished a read aloud of The Long Winter. The Ingalls family were so lucky to survive! The girls were pretty shy around non-family members.

It sounds like you are coaching them how to enjoy it, I like that idea. Thanks!

Thanks for explaining more about this, I see what you mean much better now. I don’t think you muddled it, I just understood you a different way. I think my kids, as German learners, do benefit from hearing and figuring out meaning from German sentences that they don’t understand every single word of, and this may be related to how you read 19th century English and modern German. I’m interested in your kids’ experience with Wind in the Willows. I read this with my then 10 year old for the first time a few years ago, but maybe my younger kids would enjoy this now too (currently 7 and 10). Thanks for the idea!

They might have an advantage in terms of patience with words they are unfamiliar with, or some vocabulary, depending on how well they know German, but I don’t really think they will find the sentence structure is similar, because German has its own rhythm. My partner was telling me that it takes a really good translator to make German writing work in English translation because they are so different structurally. In any case, though, they are getting lots of good exposure, and that is bound to make it easier for them.

I find this quite encouraging, because my daughter is just starting AOPS Pre-algebra, though she is also not clearly a future mathematician. What she loves the most is writing, maybe like @nickh’s daughter. We haven’t done Singapore, so I can’t compare them, but she does like the course so far (from the book, taught by my partner), and she said that it would be good for another kids who liked to figure out for themselves how math works. To me, applied math usually has units and you’re using it to solve a particular situation, like word problems or physical-world problems. Theory is abstract, instead, but I don’t think you can apply math without understanding it well, and a good way of developing that understanding is applying it, so I think the two strengthen each other, or should, anyway. I can only imagine that Singapore has a ton of word problems etc., to be seen as applied math.

It may be genuinely hard for her to work in the way you want her to, especially for math. It does sound to me like there could well be something else going on (executive function skills, maybe something more) besides just reluctance to do work. Maybe it’s confidence, maybe concepts in math. For me, I think it would work better to not let myself think in terms of if she was deserving or not, but to work on establishing a very predictable routine with regard to the schoolwork and the extracurricular things, and to be very consistent but neutral/calm when sticking to that routine. This would help me to take my emotions out of it, though it sounds very frustrating.

Does she think that she is avoiding work? Is she aware of it and does she agree that that is what is happening? At her age (9 or 10?) she could be getting to the point of some awareness of this. Also, does it turn up in all subjects or some much more than others?

She absolutely loved Tom Kitten, too. For a long time she always wanted me to tell her my own Tom Kitten stories. He got an extra brother (Skarloey from Thomas the Tank Engine original set, which is also a good read aloud if you can find it), a best friend, and all sorts of random adventures.

Second the recommendation for anything by Arnold Lobel! Tomie de Paola has some nice books too, for that age range.

I know what you mean about “Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail…” My oldest loved The Rolly-Polly Pudding and Pigling Bland, so we read those a lot. In the same general style is Jill Barkley’s beautifully illustrated Brambly Hedge stories about mice, which you all might enjoy. Someone noted that Wind in the Willows is easier than Peter Pan but I found it harder in terms of style and vocabulary, and I think both are books for older children. Pippi might appeal to all your kids. Helme Heine’s Mullewapp stories that I mentioned above are also about animals and are fairly short and nicely illustrated (German).

Beatrix Potter & Winnie the Pooh are reasonably long stories. If your kids will listen to a whole one, they are going for a long time! I read a lot of Beatrix Potter to my oldest. What German books does your family like? Have you tried Mullewapp stories? Snöfried is also fun, but probably more for the 7 year old. I do a separate story time with my oldest so that I can read more complex stories with her than my younger two would enjoy. They are 13, 9 and 7 now, but we’ve always done read aloud and your 3 are doing great!