The website that Hausunterricht linked to is good. We've used their CAT test several times over the years. The parent assessment that they have would probably be perfect for your ds. Don't know if it's CVA approved though....

ChriisySC- Those vintage texts are fantastic! Thanks for pointing those out. I really like the look of the American Drawing Book.

I've had some similar experiences with my ds's friends and it's actually a peeve of mine. I was raised that if you are invited for a meal you eat what is offered and be grateful so I guess barring any allergies or dietary restrictions those are the expectations I have of my kids and their friends. My older ds had a friend over once and I made spaghetti: noodles, sauce and meatballs. To me that seems like a pretty kid friendly meal. Ds's friend took a heaping portion and then only ate a few bites. This is a 13 year old boy! About an hour later the boy came to me and was hungry and wanted me to make him a cheese sandwich. I asked him what type of cheese and he said "cheddar". So I got out the bread and cheese to make his sandwich and he looks at me and says, "Don't you have white cheddar? I only eat white cheddar". I offered him fruit which he also turned down. The only thing he would eat that I offered him was ice cream. He has not been invited back. There are other reasons behind that but I have to admit the pickiness played a big role.

Thanks for the replies. I do have a copy of Drawing with Children but, like abbeyej, it seems difficult to implement for me. I guess I need something that is more open and go. I'll check out those other suggstions.

My 10 year old ds has requested drawing lessons this year. He already draws quite well but wants to improve. On his own, he has already figured out some perspective and shadowing. Can anyone recommend a good book for us to use?

I like it. When we lived in Germany I had a very good friend named Ursula.

I love this idea!

As It Is In Heaven (Swedish) Hawaii, Oslo (Norwegian) Adam's Apples (Danish) After the Wedding (Danish) Head On (German)

Got mine. :001_smile: Sometimes if you wait too long they run out, that happened to me one year.

Some favorites of my kids at that age have been: Duplo Wooden blocks Wooden train set Soft balls with different size boxes to throw into Chalkboard Maybe not for a 1.5 year old but closer to 2: safety scissors and paper

What are your goals for your group? Maybe people don't know enough about what Friends of the Library does and they need to be educated. This website has a lot of good ideas for starting your group: http://www.ala.org Good luck!

Our favorite Lucia book is "Annika's Secret Wish" by Beverly Lewis. It is not about St Lucia herself but a beautiful story that takes place on St Lucia Day. My two boys who are 12 and 10 still love this book. This year I also bought "Lucia, Saint of Light" by Katherine Bolger Hyde. I haven't read it to the children yet but it looks good and the illustrations are lovely. Most of our St Nicholas books are in German. There is a beautifully illustrated one by Ida Bohatta that you might be able to find in English. We've also enjoyed "A Gift from St Nicholas" by Carol Kismaric and "The Miracle of St Nicholas" by Gloria Whelan.

We do this every year and my kids love it. I don't buy all the books though. We have a few standard favorites and then the rest are from the library. We celebrate Advent so we do some Advent books as well as Christmas books. We also do a St Nicholas book on Dec. 6 and St Lucia on Dec. 13. Instead of books we do a Christmas dvd on Fridays.

I thought these looked cool and they're free. Also, for any bilinguals out there they also support foreign characters (or at least the ones I tried å ä ö ü ß etc.) Lakeshore Learning Handwriting Practice Sheets

In Germany it's pronounced new-tella. Mmm love that stuff but I haven't bought it in the U.S. in years as when it first came out they made it with peanuts instead of hazelnuts. Is that still the case?

We've gone a few times when we lived in Germany. What sort of tips are you looking for? We stayed once in the Hotel New York and once in Hotel Sequoia both of which are Disney properties. We also just did a day trip once from Paris. There is rail service right to the park so getting there is quite convenient if you don't want to drive. We liked staying on Disney property rather than Marne la Vallee as it was more convenient with our kids who were fairly young at the time. Of course it is more expensive but there are usually fairly good packages to be had especially during the off season. Anyway it is very much like any other Disney property and I guess most of the same tips would apply- less crowded on the off season etc. We went once in October and enjoyed seeing the park decorated for Halloween. Another time was in early March and it was still cold enough that they had an outdoor ice rink set up outside the Hotel New York. That was fun for the kids. Also if you buy popcorn from the concessions in the park it will be sweet. Europeans usually sugar their popcorn instead of salt it.

:iagree: My thoughts exactly.

That sounds lovely! I am jealous too.

My parents live across the street from us. They both still work so I don't see them often during the week. My dad usually comes over for coffee on his days off and he helps with small repairs and mowing our lawn since my dh is gone alot. Overall we have a good relationship and I like living so close to them. People do assume that we have "free babysitting" though which is not true at all- my parents rarely watch the kids.

Several yards? They live across the street. :001_smile:

Was an exchange student in Germany and then spent a year there after graduation working and traveling. Came back to the U.S. but spent almost every summer over there. Married German dh and moved to Germany in 1996. Moved back to the U.S. at the end of 2005 and have been here ever since. Would like to live in Europe again at some point, probably after the kids are finished with school though.

The Swedes have put a good portion of their church records online. It does cost to access them (much cheaper than actually going there though) and you'd need to know where they are from but I've had great luck tracing my Swedes back to the 1700s.

Germans usually refer to The Netherlands as Holland too. We used to live not so far from the Dutch border and everyone would say they were driving over to "Holland" rather than "die Niederlande".

:iagree: We dropped by this evening and I was expecting some serious discounts too. 10% is hardly a discount but there were still people snatching things up. :confused: Older ds wanted some books on Ancient Egypt but they are all at least 30% cheaper on Amazon.

I speak fluent German. Listening to Dutch drives me batty because it is similar enough to the dialect that I am familiar with that it shares some vocabulary and intonation that I feel like I should understand everything but I only understand bits and pieces.