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TracyFD
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In June, I will be traveling with my eldest daughter to Europe with a Suzuki program! (  )
We have begun to check out some books, travel guides, and DVDs from the library about the places we will be seeing, and I am wondering if there are some literary selections that would fit well with our preparation, such as reading Hans Brinker before visiting the Netherlands. I would be reading to children in grades 4, 5, and 7. I'd like them all to learn along with us, even though just the two of us are going.
Here are some locations and famous people/places on our itinerary:
Frankfurt - Goethe, Schopenhauer, Anne Frank, Clara Schumann, Rothschild (Diary of Anne Frank is a possibility)
Rothenburg
Prague - Old Town Square, Moldau (we will be listening to Smetana'a work), Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge, Dvorak, Infant of Prague. Also Sts. Vitus, Nicholas, and Wenceslas.
Cesky Krumlov
Salzburg - Danube, Old Town, Mozart, Von Trapps (we have read The Story of the Von Trapps), Nonnberg Abbey
Salzkammergut, Bad Durnburg Salt Mine, King's Lake
Neuschwanstein - Mad King Ludwig, Wagner
Munich - Marienplatz, Carl Maria von Weber, Ricard Strauss
Recommendations for child-friendly websites with plenty of photos would most welcome too!
What do you think? How would you prepare if you were not planning to cover medieval/renaissance until next academic year?
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Tracy
Mom to 3 girly girls,
1 absent-minded professor, and one adorable toddling terrorist.
Pinewood Castle
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: Jan 09 2013 at 9:23pm | IP Logged
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Music/composer related books:
Opal Wheeler Great Musician Series
DVD:
Strauss: The King of Three Quarter Time
Munich:
This Is Munich
Lottie and Lisa
Neuschwanstein:
13 Buildings Children Should Know
Prague:
Kafka
Frankfurt:
The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily
Mr. Goethe's Garden
Also, check out the Goethe Institut, there are several ones in the U.S., I linked to the one in New York, but you can find the other ones on their website.
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Eva
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MaryM
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Great recommendations, Eva.
So that is where Parent Trap came from!
What about some Grimm's fairy tales to commemorate the 200th anniversary that just passed - especially the really German ones, like Hansel and Gretel.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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pmeilaen
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MaryM wrote:
Great recommendations, Eva.
So that is where Parent Trap came from!
What about some Grimm's fairy tales to commemorate the 200th anniversary that just passed - especially the really German ones, like Hansel and Gretel. |
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Yes, that's where it came from. The original book is very entertaining to read.
I also thought of Grimm, but then I thought that that was probably for younger children, up to grade 3, I would say. But you never know, sometimes older children enjoy them as well.
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Eva
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pmeilaen
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There are also many books about Germany during the Second World War, but I wasn't quite sure if that is what you were looking for. Dachau is close to Munich, the siblings Scholl lived and died in Munich, but I don't know if you expose your children to that, Tracy, at grade 7, so I didn't mention any of those.
Do you by any chance read German? I have lots of recommendations if you do  !
p.s. I wish I could come along, haven't been back to my country for more than five years now! I do miss all my relatives, friends, and sights. Too bad that flights are so expensive.
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Eva
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pmeilaen
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Another book to help with operas would be Music Stories for Boys and Girls.
To get into the "Germanic" spirit of Wagner, you could also read D'Aulaires Norse Myths and books like Benjamin's Ring, or take a look at Yesterday's Classics, they also cover the Norse sagas and have books about Siegfried. Or try Stories from Wagner.
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Eva
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TracyFD
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Great titles! I am sending ILL requests tonight. I did take one year of German in college, so not enough to be able to read books. Wish you could come along too! It's expensive enough for our family to travel from MN to OK, so I can't imagine budgeting for a whole family to fly to Germany.
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Tracy
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guitarnan
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Eva, you are a treasure. I totally forgot about Lottie and Lisa!
Tracy, we were in Germany, Liechtenstein and Italy last spring, and some of the things we did I could count toward DD's ancient history. The medieval and Renaissance sights from that trip, I've held out for this year's review, since she is studying the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (For example. St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums, the Spanish Steps...all in Rome...)
Just make a list of all the things you see and do (food, too, and Sunday Mass, and cultural things like strolling in public parks and trying to figure out how the language works) and plug those experiences in whenever you need them in your transcript. You were there, you did these things, and your daughter remembers them. That's what's important.
If you can, have your daughter take photos, keep a journal, collect brochures, make sketches or do some other daily (brief) activity that will connect her with this new, bizarre universe. When we hosted our wonderful French exchange student, she processed her experiences by writing in her journal and creating vocab lists to expand her knowledge of English. Her fellow exchange student took photos, drew cartoons and wrote captions for them to chronicle his experiences (and, hilariously, drew cartoons, let us look at them and forgot we could read French...LOL!). Young people process their life experiences in many different ways. Neither of my children enjoys writing journal entries, although they love to write. They prefer photos, drawings, souvenir collections, etc. If possible, find a way to give your daughter the pens, paper, camera, etc. she needs to record this life-changing trip.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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pmeilaen
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TracyFD wrote:
Great titles! I am sending ILL requests tonight. I did take one year of German in college, so not enough to be able to read books. Wish you could come along too! It's expensive enough for our family to travel from MN to OK, so I can't imagine budgeting for a whole family to fly to Germany.
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Have fun reading! Just the flight already is quite expensive. Once you are there, you also need to get around. Renting a car for many people is not easy and public transportation over long distances for many people is also expensive. So I have to be content with talking on the phone. 
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Eva
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pmeilaen
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guitarnan wrote:
Eva, you are a treasure. I totally forgot about Lottie and Lisa!
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Thanks! There is also a very charming old movie, but it's not on YouTube. I can read Kästner again and again and again. I get never tired of his books.
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Eva
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4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: Books before traveling to Europe
