Berchtesgadener Land

Last Saturday we travelled to Berchtesgadener Land, the gorgeous little southeast corner of Germany (it's actually very close to Salzburg, Austria). We got lucky and were invited to go with some good friends--which meant we got travel by car! It seems like such a luxury to us here. :)

We started out by hiking up the Almbachklamm, a very cool gorge, and then we continued our hike up a forested mountain. It was a much steeper climb up the mountain than we had expected, so I was very grateful that once we hit the top we found one of the perks of Alpine hiking--an Alm! Mountain pastures here often have small restaurants for weary travellers and whether it was due to flavor or exhaustion, I had the most delicious potato soup of my life at this one.

After we finished our hike, we drove (!) over to the Koenigssee, a mountain-lined lake that is the most famous sight in Berchtesgaden--and with very good reason, as you'll see in the pictures. We took a boat ride from one end of the lake to another.

I would love to go back spend more time at this beautiful place! It's days like this that remind me how cool it is to live in Europe (as opposed to the rainy days when I have to walk a half-mile in the rain with two kids to get to the grocery store...).

Here are the pictures! There's lots.

A view of the town of Berchtesgaden. The Koenigssee is in the valley at the far back left of the picture. The cool mountain is called Watzmann (and it's what our street is named for!)

Hiking up the Almbachklamm. I discovered later that the pictures we took on our hike were done with my camera's "food" setting, so the backgrounds are not as sharp as they should be. Sorry!

Owen hiked quite a bit on his own--we were impressed.

Sam and me.

Not the greatest picture, but hopefully you make out a cute sleeping Sam and a big waterfall in the background.

Near the end of the hike up the mountain, David ended up carrying both kids...good thing I married an endurance athlete! :)

At the end of our uphill climb, we were greeted by this picturesque 18th-century church. I promptly collapsed on the grass in front of it.

Getting much-needed sustenance at the restaurant/Biergarten next to the church.

A view from the top of our climb.

A look in the other direction. I am nearly certain that this mountain is the Untersberg, the mountain Maria Von Trapp sings on in The Sound of Music.

Another scenic family picture from the top.

Owen hiking down the mountain.

The Koenigssee, taken near the beginning of our boat ride.

Owen loved riding on the boat.

Sam enjoyed it, too.

You can see the extremely picturesque Sankt Bartolomae church along the shore.

Looking the other direction, you can see the mountain where Hitler had his mountain retreat, the Eagle's Nest. We could see it clearly from our boat.

Sam and David enjoying the ride.

Sam wanted a closer look.

Owen and his friend Lotte. You can see Owen turning a crank to open/shut the window. Owen was convinced this was actually what powered the boat and he spent quite a bit of time cranking it, telling us how fast he was making the boat go, and occasionally calling out, "I'm going to catch those scurvy pirates!" (which is a Backyardigans reference).

A closer look at the church. It was built in the 18th-century, but a church has been at this site since the 12th-century.

Looking back at the church as we continued down the lake.

At the other end of the lake, we left the boat to take some pictures for a while.

While Owen and Lotte hung out on the big rock, Sam chatted with his pal Pepe.

Another family picture!

Letter B

Here's what we did for B week!


Pre-Literacy

As with A, we talked about what big and little B look like and the sound the letter makes. Owen practiced writing the letter on paper and in his dry-erase notebook.

Owen decorated big B with puff balls, and for little B, I drew a beehive on white paper and let Owen color it yellow (he only wanted to color part of it). Then, he made yellow thumbprints all over the paper. Once they dried, I transformed the thumbprints into bees.



There are a lot of great B books. Some of the books we read were:

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Where Is Bear? by Leslea Newman

Books we WOULD have read if we were in the U.S. include:

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
Beautiful Bananas by Elizabeth Laird
Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
Ginger Bear by Mini Grey


Arts and Crafts

Inspired by Laura, we painted in different shades of blue (Owen wasn't too interested; he had a lot more fun once I opened up the other colors to him!).

We made this bat puppet, originally found on DLTK-Kids.com.

We made butterflies by "footpainting" the wings. At first, Owen wasn't keen on me painting his foot, but once he saw me do it for myself he was all for it. (Source: Project Balancing Act)

Cooking

There's all sorts of great foods to make that start with B. We made banana bread, blueberry muffins, and blueberry pancakes.


Fun and Games

--We played a family classic--Beanie Baby Basketball--where we threw beanie babies into a bin (thanks, Grandma S., for all the Beanie Babies!). We also played Beanie Baby Hide-and-Seek, where we hide beanie babies all over a room and then the other person finds them.

--We played animal and numbers Bingo games, made for us by Grandma S.


Music

Some of the songs in our music times included The Wheels on the Bus, Baby Bumblebee, and the nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep (next time around, I want to make felt pieces for this rhyme so we can do some counting activities with it).


Physical Activities/Outings

We saw the bird show at the zoo and went for a bike ride.

Science and Nature/Numbers and Math

We did a bean bag toss with the number bean (actually rice) bags I made thanks to this site. I would say the number and Owen had to locate it and toss it into the bin (as you can see, penguin and panda bear wanted to watch).

We also tried playing "Before," where I would say a number and Owen would try to think of the number than comes right before it. It helped when I wrote out the numbers in order for him as a cheat sheet.


Other

Some of the items Owen located in our treasure hunt were: balls, bananas, bathing suit, bus, boots, blocks, brush, and bread (see more in the I Spy picture below). The treat at the end of the hunt was Gummi Bears.

Letter A

We kicked off our alphabet project with letter A, which happily is what "alphabet" itself begins with. Unhappily, it has quite a few sounds. I told Owen about short A, long A, and the "A" sound in words like "awesome," but we focused mostly on words using short A. Here's what we did:


Pre-Literacy

We reviewed what big and little A look like as well as the sounds A makes. Owen colored a printout with big and little A and practiced tracing the letters in his dry-erase marker notebook:



We decorated big A with fingerprint ants (and then talked about the three different parts of an ant's/insect's body):



Some of the books we read were:

*How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
*Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett (I like it better than Owen--I think he'll enjoy it more in a year or two)
*Animals, Animals by Eric Carle
*Animalia by Graeme Base
Animal Strike at the Zoo by Karma Wilson
The Ant and the Grasshopper (the fable--there's lots of picture book versions)
Alphabet Adventure by Audrey Wood

(asterisks=favorites)


Arts and Crafts

We took advantage of the abundance of apple art projects out there:





Top Left: We each made a fingerprint apple tree.

Top Right: We made prints of apples by cutting them into halves, dipping them in paint, and stamping them onto paper. Next time, I'll try a tip I saw on Make and Takes and put a craft stick into the apples halves to serve as a handle when we dip and stamp. It was pretty difficult for Owen to pull them out of the paint pools.

Bottom: I cut out the trunk and leaves of a tree for Owen to color. He glued them onto paper, and then counted out red puff balls to glue on as apples (idea originally found here)


Cooking

Inspired by How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, we made an apple pie and took it (and vanilla ice cream) to David's work to share with him and his co-workers. I used a recipe for the filling from here and a recipe for the pie crust from here.




Fun and Games

--We played a old family classic, the Animal Game, where we took turns pretending to be animals while the other person guessed what the animal was.

--We played Animal Mix-Up Legos, found on the blog "I Can Teach My Child" via Pinterest.


Music

We sang The Ants Go Marching and marched around the apartment with musical instruments. And we recited this fingerplay (next time around, I will make felt apples to use with it):

Way up high in the apple tree, (look up high)
Two little apples smiled at me. (shake hands in fists)
I shook that tree as hard as I could-- (pretend to shake the tree)
Down came the apples! (raise your fists and then drop them)
Mmm, they were good. (take a pretend bite and then rub tummy)

Physical Activities/Outings

We visited the airport (to see David come home from a trip to the U.S.) and MEANT to visit the aquarium, but had to reschedule due to sickness (and a pregnant wife with an absent husband).


Science and Nature/Numbers and Math

We used a little abacus to practice counting and do (very) simple math.


Other

Some of our treasure hunt items were: airplane, animal crackers, apple, avocado, alphabet puzzle piece, and abacus. The treat was an Aero chocolate bar (in the U.S., it probably would have been an Almond Joy).

Alphabet Project Explained

I was first inspired to do an alphabet project by my friends Jess and Laura, both of whom blogged about doing one with their own children (see links). Since then, I've discovered many other blogs and websites that offer ideas for alphabet-related activities. Owen already knows the alphabet letters, so for me this project is an opportunity to focus on the sounds the letters make and to introduce Owen to the ways that letters/sounds are used in words. Also, it gives me a way to focus our activities (there's so much out there to choose from!) and, most importantly, it's just meant to help us have fun together.

I'll make separate posts for each letter, but here's a rough outline of how we do our alphabet project. Each week (or so), we focus on a different letter in various ways:

Pre-Literacy Activities
To begin each week, I give Owen a printout that has the big and little versions of the new letter (usually from here). He colors it as little or as much as he wants (usually it's the former). Throughout the week, we look at the letter, talk about the sound(s) it makes, and mention a few words that begin with it. I also have a notebook with printouts of the letters in sheet protectors. Owen traces the letters (or scribbles over them, depending on his mood) with kid-size dry-erase markers. This whole process takes no more than 5 minutes or so and we don't always do the letter tracing.

We also do small art projects involving the actual letter that we hang above Owen's desk. For instance, for B, we glued a big "B" on a piece of paper and Owen decorated it with puff balls. I try to do this for both the big and the little versions of each letter. When possible, the style of decorating the letter matches the letter theme.

Finally, we try to read books that feature our letter prominently. This is a bit difficult for us as our selection of English-language picture books here in Germany isn't too big, but we do what we can and I dream of the books I'd use if I were back home. :)

Arts and Crafts
We do art projects whose theme matches our letter of the week. I'm trying to include projects that focus more on the process than on the product, but there will definitely be product-oriented activities, too.

Cooking
We try to bake/cook at least one thing that starts with our letter. Owen loves to help me in the kitchen, especially if chocolate chips are involved.

Fun and Games
Self-explanatory--whatever fun activities I discover/brainstorm that start with or prominently use the letter of the week.

Physical Activities/Outings
This usually means some sort of trip to something that starts with our letter. I feel spoiled here in Munich--there's lots to do! With the arrival of newborn baby Sam, my desire/ability to venture out has been somewhat dampened.

Music and Fingerplays
Part of our music time includes songs that start with or prominently use the letter of the week.

Science and Nature/Numbers and Math
As the wife of a physicist, I feel especially obligated not to focus exclusively on the humanities side of things! :) If I can think of a science/math activity that starts with our letter, I try to include it.

Other
At the end of the week, Owen goes on a treasure hunt to collect items around the house that start with the letter of the week. At the end of the treasure hunt, he gets a treat that features (usually starts with) our letter. I assemble all the collected items as well as some others into a collage and take a picture of them. At the end of the alphabet project, I want to make a homemade I Spy book with them. I'm also hoping to make an alphabet book that features pictures from our activities each week.

(I should add that while we do try to do lots of activities involving our letter of the week, I don't ONLY do things involving our letter and I also try to keep Owen exposed to the other letters, too.)

Why the Blog

As Owen is getting older, we're becoming more and more involved in learning activities. Since I've been borrowing so many ideas from friends (and strangers) who've been kind enough to share their ideas/activities/projects via blogs, I thought I ought to return the favor. While I'm at it, I'll also occasionally post about craft projects, books, and recipes in hopes that someone out there is interested in hearing about them, too!