Media today 11

Today is my day of the week with J alone. From seven in the morning until seven I night, except for his half-hour piano lesson and an afternoon video, I talk German with him virtually non-stop, until my voice is hoarse and my brain is fried. This has been our routine for nearly three years now. We will be able to do it for eight more months, then J enters kindergarten and things will change. I'm worried that it will be for the worse with regard to L2, so I want to get as much into his brain while the gettin' is good. My hope is that I can build his German up high enough on a wide and dense enough base with deep enough roots that it can thereafter be sustained and further cultivated with the less time and effort I will perforce be able to invest. 

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This morning as we puttered around the house I played various St. Martin songs and stories from YouTube in order to reinforce what we did yesterday. 

We read about toilets and refrigerators in Technik bei uns zu Hause, one of the awesome Wieso - Weshalb - Warum series. 

After we worked through this diagram (third or fourth time in as many months), J insisted on taking the piggies into the bathroom and taking the top off the the toilet tank so he could point out and explain how everything worked. 

Then we watched two of his favorite Sachgeschichten (stories about how things work) from Sendung mit der Maus, on rocket and jet engines. We have probably watched these two a dozen times over the past six months or so. 

After that, we read Otfried Preußler, Der kleine Wassermann, ch. 11-12. 

In the car, after we caught up on Der kleine Wassermann (Hörspiel, part 5, 51:00-1:02:04), we started Die Geschichte des Fliegens, 0:00-13:00 (second listening). At 12:00 there is a sweet spot where Albert talks about what goes into balloons so that they will rise. Apparently, what does not go into them is ketchup (five reps and crazy laughs). I must say, in terms of the child-mind this series kennt seinen Pappenheimer.

We took a long walk at the Botanical Gradens and talked about everything under the sun. Concerning raccoons J noted: "Wenn ein Waschbär etwas alleine nicht fertig bringt, dann holt er noch ein paar andere 'ran" ("When one raccoon can't do something by himself, he goes and gets a couple others").  

This afternoon J watched Der kleine Eisbär im großen Hafen (26 mins). He must have seen this two dozen times already, but it has been several months since the last time.  

Age 4.12.17