Media today 236

Reading: David Macaulay, Das große Mammut-Buch der Technik, 26-27 (grand piano); Roger Hargreaves, Mister Faul, Miss Neugierig.

Media today 235

Reading: Kathryn Lasky, Die Legende der Wächter 2. Die Wanderschaft, loc. 2334-2384/2997 (kindle edition); Roger Hargreaves, Miss Schüchtern.

Media today 234

Reading: Kathryn Lasky, Die Legende der Wächter 2. Die Wanderschaft, loc. 2334-2384/2997 (kindle edition); Roger Hargreaves, Mister Schlampig; several old jokes from Imke Stotz, Sagt Ulf zu Gnulf... : Die 500 besten Kinderwitze.  

Media today 233

Reading: Kathryn Lasky, Die Legende der Wächter 2. Die Wanderschaft, loc. 2256-2334/2997 (kindle edition).

Tonight J wanted me to point to individual words as I read; my wife tells me he has recently started asking her to do this as well. The nice thing about e-books is that you can make the words as big as you wish.

Media today 232

Reading: Kathryn Lasky, Die Legende der Wächter 2. Die Wanderschaft, loc. 1984-2256/2997 (kindle edition); Roger Hargreaves, Mister Dämlich. 

Media today 231

Reading: Kathryn Lasky, Die Legende der Wächter 2. Die Wanderschaft, loc. 1893-1984/2997 (kindle edition).

Media today 230

Reading: Kathryn Lasky, Die Legende der Wächter 2. Die Wanderschaft, loc. 1785-1893/2997 (kindle edition); several old and new jokes from Imke Stotz, Sagt Ulf zu Gnulf... : Die 500 besten Kinderwitze. 

We haven't read in this story in a month. It very seriously drags and J doesn't seem interested. The problem is that the author dwells on the owl lore and the organizational aspects of the owl societies so much that the plot gets lost. The world she builds is cool; the story she tells in it, a yawn. I'm going to make an effort to finish it in short order, just for the sake of completion, and then probably not bother to read the rest of the series.

Media today 229

Viewing: Honeyball Games'n'Stuff. Not a Vampire, "Let's play Minecraft," #006 (16 min.)

2015
Total audio: 53.00 hours
Total video: 82.40 hours
Total narration/description: 4.13 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.21

Media today 228

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 70-75 / 294. Viewing: Honeyball Games'n'Stuff. Not a Vampire, "Let's play Minecraft," #005 (15 min.)

2015
Total audio: 53.00 hours
Total video: 82.24 hours
Total narration/description: 4.13 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.19

Media today 227

Reading: Wikipedia.de, "Ratatöskr"; Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 64-70 / 294. Listening: Katharina Neuschaefer, Nordische Sagen 2: Die Erschaffung der Welten, 59:00 - 1.29; Viewing: Honeyball Games'n'Stuff. Not a Vampire, "Let's play Minecraft," #001 (22 min.), #002 (17 min.), #003 (16 min.), #004 (16 min.).

After listening to Norse mythology this morning, J suggested we draw the Midgard serpent together. In our usual way we looked for a good image and tried to reproduce it. 

The squirrel Ratatosk also came up in the listening. J was very amused at the thought of the squirrel skittering up and down Yggdrasil and communicating Nidhögg's and the eagle's insults to each other. 

The player in the Minecraft videos is a girl, which is a nice change. 

She is very amusing. "Die hat 'nen Vogel!", sagt der J.

2015
Total audio: 53.00 hours
Total video: 82.09 hours
Total narration/description: 4.13 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.19

Media today 226

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 61-64 / 294. 

Along with the story today we looked at images of Heimdall and Bifröst ...

and compared runes to cuneiform...

Media today 225

Reading: Roger Hargreaves, Mister Geburtstag. 

The History of Fat Rabbit World, part 2 / Die Geschichte der Dicken Hasenwelt, Teil 2.

The exciting conclusion to the story of Hit The Target's sneak attack on the capital city of Fat Rabbit World. For the first part, see here.

A: "Was ist dann mit Hit The Target passiert?"

J: "Er hat versucht, vor uns zu fliehen. Wir sind aber heruntergesprungen und sind Hit the Target nachgejagt. Dann haben wir ihn am hintersten Teil seines Netherbrick-Schiffes gestellt. Wir haben ihn dann getötet. 

Danach sind wir in sein Krähennest geklettert und sind auf den flachen Teil seines Segels gelaufen und sind auf den unteren Teil unseres Segels gelandet. Dann haben wir auf unserem Schiff eine große Party gemacht. Das ist das Ende von dieser Geschichte!"

The History of Fat Rabbit World, part 1 / Die Geschichte der Dicken Hasenwelt, Teil 1.

This afternoon J announced to my wife that he wanted to start writing, with my help, the "history" of one of his Minecraft worlds, in German. So tonight instead of bedtime reading we began working on said history. Below is part the first. I edited a little for correctness and prompted at the beginning with questions to get him going, but apart from that the ideas and sentences are all J's. 

Meine Welt heißt Die Dicke Hasenwelt. Warum? Weil sie eben so genannt ist! Und es gibt in der Dicken Hasenwelt eine kleine Stadt. Diese Stadt ist unsere Stadt, aber eines Tages haben wir etwas entdeckt. Der Hit The Target* hat unsere Stadt angegriffen! Wir fanden ihn auf einem großen Netherbrick-Schiff. Der Jamie ist in dem Rumpf geblieben, und hat aus den Löchern Eier geworfen auf das Schiff von Hit The Target. 

Und wir sind in das Krähennest gegangen. 

Und wir sind durch ein Tor in dem Zaun auf das flache Teil des Segels gelaufen. Und wir sind auf dem unteren Teil seines Segels gelandet.

"Papa, das können wir morgen ... um ... um..." "Fortsetzten?" "Ja! Das können wir morgen fortsetzten."

Stay tuned!

*Hit the Target is a character (a baddie) from the Minecraft videos of the famous Stampy, of whom J is a huge fan. 

Media today 224

Reading: David Macaulay, Das große Mammut-Buch der Technik, 131-133 (aqualung, toilet tank). Listening: Katharina Neuschaefer, Nordische Sagen 2: Die Erschaffung der Welten, 44:00 - 59:00; Kennst du den schon? Witze von Kindern live erzählt (about 4 min.). 

2015
Total audio: 52.30 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 4.13 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.14

gelt?

Since my formative L2-immersive experiences were in Austria and Baden-Württemberg, I developed the habit of saying gelt? (actually, gell?) in place of nicht or nicht wahr? I used to have more of a southern German accent generally, which I've long since shed almost entirely, but gelt has stuck somehow.   

Yesterday I heard J finish a sentence with gell? for the first time. I'll have to make sure to also use nicht/nicht wahr more often. ;) 

Media today 223

Reading: Ernst H. Gombrich, Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser, loc. 561-618/4180 (kindle edition). Listening: Karl Olsberg, Würfelwelt, 0 - 14:00; Katharina Neuschaefer, Nordische Sagen 2: Die Erschaffung der Welten, 16:00-44:00.
Description/narration: 20 min. 

Jamie did enjoy the Minecraft novel and even wanted to hear the part at the end of the chapter with the zombie & creeper attack. Now that he's started World of Warcraft and gotten through a few battles and deaths, he might already be over getting scared by a few Minecraft monsters.

In the Gombrich we encountered a description of cuneiform (Keilschrift), so we looked at some images. 

  
2015
Total audio: 52.11 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 4.13 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.13

Media today 222

Reading: Roger Hargreaves, Miss Grusel, Mister Groß, Mister Krach. Description/narration: 25 min. 

This is from yesterday. About 10 minutes of the description/narration was not about Minecraft, but World of Warcraft. J has occasionally been watching us play for a couple of years. Yesterday my wife (who plays more than I do at this point) helped him make a character (an elf warrior) and they started exploring Azeroth (no quests yet). I took over about 10 minutes in Darnassus. 

2015
Total audio: 51.31 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 3.53 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.13

Media today 221

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 55-61 / 294. Description/narration (Minecraft): 25 min. 

So today I actually logged into Minecraft and played 20 minutes or so with J. He was very excited and enjoyed explaining to me how to do everything.

The Norse mythology reading tonight was the story of how Odin lost his eye at Mimir's well. J was very interested in this story, and he's also very keen on knowing where the different "worlds" are in the Norse cosmos. 

And the great thing about mythology is that one can always find a lot of images to accompany the reading. Here are some of the ones we looked at tonight:

2015
Total audio: 51.31 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 3.28 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.07

Media today 220

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 51-55/294; Roger Hargreaves, Miss Sonnenschein. 

Media today 219

Reading: http://de.drachenzahmen-leicht-gemacht.wikia.com, "Der Wahnsinniger Zipper" (Hideous Zipplebacks); Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 45-51/294.

This section in the Norse myths contained the creation of the first humans, Ask and Embla. We did a bit of comparative mythology: "Erinnerst du dich, woraus Gott in der Bibel die ersten Menschen schuf?" "Aus Erde." "Und wie war es in der griechischen Mythologie—woraus schuf sie Prometheus?" "Auch aus Erde, denke ich." "Und hier in der nordischen Mythologie?" "Aus Baumstämme!" [sic; dative plural noun ending still hit or miss]. 

Then we looked at some images of Ask and Embla:

Media today 218

Reading: http://de.drachenzahmen-leicht-gemacht.wikia.com, "Kotz und Würg" and "Ohnezahn"; Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 38-45/294.

We've just watched How to Tame your Dragon, which Jamie loved (though he found the second movie very hard going towards the end). I never let a movie or story pass without researching what's available in German on the the main characters, so I came across this nice wiki. J loves Toothless / Ohnezahn of course, but also really likes the two-headed Hideous Zippleback, Belch and Barf/Kotz und Würg. 

The section in Norse mythology we read this evening includes the origins of Yggdrasil the world-tree and Odin's ravens Hugin and Munin, so we paused in our reading to look at images.

Media today 217

Reading: Karl Olsberg, Würfelwelt; M. E. Martin,  Minecreft Comics: Die Legende des Herobrine; Roger Hargreaves, Miss Prinzessin; A. A. Milne, Pu der Bär. Gesamtausgabe, 174-175. Listening: Ich weiß was, Albert E. erklärt unsere Nahrung (0 - 25:00). Description/narration (Minecraft): 25 min. 

The Olsberg story, one of the recent spate of "Minecraft novels," is pretty cool, I must say. Very snappily written. J loved the stream-of-consciousness description of how it feels to be a normal human who wakes up in the cubic world of Minecraft. He did get a little freaked when the zombies started attacking and the first chapter came to an end on a cliffhanger, and wanted to stop there. One of the reviewers remarked that this story isn't very appropriate for little people. So I think we'll revisit it later. A couple of these novels have also been produced as audiobooks, so I think I'll buy this one as audiobook as well and play at least the first part for J, before the zombies come.  
In the meantime, the Minecraft comics are about J's intensity level. This is our second by this author. 

I don't quite understand how these comics are put together, though. They start with a comic story, then there's a longer, independent and purely written tale, then the comic story picks up at the end. Only the comic story is worth reading. It has typos and a few linguistic glitches, but seems to be human-translated, and by a person who knows the German language. As a story goes, it moves along snappily with decent dialogue and action. The written story, on the other hand, is either machine translated or by a total incompetent. It's a complete waste of time. 

I hope some other, more capable authors/illustrators produce some better Minecraft literary fare. 

2015
Total audio: 51.31 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 3.03 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.07

Literary-critical Sunday school 15

Reading: Monika und Udo Tworuschka, Die Weltreligionen Kindern erklärt, loc. 773-793 (Islam)/2119. Listening: Die Bibel, 57:00 - 1.11 (Genesis 14-18). 

(This is from yesterday). 

It was a nice fortuity that our readings about Islam coincided with the biblical story of Hagar and Ishmael; I mentioned to J that these figures are very important for Muslims and their view of sacred history. We also discussed circumcision when it came up in Gen. 17.

2015
Total audio: 51.06 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 2.38 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.06

Media today 216

Reading: David Macaulay, Das große Mammut-Buch der Technik, 129-130 (hydraulics, vacuum cleaners). Description-narration/Minecraft: 11 Min.

In addition to the above 11 minutes, I'm going to add one hour to description/narration from the Minecraft session yesterday, since the boys chatted nonstop for about that time, very conservatively estimated. 

2015
Total audio: 50.53 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 2.38 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.06

Media today 215

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 30-38/294; Roger Hargreaves, Miss Vielfraß, Miss Geburtstag. Listening: Katharina Neuschaefer, Nordische Sagen 2: Die Erschaffung der Welten, 0-16:00.

I'm not sure why the above audiobook is part two in the series, since it begins with the creation of the worlds (part one deals with Odin) and it's where Neuschaefer's book begins. 

2015
Total audio: 51.09 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 1.27 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.04

Bastelplausch 2 (Minecraft-Bauplausch)

J and his friend D from the Spielgruppe got together for Minecraft today. Here are a couple of videos from that.

Media today 214

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 20-30; Roger Hargreaves, Miss Hokuspokus. Viewing: Let's play Kung Fu Panda, episode 9 (16 min.)

This is from yesterday.

2015
Total audio: 50.53 hours
Total video: 80.58 hours
Total narration/description: 1.27 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.04

Media today 213

Reading: Katharina Neuschaefer, Die nordischen Sagen, 14-20; Roger Hargreaves, Mister Glücklich; David Macaulay, Das große Mammut-Buch der Technik, 127-128 (hydraulics). Viewing: Two Let's play Kung Fu Panda videos (40 min.). Description-narration/Minecraft: 11 Min.

J has recently begun to point it out rather gleefully whenever I make a mistake reading. Tonight during the Norse mythology he said: "Papa, du hast 'auf die Riese' gesagt statt 'auf die Reise!' Ha ha ha!"   

2015
Total audio: 50.53 hours
Total video: 80.42 hours
Total narration/description: 1.27 hours (category added 8.25.2015) 
Age 5.11.01