Speaking of trains, J loves the app "Der kleine ICE" from the Deutsche Bundesbahn and has spent many hours over the last year and a half playing it.
Basically you build track connecting cities in Germany, then drive your train from city to city picking up passengers and dropping them off. As you accumulate points, your character gets nicer uniform bits and your trains get faster and more elaborate:
For education purposes, a child can learn a lot about basic German geography. Where the big cities are and the names of the rivers:
I personally have not spent a great deal of time with J on such things; he has learned them from the game, and when in some other context he hears the name of a German city, he will often say that he has "gone there in the ICE game."
For L2 purposes, there is a nice clear voice-over speaking the directions and other little commentaries. For the more advanced child the language part is not terribly rich, but it does work the idiomatic German prepositions for travel von ____ nach ____. After he began playing this game, I noticed a measurable decrease in J's propensity to say von ____ zu _____ when speaking of travel.
Reading: Max Kruse, Urmel aus dem Eis, ch. 23-24; Roger Hargreaves, Mister Sorge.
Listening: Ich weiß was, Albert E. erklärt Musikinstrumente, 0:00-28:30; Otfried Preußler, Die kleine Hexe (Hörspiel), 0:00-48:00
Viewing: Kung Fu Panda, Die Geheimnisse der Meister (22:05); Ratatouille video game (1:30); Lauras Stern, "Kätzchen in Not" (11:26).
Unlike the Kung Fu Panda video game, this video game film doesn't feature the recorded voices of the players, but only in game dialogue, which is however still pretty substantial.
Like many video games, this one is all about accomplishing tasks. So every few minutes I've been walking into the living room and asking variations on the question Was ist der Auftrag, den Remy jetzt erledigen muss? J has been giving good explanations: Er muss an das [sic] blöde Huhn vorbei; Jetzt muss er seiner Familie folgen, er muss über diesen Baumstamm 'rüberspringen und dann den da 'runterrutschen; Siehst du diese Sterne da oben? Er muss da hinauf und die holen; Er muss bei [sic] diesem Hund vorbei. (In subsequent explanations he was getting an + dative vorbei correct). Siehst du diese blauen [sic; he's been nailing this adjective ending pretty consistently for the past several months] Strahlen? Das ist eine andere Ratte.
I've also been using gelingen / misslingen and trying to get him to give me answers in the dative. He does a good bit of the time.
The combination of Lauras Stern being about human children as opposed to animals and, into the bargain, with a girl instead of a boy main character means that this is not among J's favorite videos. But these are also precisely the reasons I obligate him to watch it sometimes. And when he does he usually enjoys it and gets a good bit out of it.
Apps: During his tablet time this afternoon I saw/heard J listening to some bible apps and using the Philipp Buchklub app Schulstart.
Total audio 2015: 8:00
Total video 2015: 8:42
Age 5.3.12
Reading: The Beginner's Bible, 423-472.
Listening: Margot Käßmann, Die Bibel für Kinder, part 2, 28:15-40:27; Karlheinz Koinegg, Moses und die Wüste der Wunder, 18:41-51:14.
Ipad-apps: J has also been using the fantastic children's bible app from the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft quite a bit lately.
J asked why Jesus was crucified. I explained it approximately so: "Die hohen Priester der Juden dachten, dass Jesus König der Juden sein wollte und ihnen die Macht nehmen wollte. Die Römer dachten auch, dass Jesus ihnen die Macht nehmen wollte. Deshalb haben die Priester und die Römer zusammengearbeitet, um Jesus zu verhaften und mit dem Tod zu bestrafen. Die Kreuzigung war die Art und Weise, wie die Römer Verbrecher mit dem Tod bestraften. Wir wissen es nicht genau, aber Jesus wollte diese Art von Macht wahrscheinlich gar nicht. Er wollte nicht über die Menschen herrschen, sowie die Römer das taten. Er wollte, dass die Menschen ihr Leben ändern und einander mehr lieben und dienen."
The Moses Hörspiel was the last thing we listened to this morning. After we got home, J wanted to watch his favorite Moses film, especially the very impressive scenes with the snake staff.
Of course J first had to gather all his snakes so that they could all enjoy it together:
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