American Flag Football

What do Germans do when presented with an American Football and a brief explanation of the rules? Well, they play American Football. And pretty darn well, I must admit.

Spencer and I hosted a Fathers-n-Sons American Flag Football day for the boys in Spencer's class back in February. We called the Fathers-n-Sons Superbowl. It was a great day. Five fathers with their sons came for the event. We played one game of football (Giants were victorious) and then ate some breakfast (everyone brought something to share). And then we played another game (Patriots won). We played according to international flag football rules, which are well thought out and simplified some of the rules and made it easier for us to explain. The rules were also available in German, which helped me not have to translate everything.

It was a great day for football. I have only seen a few days with such great weather here in Düsseldorf, and that Saturday in February, was one of them. It was typical Fall football weather. Cool weather, warmed slightly by the sun. Beautiful.

The games turned out beautifully as well. And, it was a great day for Spencer. He played quarterback much of the time and was able to lead and direct the team very nicely. We talked about some of the highlights in our podcast. Enjoy:

Meet our Bilingual Kids - Shantal

Here is a brief introduction to two of our bilingual children (started in September, 2007, and finally got this one posted).

It is enjoyable to see the children experiment with, learn, and ultimately master a new language. At the time of these podcasts our children had been living in Germany for almost a year now. They are both in the 3rd grade and have recently been asked to put their bilingual language skills to work: Shantal (see below) helps teach English in school & Spencer is translating into German at church.

At parents night Shantal's teacher explained that she has a new teaching assistant in English this year - Shantal. Children in Germany begin learning English in 3rd grade. When the teacher asks Shantal, Shantal speaks English to the kids asking them simple questions, such as "what color is this?" while holding up a card with a color on it. The children answer in English. Shantal also described her experiences in her own words in Episode 16 of our Shantal's first Living in Germany podcast.

Meet our Bilingual Kids - Spencer

Here is a brief introduction to two of our bilingual children (started in September, 2007, and finally got this one posted).

It is enjoyable to see the children experiment with, learn, and ultimately master a new language. At the time of these podcasts our children had been living in Germany for almost a year now. They are both in the 3rd grade and have recently been asked to put their bilingual language skills to work: Shantal helps teach English in school & Spencer (see below) is translating into German at church.

Spencer came to me at church one Sunday in September and said: "translating into German. That's easy!" I am one of the translators at church (mostly from German into English). After Spencer watched me translate one week we spoke about translating a bit. I told Spencer that it is easy to translate into English, but hard to translate into German (my foreign language, and the second language of our children). Here's how he explained it in his own words in Episode 17 of our Spencer's first Living in Germany podcast.

Kids First Podcasts

Had to split the post into two, one for each child:
Shantal
Spencer

Nice & Warm in Düsseldorf

I was in Düsseldorf [Elevation: 38 m (125 ft)] today and thought to myself. Wow, we are having some nice spring weather. How nice to have spring on the way. I went back to Ratingen [Elevation: 50 m (164 ft)] for my 2nd appointment of the morning and thought to myself; feels like spring will be here soon, but it's not quite here. It was noticeably different.

This is something that I've noticed quite often over the last 18 months as I travel from Ratingen to Düsseldorf to work, but I am still amazed at how different the weather is here in Ratingen compared to Düsseldorf. It's just about 10 miles (16 km) away and 40-70* feet (12-21 m) higher in elevation and yet such a drastic change.

*Where we live is a bit higher in elevation than the Ratingen city center. I estimate that we sit about 30 feet higher than Ratingen-Mitte.