MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Fido is My Best Friend

At school I teach with the Helen Doron Method several days a week.  My classes are at a large range of different levels but one particular class is in MEFAC (More English for all Children).  In the 4^th book there is a song called Fido is My Best Friend. 

With the Helen Doron Method every word and phrase is taught before the song can be sung.  Much like the Suzuki method of learning music children hear to a CD two times a day and then come to class once a week for an hour.  The theory is that they will recognize and be able to pronounce all of the English words and in class we put meaning to the words that they have been hearing.

This method starts teaching children as young as 6 months old and continues until they are teenagers.  In this class, my students are 7 and 8 years old and have been using this method for several years.  Something I forgot to mention is with this method each child also gets a sticker at the end of each lesson to put in there “passport” saying they were present.  This might not sound like a big deal to you but believe me it is a HUGE deal to these kids!

On the first week with this class everything went smoothly until sticker time.  I let each child pick what sticker they wanted and one boy chose one with a dog.  As soon as I put it in his passport he began to sob.  I was unsure of what had just happened so I tried to comfort him with no success and so I sent him to his dad.  Later his dad told me that their dog had just died the day before.  I felt horrible but what was I going to do? I didn’t know and he had chosen his own sticker.

The next week this boy didn’t come to class.   Oh no, I thought I must have scared him away.  But he returned the following week.  Well that is just when we got to this song, which as you can infer from the title is about Fido, who happens to be a dog, and how he is this little boys best friend. 

We not wanting a repeat incident of two weeks prior I taught all the vocabulary using cats and other things as to not bring the dog in. Then when all the vocabulary had been taught there was nothing left to do with this song but sing it, I informed the dad that the following class we would be singing this song at the very beginning and if he didn’t think his son could handle it they could just be 5 minutes late. 

So that is what happened.  Usually with these songs you sing them for several weeks and they have a choreographed dance but I decided once was enough for this one.  We then a few weekends ago we had more Helen Doron Training and prior to training we are given a topic to present and what topic did I get … none other than Fido the dog!!!  It was so ironic and I couldn’t help but laugh.  What are they chances really there are so many topics as I was planning for the training I couldn’t even believe that I would be teaching about Fido. 

Advent Chain

As to add a bit of joy to our everyday life I decided to make an Advent Chain to count down the days until Christmas.  Every day in December until Christmas we will be cutting one loop off of the chain and doing what it recommends.  I was so excited!!! Most of them we accomplished on or near the day it recommended.  Here is a bit of what we did. 

Thanks for the music Jenna! 

Coal Heating

In Poland most people heat their homes with coal, YES COAL!  We were surprised as well.  Prior to winter people purchase several tons of coal and then shovel it into their coal room.  People have coal burners in their basement and then each morning they start up the coal fire (which I hear is difficult) and several times a day add more coal to the fire. 

We got to see the process in Ilona’s basement.  Her family has a fancy coal burner so they only need to add coal once every few days but they still need to stir it several times to keep it going.  Thank you Sebastian Wolan for showing us how it all works.  He even took a picture of us with in front of the coal!       

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving in Poland

We decided that it would be necessary for us to host a Thanksgiving in Poland for several reasons.  One we didn’t want to not celebrate Thanksgiving.  Two we could share the holiday with others and three we had an excuse to cook a nice meal and invite people over. 

Then Menu went as follows:

Grandpa’s (Mel Mueller) Chicken

Grandma’s (Carol Nelson) Stuffing

Dad’s (Mark Clark) Sweet Potatoes

Mom’s (Karen Clark) Steamed Broccoli

Cherry Jello from The Christenson’s

Mom’s (Anne Nelson) Apple Pie

Grandma’s (Bert Plachecki) Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thank you to all of those who contributed to our meal including, supplies and recipes!

I think that people had a nice time and we had a lot of fun planning and getting everything ready.  Kayla even made placemats to add a bit more festivity.  We had good intentions of playing paper football to bring that element of Thanksgiving as well, we even made a bracket but we ran out of time.

Ilona’s Birthday Party

Recently it was Ilona’s birthday here in Poland.  She had a princess party and had a castle cake and mermaid sandwiches.  We helped her get the mermaid sandwiches ready and got to meet lots of her friends!  It was a really fun night.

Apple Pie

So it took some time to find all of the ingredients for apple pie.  Nutmeg and a pie pan were difficult to come by here!  But we finally gathered it all.  We were so excited.  We were sure it would be the best apple pie ever together with Kayla’s Mom’s filling and Gram’s piecrust.  Mom, I didn't even overwork the crust this time! 

And I do have to say it turned out pretty amazing for our first pie!  Then a few weeks later we made another one and we are planning on making yet another one to take to work on Thanksgiving!  

And with the extra dough we of course had to bake it with cinnamon and sugar

Translation

We were at a toy store when we were visiting Karkow last time.  And this is what I saw in the doll section.  It isn’t a bunk bed. It’s a 2 floor bed!!  HAHAHA

Sushi

Something I had been missing about home and camp was Sushi and even more than that good seaweed salad.  MMMMM I love that stuff.  There is a Sushi restaurant in the mall so we decided to check it out.  Naturally I had really high hopes and though it was pretty good I still miss home's.  

P.S. I don't know if Mom or Karen noticed that the I <3 lists paper us under the Sushi.  We actually use it a lot especially for grocery shopping.  So though I don't usually love lists this has been great and lists written by me aren't as bad! 

Here is Another Quiz for Everyone

We are teaching English here in Poland and to help us in our mission we often use flash cards.  Usually we can just look at the front and know what it is.  But this one I had no clue.  So to all those native English speakers give this a go.  What is your best guess, then scroll down to see the reverse side and see if you are correct.  GOOD LUCK!

Really it is a ghost train and this is apparently very important for my students who are very beginner English learners.  All this time you thought you could speak English but I bet you didn't guess ghost train.  If you did WOW I'm impressed.

Halloween

So I know it is now nearly half way through November but I wanted to share about Halloween anyways.  Better late then never I guess. 

On Halloween we had Trick or Treaters!!! In Poland where they don’t celebrate Halloween at all!  I was pretty excited.  If you also read Kayla’s blog you may recognize these boys as the ones that come around on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and collect garbage for 1 zloty.

The boys painted there faces and had a Jack o’ Lantern.  They didn’t turn on the hallway light so it was dark when we opened the door.  They know that we are from The United States so we think that they only came to our door this way to see if it would work!  IT DID.

We gave them each some candy and that was it.  We had three Trick or Treaters, which was three more than I thought we would have.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for sending this fun Jack O' Lantern Rice Krispies Treats kit.  They were fun to make a few days before Halloween and Ilona was so excited about them too!

Day Three

On day three we headed to Vysehrad right away in the morning.  It was defiantly off the main tourist path.  I saw very few other people with cameras as we headed into the New Town part of Prague.  Vysehrad is called “a cliff top fortress” by Lonely Planet (We Believe that Lonely Planet publishes the best guidebooks).  It was a hike to the top but there were some pretty cool views!  You can look our in all directions from some point of the hill. 

In the middle is the Church of SS Peter and Paul and an old cemetery. 

 Then we walked back to Old Town along the Vltava River.  On our way there we stumbled upon a charming farmers market.  Many locals were purchasing their fresh produce for the week and it seemed to be the norm to carry a wicker basket to put everything in.  Several children also had smaller baskets.  At this market they had apple cider so of course we had to try some.  Much to my surprise it was maroon, but still tasted like apple cider.  It was just the thing to warm us up on a chilly day.

Then we went to find The Lennon Wall.  It was started in 1980s as a tribute to him after his death.  In 1988 the wall was an irritation for the communist regime.  Young adults and teens would write on the wall about love, peace, happiness and grievances they had suffered.  This caused disputes with the security police on and nearby the Charles Bridge.  The movement these students followed was called “Lennonism”  They whitewashed it regularly but could never keep it clean long so eventually gave up.

 Today the wall is owned by the Knights of Malta who allow the graffiti to continue on this wall.  The wall is continually undergoing changes and the original portrait of John Lennon has long been lost under layers of new paint.

As we left the Lennon Wall we walked by the canal and came across the official Lovers Locks.  There were tons of locks but as we looked closer we could not find any that were very old so we speculate that they cut them off from time to time.  Then a group of couples came by and put some locks on.  I hope they were in love because otherwise I think they are screwed! 

 We then went back to the markets where we had Trdelnik and the potato chips on the first day, we tried Trdelnik one or two other places and determined this was the best one, and had a few last Czech treats before it was time to go.

 Then we saw this street performance.  This way by far they best one we had seen in Prague.  I mean they guy playing the kazoo and that other girl with a recorder were something I guess … NOT.  But this was incredible!

And that wrapped up our long weekend in Prague!