Blog 6 from Alejandra

Today – a bit about how I’ve seen children growing up here. As I’ve told you, my sister had my two beautiful nieces in Germany. I’ve come to learn that Germany is a great country to raise children, not only because it’s a very safe country, not only because as parents you are given lots of time to spend with your newborn (Elternzeit and Mutterschutz), and the government gives you money for having children here. But also I’ve seen how the children interact with the world and this type of stuff is in German books and in German tv shows! For me to have come to this country, I am learning the names for toys related to Spielplatz (Playground), which are mostly of sand, for example shovels and tractors. And these things are also embodied into books!

Even the snails that come out when it rains (which I’ve seen so many) are in these books. And with TV shows, there’s one that my niece adores. It is called Bobo (Bobo Siebenschläfer). For example, there is one where he goes to buy Eis (ice cream) with his mother. And he starts ordering if he wants one or two Kugels (scoops), if he wants it on Becher or Waffel (cup or waffle).

I swear I was taking notes of this because I’ve been in this position so many times, I want to buy ice cream, especially in this hot weather! There is also another book about a child that is being picked up by his mother from the Kindergarten.

This one is called Alex abgeholt.

They go over the process: the child greets his mom, she has to go put on shoes, pick up her things, and then probably go to a Spielplatz close to the Kindergarten. For me, it was amazing to see all of these books and tv shows literally showing what children do in a day to day. I think they grow up more sure of what they are doing, and in the end, they are more confident and more happy. I hadn’t seen these types of books neither in Mexico nor USA.

Talk to you soon! – Alejandra