3

My son (7 years, 2nd grade) is half German and fairly fluent in speaking German, however not so good at writing the language. Since we might move to Germany in the future I would like to teach him to write in German and also any other German specific competences that they might teach in German "Grundschule".

I read through a few "Lehrpläne", but found them rather vague or at least found it difficult to develop a "lesson plan" based on it.

Are there any recommended resources (online, books,...) for this situation or anything I should watch out for?

Improve this question
7
  • 2
    How good are you at speaking and writing in German?
    – PGODULTIMATE
    Nov 12, 2017 at 15:40
  • 1
    Oh, just to make clear, I'm not trying to imply anything. My suggestion relies on your ability in German, so I'm trying to determine if it is useful or not.
    – PGODULTIMATE
    Nov 12, 2017 at 16:05
  • 4
    Have you thought about having him read books? German spelling rules are pretty straightforward compared to, say, English.
    – Stephie
    Nov 12, 2017 at 17:13
  • 1
    What @Stephie said is what I was getting at. However, I think that if you are fluent in German, you could also give questions that your son can answer based off the text and fix the grammar in his responses (this helped me a lot - used my teacher). There are several posts here that talk about great books to read - you should check them out.
    – PGODULTIMATE
    Nov 12, 2017 at 17:22
  • 3
    There is no homeschooling in Germany, so Lehrpläne are only meant for professionals, and they are a rather sparse documentation. BUT there are hundreds of books targeted at children needing additional coaching/private lessons. Which one is best? Don't know. Search for Deutsch Nachhilfe Buch and Grundschule Deutsch.
    – Janka
    Nov 12, 2017 at 19:55

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

There is an excellent two-volume 26cm x 24c German series, "Deutsche Schreibschrift" (2002), by Harald Süß, published by Droemer Knaur GmbH & Co. KG, München.

Volume I, titled "Lesen und Schreibens lernen Lehrbuch" is an 80-page manifestly illustrated text and graphics, with three chapters, "Geschte der deutschen Schreibschrift", "Das Lesen", and "Das Schreiben".

My copy of Volume II, titled "Lesen und Schreiben lernen Übungsbuch" has the specifications and illustrations for Offenbacher and Sütterlin scripts. It is a workbook, with a section of font-lined blank pages that can easily be copied for practical learning how to correctly write the fonts of the two scripts.

I ordered and received both books through Amazon, but could only obtain the "Lehrbook" through the German Amazon [Amazon.DE], and not the "Übungsbuch", which I was able to get through the U.S. Amazon (Amazon.COM).

When I received the hard-cover "Lehrbook" the vendor also included with my order a small, thin, Sütterlin-font pocketbook titled "Max und Moritz", a children's book with many line drawings of the two characters adventure(s).

Because the angle at which the letters of the Offenbacher alphabet have to be written, I use an engineering-class plastic 30-60-90 degree drafting triangle to "prep" slant lines on my copies of the workbook's practice worksheets. It takes a while, but I find its use to be quite worthwhile.

Hopefully my experience with resources for lettering and writing in German will be of help to you and to your son. To me, writing with pen and pencil on paper is much, much, simpler and easier than writing with my finger on a tablet which has no lines to guide me.

Oh yeah ... make sure your son "sits up straight" when he writes. No "slouching" allowed, eh?

Improve this answer
2
  • +1 for the ressource though I think the asker wanted her son to know about correct syntax rather than writing the individual letters correctly. And even if the latter, nowadays they teach the Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift in school.
    – Janka
    Feb 13, 2018 at 21:14
  • @Janka: It's wonderful that schools in your part of the world are still teaching young people how to write in script!!. Indeed, in America (in my part of it anyway) handwriting (script) has not been a part of elementary and middle school education for several years now. Young boys and girls are being taught only how to write using individual characters in block printing. As a result, it is definitely a fact that today many American teenagers and youngsters are not able read anything written by hand in script. In expensive private schools however, script writing is still being taught.
    – К. Келлогг Смиф
    Feb 14, 2018 at 4:06
1

The first thing you need to do is to get a textbook at roughly, or slightly above your son's speaking level. Initially, you will want to make sure that your son can speak all the phrases covered in the textbook.

Hopefully, the textbook will also have a dictionary or glossary in the back for all those words. I would just start at "A" and end with "Z" in teaching your son to spell all the words that he already knows how to speak. Then go back to the book and teach him the grammar associated with these words. Presumably the grammar lessons will be laid out, chapter by chapter.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.