Annett’s blog

Sumiko told about her biking and “pottering” experiences in one of her post. I gave a comment on this post an explanation how I bike with two kids. When they are younger, I had a trailer on my bike and they could sit in this trailer. This year, they were both too heavy to drag. In addition our house lies on a little hill and even without trailer, it is very tough to bike at home. Now, also the younger daughter is able to bike without helping rails. Therefore we plan another solution. We will buy a clutch for the children bikes. That means the kids will have their own bikes which we can attach on our bikes if the path is very steep or the traffic is dangerous.

Here are some photos that you can image our trailer and the new solution with the clutch.

The bike trailer I can also use without bike such as skating or hiking.

Yesterday, I baked the first Christmas cookies with my kids. I thought, it would be better than the last year, but it was an error. They would do a lot of things by themselves and my kitchen was a battle field. In addition, they ate a lot of dough. Nevertheless, they had a lot of fun.

Otherwise, I do not feel the coming Christmas time. The weather is too warm for this season, today we have 14 degrees. Nevertheless, the shopping malls are already decorated. I always try to start preparing for Christmas early, on order to avoid stress the last days before Christmas.

Yesterday, in our discussion group we spoke about this topic. It was interesting to hear about the different traditions in the countries. Also the Christmas times and celebrations are different.

Here can you find some more information.

In German (I grow up in Germany), we have three typical Christmas days. The first day is December 24. On this day the most people only work a half day, because in the evening, Santa Claus (German: Weihnachtsmann) or the Christ child is coming to deliver gifts for the kids. December 25 and 26 are public holidays. Often we use this time to visit relatives and friends. In the week between Christmas and New Year some companies are closed. On December 31 the most people also works the half day and in the evening we expect the New Year. Often we have a party with family members or friends. January 1 is a public holiday.

Yesterday morning, my husband and I have decided to go skating with our kids and friends in the ice hall. It was the first time after 25 years for me and my husband. At that time we were very good skater. Therefore, we thought we can unlearn skating like biking. Ok, we are a little older … ;-)

We rent ice skater for us and the kids. The kids were very excitedly, and to be honest, we too. We risk the first steps. My husband had a good feeling immediately, but I had to coordinate my steps. After a while, we both could skate well again. Frankly, my husband was better like I. I have to train more the next time to improve my skating.

Also the kids had a lot of fun. The first time on the ice was not easy for them. They got little wood sledges in order to get a hold. After a half hour, they could do some steps without these sledges, the older daughter a little better than the younger daughter. Sometime we took them on your hands in our middle and dragged them.

Today I had some time for my English learning because my daughters were at playgroup and school.

I have

• posted some suggestions for improvement into the forum
  
• figured out some things in VOX
  
• written the little post before
• posted some comments.

Not every day I will have so much time. Writing is still very time consuming for me, but I hope I could express my thoughts good enough.

I have been a housewife for four years, ever since I became a mother for the first time.

At that time, I could not imagine that I could stay at home all the time.

Before, I worked very much. (too much!) I loved my job, my career and the contact with other people. Therefore, our two sweet daughters were not planned. 

Today I say they were the best things that could ever happen to me. Really, it is wonderful to watch my kids grow up and to have the time to enjoy it.

As mentioned, today I enjoy my job as a housewife and family manager :-). At first, it was not easy with a one-year-old and a newborn. I had no time for myself and the nights were very short because the younger daughter was often crying. Today they are ages 3 and 4. We do a lot of things together and they also play together themselves, so I have more time for myself again.

I think in my next post I will write more about our girls.

To be honest, I also have a third best thing, my husband!

I am a Linguist member since November 2005. In the last year and even before I have tried different methods and software programs in order to improve my English skills. Today, after one year, I can say the Linguist is the best method for me.
 
I did not learn English at school. My fist English experiences I acquired on a correspondence course 9 years ago. Internet courses were not available at that time. After this course, I did not have the time to practice again as I spend too much time at my job. Then I had my two children, and once again I had no time.

Now my daughters are older and I have more time for me. As my husband works for an international company, we often have English-speaking guests. Once again I realized I have to learn more English if I want to participate in discussions. In addition, we plan to travel to English speaking countries.

I tried to take part in an English course at an English school during the afternoon. I could not attend regularly because sometimes I did not have a babysitter, or one of the kids was sick.

After this unsatisfactory result, I tried to learn with CD courses on the computer. It was necessary to sit in front of the computer and the content was often boring and stupid.

I searched for English learning programs on the Internet. I found different programs and I tested some of them. Most of them used the same learning methods as the programs on CD or DVD. Some were not available; there only were announcements.

Some important advantages for me on TheLinguist are:

• I can train all English learning skills: Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking,
• I can learn with content what is of interest to me. I can use different sources.
• I can save new words and phrases in an easy way
• I can review regularly my new words and phrases
• I can decide how much time I invest in English learning (sometimes also a disadvantage because nobody makes pressure … ;-))
• The writing section is very good. The correction is excellent. (On other courses before I had bad experiences)
• The teachers are very friendly, cooperative and very personal.
• I receive answers on questions very fast.

Sure, I also have some suggestions for improvements. I will post them the next days into the linguist forum. Most of all, I miss the possibility to review my words and phrases on my PDA. I use such a program, but I am not able to synchronize the data between both systems. Maybe in one of the next versions the TheLingust will offer such a possibility.

I have decided to write my own blog in order to improve my English writing skills. First I did not want to write on a blog because I asked me: Who reads the whole stuff? After reading some posts from other Linguist members I discover some interesting contents related to English learning in their blogs. In addition, it was of interest to me to find out more about the Linguist members and her life in other countries. I hope I can work with VOX well and can find interesting exchange with other peoples on this way .