All parents who have registered and been accepted for the 2010/11 school year should have received a "Welcome" e-mail message from the school administration (news@germansaturdayschoolboston.org) on 9/8/2010. If you haven't, please let us know immediately, so we can update our e-mail distribution list. E-mail is our most important channel of communication!

It's this time of the year again: The Boylston Schul-Verein (BSV), our parent organization, is putting on the largest Oktoberfest of its kind in our region this Saturday and Sunday, September 11 + 12. Here are the details as seen on the Club's web site (you can now also follow the BSV on Facebook under "Boylston Schul-Verein):
 

Labor Day weekend has passed - a sure sign that summer is almost over, and that German Saturday School is about to start! Preparations for the new school year have already been under way for a couple of weeks:
 
Acceptance packages went out at the beginning of August to those who registered for the new school year and were accepted. Please review the package carefully. It included:

• your child/ren's assigned classes/teachers/classrooms
• your parent job assignment (if you opted to into our parent job program)
• the 2010/11 school calendar 
• the 2010 Handbook for Parents and Students (our Handbook is a comprehensive resource for a lot of questions you may have about our school policies and general information, so even if you have been with us for a couple of years, take another peek!)
• information on schedules for the first two days of school, September 11 (library open house, class visits from 12.10pm onwards) and September 18 (orientation/welcome for all new and returning in the auditorium)
• a parking permit for the parking lot at 808 Commonwealth Avenue - please display in your car on your first visit on Saturday!
• invitation to our Parent Social / Kneipenabend on September 24 at 7.30pm at the Boylston Schul-Verein

 
If you haven't received a package in the mail, please let us know immediately, so we can resend the information. You should also have received an e-mail from your assigned teacher and will soon receive a school-wide e-mail with more detailed information. 
 
We are looking forward to welcoming our new and returning families to the 2010/11 school year!

We thank everyone for their understanding that we may not use the street-level floor including the lobby at the CGS building (871 Commonwealth Ave.) on Saturdays when school's in session. We understand that many parents like to gather with other parents, meet new ones or "network".  We have a few suggestions on where to go:
 
Panera Bread Café

Remember the ZfA essay contest? It's been a while - and because of some budget and timing issues, the coordinators of the contest were not able to pull all the results together by the end of our school year. So here they are now - and some of our school's writer-winners (Mia Schuettler (9), Ina Beinborn (10), Andrew Ressler (10), David Rubin (10), Felice Liang (13) and Stefan Schmitz (14) made it with their essay/contribution into a great essay compilation / Textsammlung that's posted on the Web site of the "German Schools Abroad" - take a look - it's a worthwhile read.  Thank you to all our students who participated and contributed with their own ideas.  

We are posting a list of summer language programs that are local. If you know of one and would like us to include it in our list, please e-mail us: 

The soccer World Cup is approaching, and there's nothing better than watching with people who understand the game, the excitement & the pain - and may also be cheering for your country! There are several opportunities to watch the World Cup with a German edge: The Goethe-Institut will be broadcasting live all games of the German Team — as long as they are still in the tournament! The First Round Games take place Sunday, June 13; Friday, June 18; and Wednesday, June 23.

We'll shortly have a more comprehensive list of 2010 German language summer programs and camps (take a look at last year's list), but here's a new program that came across our desk and that sounds just wonderful: a music festival combined with German language classes at the "Birklehof" in Hinterzarten, a beautiful resort village in Germany's Black Forest. This program, scheduled for July 21 through August 2, 2010, should appeal to anyone with a love for music and any level of German which will be taught by native speakers. To learn more about this new program or the Interharmony Festival, click here. Hurry up - I believe sign up is requested by April 1, 2010. 

Our end-of-school-year celebration/Abschlussfeier couldn't have been better! The program was entertaining, the crowd was large and the weather was perfect! Thank you to all who came to Walpole and to our parent event team who organized the festivities. We are lucky to have the Boylston Schul-Verein and their wonderful property to celebrate our all-family event in such joyful manner.

We received this note about An International Fair with some German flair: 
 
1st Annual International Fair at Bay Farm Montessori Academy
Performances, Arts, Crafts, Games & Food from around the World
Sunday, June 6th, 2010
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
A FREE Family Event
 
Bay Farm Montessori Academy invites families to embark on a tour of international flavor and artis tic beauty. 40 artisans from around the world will offer demonstrations, multicultural crafts, hands-on activities and games for all ages, plus performances of music, dance and storytelling.  Dunja Pechstein will be offering sample Musikgarten classes in German at the Fair.
 
COME STIMULATE YOUR SENSES!
Taste a variety of international cuisine.
See colorful costumes, traditions and dancing from different countries.
Hear the languages of the world.
Feel the rhythms of other cultures.
Touch games, arts and crafts of multicultural inspiration. At the International Fair, children of all ages can “travel the world” collecting stamps for a passport by visiting booths and learning about different countries.  Please join us as we bring the world to Duxbury for a day.  For more information, visit www.bfarm.org.
 
Bay Farm Campus at 145 Loring Street, Duxbury, MA.  Click for directions.