The registration date for the next school year (2012/13) has not been set yet. However, we do expect to open registration by Mid-March for current families and families on the waiting list. New families will be able to register some time in April. We will post exact dates as soon as we have all details available. Current families and families on the waiting list will also be informed via e-mail.

It's sure easy to stay up-to-date on news from Germany, Austria and Switzerland these days online - a click to your favorite overseas Web site and you feel like home. However, not all of that information is relevant to us who live abroad. There are quite a few resources that are especially informative if you are interested in issues such as Germany's relationship to other countries, German-American relations and information relevant to the German speaking community living in the United States. Here is a brief compilation of online and print publications. Many of the publications also have a Facebook feature that allows for a continuuous or daily news feed. Here's a list we have compiled for you: 

As in years past, we are collecting opportunities for students all ages to learn or improve their German skills over the summer - whether within the United States or abroad. If you know of any summer camps with a German language focus, please share them with us and we will update our list as move closer to the summer.

GLSC Summer 2012 Homestay Program in Germany for students ages 12 to 16

For the first time we are announcing a yearbook front and back cover contest. All students at our school are invited and encouraged to participate! Here are the details:

With February vacation upon us, kids like to turn to the television to pass free time. In our house, where cable is not available, computer screen time is an extremely sought after commodity. And these days, where pretty much anything on TV can also be streamed on the computer, access to the screen needs to be managed. But my kids also know that I have soft spot for most things that are in German. It's educational, right, and fosters more German listening comprehension skills? I usually give in quickly. In my defense: there are quite a few shows that clearly are educational on many levels, in addition to being aired in German. ZDF's children's programming is available on www.tivi.de - and is our major resource for German television. There are really smart educational shows for download (with many episodes archived), such as the long-running "Löwenzahn" for the younger kids, or my kids' favorite these days: "Pur +". All are teaching about the world around us with real people and things, and not in cartoon fashion. Another good one, geared a little older than Pur+, is "Wissen macht Ah!". Yes, my kids also long for the entertainment stuff and have been fans of the Pfefferkörner Bande in Hamburg. If you have other suggestions, we welcome them at news@germansaturdayschoolboston.org so we can share them with you.

With the first "real" snow on its way tomorrow morning, Saturday, January 21, drive carefully to school! The current forecast suggests that most of the snow will be falling during the morning and afternoon hours. Take some extra time and caution to get to school and don't hurry home! Just in case, if the weather should get worse, here's a reminder of our school's snow cancellation policy.

You know December is looming, when invitations for Christmas cheer and crafts are coming in! Here's a selection of wonderful events with a "Deutsche Weihnachten" feeling in the Boston area. Check what might be right for your family:

• Sunday, November 20, 2011, 12-5pm: Christkindlmarkt at the Boylston Schul-Verein. Stroll the vendor stands for Christmas ornaments and crafts, enjoy Glühwein and other seasonal refreshments and snacks. Click here for the flyer.
• Saturday, December 3, noon to 5pm: Christkindlmarkt at German International School Boston. Invitation only event! Please RSVP to jessica.allen@gisbos.org with the # of people attending. Please bring a copy of the invitation with you to the event.
• Sunday, December 4, 3pm: Wiener Sängerknaben/Vienna Boys' Choir, Holiday Concert at NEC's Jordan Hall: "Since 1498, the angelic voices of the Vienna Boys Choir have been charming and moving audiences. Theirs is a ringing sound of timeless purity, the sound of a great choral tradition passed down through the ages with care". You can preview their Boston program by downloading a PDF from here.
• Sunday, December 4, 4pm: Advent Worship Service held in German, First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street (corner of Berkeley and Marlborough Street). The church was founded in the 1830’s by a group of German Christians who had settled in Boston and is now known as the First Lutheran Church of Boston. A reception with German baked goods will follow the German worship service. Contact Simona Retter for more information.
  
• Tuesday, December 6 and 13th, 4:30-5.15pm: Weihnachtsgeschichten & Lieder/Christmas stories and carols. If you have a favorite Christmas story, please bring it to share.  At First Church in Belmont, 404 Concord Avenue, Belmont. This event is free; a contribution towards the rent is appreciated. No registration necessary. Contact: Dunja Pechstein.

• Friday, December 9, 6-8pm: Traditional Holiday Wein-Bar at the Goethe-Institut with Glühwein and German refreshments. Admission: $15 at the door. Click here for more information.
• Sunday, December 11, 12-2.30pm/2.45-5.15pm: Weihnachtsbasteln/Christmas crafts at the Goethe-Institut Boston for children ages 5 and 12 using all original craft supplies from Germany. Due to the great demand, a second session has been added from 2.45 to 5.15pm. Costs: $25 (includes supplies and snack). Please RSVP by December 4 to praktikanten3@boston.goethe.org  
• Sunday, December 11, 3pm: Sängerchor Boston presents Weihnachtskonzert at the Boylston Schul-Verein. Cocktails (cash bar), coffee & cake at 2pm, concert at 3pm, a la carte Imbiss immediately following, $7.00 Admission. www.saengerchorboston.org

There were sightings of the Nikolaus and his helpers in each classroom last Saturday following a festive and joyful presentation of holiday songs by each grade in the auditorium. For the first time, a small orchestra comprising of students, parents and teachers accompanied the musical program and added a particularly festive note to the event. Parents then proceeded to a short holiday program in their child's classroom or to the Buick Cafe for coffee and "Weihnachtsgebäck". All in all a very successful event and surely enjoyed by all - parents and students!

We would like to thank German Consul Friedrich Löhr and Vice Consul Marion Appel for presenting the Sprachdiplom Certificates (and little gifts to go with the diplomas!) to five students who mastered successfully the DSD 2 (the most rigorous of German language exams), ten students who passed DSD 1, and 21 students who passed the A2 exams during the 2010/11 school year. Also awarded gifts and gift certificates were the winners of past competitions issued and sponsored by the ZfA. Many of our students entered the 2011 ZfA essay competition in the spring and three of the essays coming out of our school were selected among hundreds of entries in the Northeast of the United States of to be featured in a ZfA Essay Collection. Congratulations! Also honored were students who recently presented a 10-minute presentation and poster on a topic of their choice under the umbrella theme "Deutschland: Seine Regionen, seine Vielfalt" and stood out to the jury. We always appreciate the extra work and effort that goes into participating in competitions - and are always happy to see so many entries.

We do not want to spoil the "holiday" feeling, but this Saturday, December 17 is a regular school day. We are then off for two Saturdays and will return on January 7, 2012,  when all students in grades 6 and higher will take the AATG language exam. Wishing all our families a joyful holiday season and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year. 

Wouldn't it be great to learn German really quickly? I'm talking 8 weeks immersion and you are fluent. Sounds like there must be a magic potion involved? No, there is one big idea behind it: Speak and make errors. Lots of them. This recent blog from one of our parents might inspire quite a few of you. Sanjoy Mahajan, a new parent with a child in our preschool class and frequent contributor to the Blog on www.freakonomics.com shared how he learned German - and how his concept may be also applied to learning other subjects in a more effective way. Check out his two new blogs: How to Learn (Not Just) a Language Quickly and his follow up blog from November 2 The Way We Teach Math, Sciences, and Languages is Wrong. This is sure to create a buzz! Talk to him when you see him in the hallways. And remember, he is fluent in German!

School will be closed this Saturday, November 26 for our Thanksgiving break. We will see you back on December 3rd. Click here for our school calendar at a glance. Happy Thanksgiving to all our families.