Germany, Switzerland, and Austria

Howdy everyone. I hope you all had a great Christmas. Since church has changed times for us, I have less time for Blogging. I'll catch up at some point. That's my personal mantra--I'll Catch up at Some Point! We had a nice restful Christmas. thank you for all of your cards and such. It was great to hear from you all again.

Here's what we were working on through December as we could work it around with projects and Holiday happenings.

Germany, Switzerland, Austria
Some of the most brilliant minds and inventions have come from Germany. Helicopters, cars (we spotted them all week as we drove around, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, etc.), highways, motorcycles, alarm clocks, pocket watches, jet engines and Johan Gutenberg’s printing press were all invented in Germany.

This was our printing press experiment.Faith doesn't look too sure about hers!Some of the most amazing minds of the 20th century were Germans: the combustion engine was invented in Germany, Einstein was German. Martin Luther was a 15th century monk who didn’t agree with the all powerful Catholic church and began the Reformation in Germany. He also translated part of the Bible into German. Brahms, Handel, Bach were all Germans. The German Brothers Grimm wrote many famous fairytales, including Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, The Pied Piper of Hamelin and others. Germany is full of beautiful castles that I hope to one day go and see! Jared built an amazing castle out of cardboard boxes, wrapping paper rolls, egg cartons, and a nut can. He spray painted it, and even built the interior for better playing.We (and this one was mostly I) built the Neuschwan castle (you've seen this one in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the Disney castles were inspired by it) out of paper. It turned out really great!
Our Birthday cake and candles tradition originated in Germany. The Christmas tree and many of our Christmas carols come from Germany. We made hand bells out of paper cups, jingle bells, and ribbon and learned the song "Kling Glocken" with our homeschool friends. We loved learning about Germany through the holidays. We went to a “Kristkindlmarkt” or Christmas market where we bought German food, watched a puppet show, saw St. Nicholas, heard plenty of people speaking German, and ate Schnitzel Sandwiches (yum!). We learned a poem called “Schnee! Schnee!” that tells how children love to play in the snow and adults don’t like to drive in it, even in Germany.
German bread is unlike any other. Very dense and hearty. Hamburgers were first made in the city of Hamburg. Frankfurters (or hot dogs) came from Frankfurt. We also tried stolen (Christmas cake), Lebkuchen (sort of gingerbread cookies), and German chocolate cake.

Switzerland is famous for its cheese, chocolate (we enjoyed a fondue night on New Year’s Eve at the Neals), and skiing. We read “Heidi”, a story that takes place in the Swiss Alps, and we did some Yodeling!

Mozart came from Austria. Vienna has been central to music. Today the Vienna Boys Choir is famous there. The Trapp family came from Austria and lived through the dark time of Hitler’s rule. They had an amazing family spirit that we hope to mirror.