Toddler Theme: Oktoberfest & Germany

This is one of those toddler themes that is made easier by exploiting community activities.  In this case, we leveraged local Oktoberfest celebrations as we learned about Germany.  Denver hosts Oktoberfest over two weekends in September each year.  We went late morning and it wasn't too crowded yet which made it easier for us to sample lots of traditional German foods -- wursts & kraut, spaetzle, boiled potato salad.  The German music intrigued Mia...or maybe it was the lederhosen the band was wearing.  Her curious stares as she tried to make sense of it all were pretty funny!  

Another great time of year to learn about Germany while utilizing community activities is near Christmas time.  Denver hosts a Christkindl Market downtown between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I'm sure other cities do as well.  I've been to a few of these famous markets in Frankfurt & Dusseldorf and one thing I particularly loved is the way people congregated and drank glühwein (mulled red wine) huddled together on a cold winter night.  Inspired by that, we made our own kid-friendly version of glühwein.  I picked up a huge jug of apple cider from the orchard last week and Colorado peaches are in their prime right now so we put those two items plus some cinnamon sticks in a heavy pot and let it simmer on low all afternoon.  It made our apartment smell so good!  The key to glühwein is serving it in festive ceramic mugs so I pulled out our pair usually reserved for hot cocoa and we enjoyed a nice warm pre-dinner treat.  Once the girls went to bed, my husband and I added a nip of bourbon and enjoyed a second mug.  Totally not German mulled red wine but we just couldn't let this mulled cider go to waste.  Just in case you needed some ideas for leftovers, too.  Wink, wink.

Another popular German street food is soft pretzels.  They are very dense and chewy and delicious.  There are quite a few recipes available online for replicating these at home but you know how I like to keep things real simple...We just used a tube of Pillsbury pizza crust to create our own pretzels.  I divided the dough into 4 pieces -- two for Mia & two for me.  We worked on rolling them out into long snakes and then I showed her how to fold it up into a pretzel shape.  I dissolved about 2 tablespoons of baking soda in 2 cups of hot water and we gave the pretzel shapes a quick dunk and then laid out on a baking sheet.  We sprinkled them with some coarse salt and baked in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Once they were done, I brushed them with some melted butter.  They were yummy!  Although, I'd say our pretzel rolling & twisting skills need some work!  Ha!

On one of my many visits to Germany, I picked up some traditional children's books for the baby growing in my belly (Mia!).  This week we pulled them out and read them together.  Mia's favorite is Der Struwwelpeter written by Heinrich Hoffman in 1845.  It's a collection of 10 short stories with morals, one being about the title character Der Struwwelpeter (or Shockheaded Peter) who doesn't keep himself groomed and gets teased.  I'll warn you that they are a tad morbid as was the style when it was originally written.  If you've read any of Grimm's Fairy Tales, then you won't be surprised by this style (the brothers Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm were German, too).  Since this book is so old, I was able to find it online with the original illustrations so you can check it out for yourself (find it here).    

Our own last name is German and after doing some research, we learned that a schlosser is a locksmith or one who works in a castle (a schloss).   Last year we made a lock & key charm necklace so this year we thought we'd try a castle art project.  My plan was to cut out various shapes and let Mia piece together her own castle but she wanted to draw with me so we ended up collaborating on a castle.  I drew it out under her very careful art direction and she watercolored it.  During the whole process, we were able to talk about shapes and different types of lines & patterns.  It was really nice to work on this so closely together and I think it turned out quite well.  You could do a German castle art project, too.  Did you know that the German castle Schloss Neuschwanstein (translated as New Swanstone Castle) was Walt Disney's inspiration for the design of Sleeping Beauty's castle?  And lastly, we did our usual Children of the World art project and watercolored the German flag (you can find country flag coloring sheets here).  

Until next week, tschüss! (said like juice with a ch- instead of j- and means bye!)

A summary of all Oktoberfest week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Learned a few German words and the translation of our own last name

ART PROJECTS: Drew & painted our own schloss (castle) by using different shapes, Painted the German flag (find the printable here), Made a schlussel (key) charm necklace after learning that our last name means locksmith

OUTINGS: Attended the Denver Oktoberfest and sampled different types of German food while listing to traditional music

SNACK: Made non-alcoholic glühwein with apple cider and soft pretzels

BOOKS: Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman

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