Advocate for non-German students in German Schools

From Lauren Conroy:

I wanted to give you the international student association number and information from Gerdi Poellinger, the woman I dealt with regarding Gymnasium placement and language needs. This woman helps international families navigate the German school system in Munich. Wow! An advocate for us! She apparently speaks many languages, so don't be afraid to call :)

Her email is

gerdi.poellinger@muenchen.de

She is in the office on Fridays only and answers emails when she can.
Below you can find her hours and other contact information. Maybe you can call
to find you what services they provide for other ages/schools.

Freitag 9.00-12.00 Uhr und 13.00-15.00 Uhr
schulberatung-international@muenchen.de
oder rufen unter (089)233-26875 bzw. (089)233-26874

Swimming Lessons/camp

There is a swimming/skiing school in Ismaning that offers various swimming courses all year long, especially during the school holidays. And the website is in English! It's not in perfect English, but hey, they try, and you get the gist.

http://www.skischule-ismaning.de/

Kindl-Lauf

Courtney Kerr came across this on the internet and thought I would send it along if any of your children also have some extra energy to burn! The Kindl-Lauf has short runs for children as well as a Bobby car race and Puppenwagen race.

23 May 2009 Events begin at 8:30

http://www.muenchner-kindl-lauf.de/index.htm

Babysitter Recommendation

Here is a babysitter who has been recommended by IWC member Susan Case! She sat for us at the IWC monthly meeting last week, and was great. She's Canadian-German and grew up mostly in France. She is very sweet with the children, and calm.

The sitter is a student here. She speaks many languages...
Franziska Harder
Languages: English, German, French, Italian
Tel: 54572900
Cell: 015123308481

Dual nationality: Canada & Germany
Age: 20
Art history student in Munich
Character reference and recommendation from Susan Case

Summer Camp during School Holidays

The Penguin English Camp and Pingouin French Camp are for children aged 6-14. They are mostly day camps. There are also art and basketball camps available (in German, I believe). For more information, check out the website: www.penguincamp.de. It's in German, but if your German is poor, perhaps you can give them a call and find an English-speaking person to help you: 08093-708032. The e-mail address is info@penguincamp.de

Second-Hand English Book Sidewalk Sale

The Munich Readery

Flohmarkt

Saturday, 23 May
10.00 - 18.00

On the same day as the Maxvorstadt Hof-Flohmarkt, we will offer hundreds of books on the sidewalk outside our shop.

€0.95 for paperbacks - €1,95 for hardcovers

Small Print:
In case of rain, we'll move all the books inside the shop; our sale will not be postponed even if the other Maxvorstadt Flohmarkts are.


The Munich Readery
Largest English-language Secondhand-book Shop in Germany
Augustenstr. 104
80798 München
49 (0)89/121 92 403

www.readery.de

Welcome to the IWC Mother's Corner Blog! We have been really behind the times, relying on the Yahoo Group for all of our communication needs. While it works fine as a listserv, its website leaves a lot to be desired, and for that reason I'm going to try and move us over to this blog. At the moment, it's not password-protected because I want to just try it out the easy way and see what kind of reception it gets. Please comment and let me know what you think. The advantage of a blog is that posts can be "labeled", which allows them to be sorted. An index will be automatically created, so information can be easily found. For example, if someone posts about a gynecologist they like/don't like, the post will be labeled "doctors". By clicking on the "doctors" link, the blog engine will automatically bring up all posts with that label.

Anyone in the MC will be able to post directly to the blog, or you can send your posts to me. Posts can contain information or just thoughts for reflection. They can also contain questions, and other MC members can comment and give answers.

Please let me know your thoughts!
I'll be posting some actual information soon :)
Saskia,
MC Coordinator