Knorr Family Adventures

For the 3rd year in a row boys participated in Lauf für Mehrsprachigkeit a couple of Sundays ago.  Thankfully the weather was pretty nice this year and Ilya's school while sponsoring the event, did not participate in the entertainment section of the run.  In the past years they played on flute, danced and singed and while it was fun, it was pretty long and the stage is a bit small and gets crowded. Last year Anton participated in the Bambini run which was 200 meters but this year he got upgraded to the elementary school-age run which is 900 meters and he ran that together with Andrei.  Ilya got upgraded from 900 meters to 3 km.  The upgrades for both of the kids were my decisions and I have to say that everything was successful. Andrei and Anton run together and I told Andrei to keep an eye on his brother in case Anton has problems with breathing.  Anton ran most of the way but told us that he walked a little bit in the middle.  Running is not Andrei's ...

Last weekend Andrei and Ilya ran "marathon" with their Ilya's school.  It was called Lauf fur Mehrsprachigkeit which roughly translates as Running is Multilingualism. The sponsors of the run are bilingual schools around Frankfurt including our school Katharina die Grosse Schule amongst Italian, Spanish, and Polish schools to name a few:)  I signed up the boys to run 900 meters; Anton could of done 200 meters but didn't.  Adults can do either 5K or 10K run and again we didn't do it.  Maybe next year?  Ilya's school also put on a little show where they sang and danced.  Oh, and unfortunately for us it was the most miserable (weather-related) day in over a week - it rained, it hailed and it was freezing.  Andrei had 2 pairs of socks, 2 t-shirts, 2 sweaters  and a jacket on; and Andrei being Andrei he decided to walk part of the way!  Ilya's results - 5:49, 34th place out of 60.  Andrei - 6:20; 25th place out of 66.  Pittsburgh mara...

It’s taking us a year but we finally managed to get Andrei back into ice skating.   He used to love it back in the States and even had a private teacher for a little bit but somehow it hasn’t made our “to do” list in Germany.    Anyway, I have had a really hard time finding a “learn to skate” program.   It seems that most times you pick figure skating, speed skating or hockey.   We choose speed skating because that’s what Andrei seems to love – going in circles as fast as he can (which is not that fast at this point).  There are 2 speed skating clubs in Frankfurt area and we chose one because I found their information online and no other reason than we were able to call them and get some info.   We came on Wednesday at 5 o’clock and Andrei started his class.   The class itself is broken into 2 parts.   First 45 minutes are warm up which essentially means running, stretching and jumping.   Then the kids get on the ice and start d...

Summer has sprung in Germany and according to weather forecast in Paris as well.  The highs during the day are between 90 and a 100 but thankfully it drops down to mid-70s  at night.  The idea of air conditioning hasn't arrived in Germany yet but we are surviving. Most of the kids in school here have same bookbags what boys asked for.  They are kind of huge and heavy but it seems that they ensure that you wear them correctly and wait is evenly distributed.  Here is the best part of that book bag - they cost between 150 and 200 euros.  Nope, my boys aren't getting them! During the spring semester boys participated in track and field - my idea obviously!  Apparently, running is not Andrei's sport but Ilya did ok.  The practices were really good for beginners because the coach varied what the kids did all the time.  The started and finished each practice with running but also did jumping, throwing objects, played various games, etc.  An...