Nikolaus – Tradition und Geschenkideen

Am Abend des 5. Dezember ist es wieder soweit. Die Kinder werden fleißig die Schuhe schrubben, vor die Tür stellen und dann ungeduldig ins Bett gehen um am nächsten Morgen voller neugierde Süßigkeiten, Nüsse, Orangen und vielleicht sogar ein kleines Geschenk im Schuh zu finden.

Aber woher kommt dieses Tradition?

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Expert Tips: Renting Apartments in NYC

Finding and securing a rental apartment in New York City can be a challenging process. Being prepared and familiarizing yourself with New York City’s unique rental process will give you the best chance of getting an apartment.

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Raising your kid bilingual – Everyone’s journey is unique

Bi-lingual education is a rocky road. When you were pregnant you probably thought you would speak German to your child, German only. And English to your better half. And then your beautiful child is born and everything is a bit off and not quite the way you thought it would be. You feel bad that part of your family does not understand what you are saying, so you pull away a bit. Or you give in and don’t speak German with your child as much as you thought you would.

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Music Education Within Bilingual Education

While music may be thought of as a childhood hobby, studies emphasize the importance of music education in children’s lives to help develop memory, perception, language, vocabulary, spoken skills, and reading skills. Research shows that these benefits may last well beyond childhood. Music has an impact on both hemispheres of the brain and thus makes learning easier. To get these benefits, both listening and playing or singing are important. However, all the positive effects on cognitive development of young children are usually related to singing or playing instruments.

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Grandma Wanted – Living with a Granny Aupair

One of the biggest challenges for expat families is the lack of other family members living close by. Although regular Skype or Facetime sessions with grandma and grandpa have become integral parts of the expat’s weekly schedule, we can not just “park” the kids in front of the Ipad or computer screen and have grammy babysit from overseas.

With 12+ weeks of summer, several snow days during wintertime, and children getting sick every so often, there is no way for working Mom and Dads, to be there for their children all the time. Granny appear is one possible solution!

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Why Waldorf Education?

Waldorf Schools have been very popular in Germany for a long time, but the US is catching up on the benefits of their unique education approach. Today there are around 160 Waldorf Schools in the US, one of them being the Rudolf Steiner School on the Upper East Side. The school offers Early Childhood, Elementary School, and High School education. Once your child enters the Waldorf concept he or she can continue all the way to their High School diploma. What’s so special about Waldorf education?

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Baby Beach Essentials

Congratulations on becoming a parent! What a beautiful time in our lives. With new parenthood come challenges. One of them might be the first trip to the beach with your baby. The times when you would put on a bathing suit, pack a towel and some sunscreen and head are over… You will have to plan ahead and make sure you have everything you need for your baby when you head to the beach.

Here is a check list for you!

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Top 5 Bookstores For Kids

CityKinder found the 5 most kids friendly bookstores in New York for you! It’s amazing how much effort book stores are putting into our future generation. Here is a list of our top 5 with detailed descriptions!

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Tips for a Healthy Natural Pregnancy

Every pregnant woman’s desire is to enjoy pregnancy and childbirth with as little medical intervention as possible. There are a few things you can do to allow this to happen. Chinese physicians have been helping women for centuries to make good choices before, during and after pregnancy to have the most positive experience. Quite a few of these recommendations sound just like common sense (and they are)—yet they are easily overlooked.

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The Lifelong Benefits of a Bilingual Education

January is a busy time of the year when parents of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten-aged children evaluate their education options for the coming fall. Choosing the right school for your child can certainly be a challenging endeavor that raises a lot of questions. If you are interested in giving your child a bilingual education, you add even more questions to the mix. Will a second language confuse or complicate the learning process? Will it make it difficult for your child to keep up with his or her monolingual peers academically? If you’re certain you want a bilingual school, how do you choose the right program? For that matter, do bilingual schools with academically excellent college preparatory programs even exist in the New York area?

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