Great to see this. Kids can learn to read much earlier than we teach them. My older son was reading quite a bit by the time he was 3 and my younger son currently 32 months is tracking well.  At this point the thing that holds my older son back from reading more at age 4 is endurance. He is gets distracted reading much more than a paragraph of text at a time.  Although I expect that will improve as he gets older.

There is a variety of solar power camping gear that can be used for showers, cooking, lighting, etc. Some subset of this might be worth looking at.

How much (if at all) does Germany rely on natural gas for energy production? Is there a risk of power loss if the natural gas is cutoff or is only heating/cooking at risk?

I started to sign up for Predictit and there was a note that any money deposited is charged a 5% withdrawal fee. Maybe that effects the odds since people who would be placing accurate bets factor the withdrawal fee into their potential winnings. 

Two things to keep in mind when you are making your choice:

1) Exercising isn't a binary decision; you can exercise a portion of your options (ex) exercise 40% and leave 60% on the table to expire. This lets you factor in your personal financial status when you are deciding on your course of action.

2) Many series C startups don't fail or exit. Once a company gets to that size it has a momentum of its own even if it isn't successful. In my case I've worked at 4 startups. Two have exited while the other two are still stumbling along. I left one of the stumblers over 15 years ago so they can go on quite a while!

I am not sure if this would come under the umbrella of financial terms but a discussion of different ways companies can be valued would be interesting. My understanding is that in addition (or instead of the traditional PE ratio) some people use free cash flow. Also other people look at EBITD, and other metrics.