The kids
Well it has been interesting to watch the kids adapt to the French school, kids, language, way of life.
Anais (20 months when we arrived and now 2)
Regarding school, Anais is in a daycare pre-school 2 mornings/week the same one Sebastien attended last year. It was the her first school in her life so it took her 5 or 6 visits to not cry when we left (which was just a show-she always stopped right after we left of course) But soon enough she was walking in there like she owned the place and enjoying the different activities (such as playing with large buckets of rice on a large tarp, pretend cooking, taste-testing different flavors, bicycle and jungle gym, etc)
When we arrived she understood everything we said but words back to us were nouns/subjects only. Now she has started adding verbs and mostly in French for verbs! She loves to name things that she knows. And now she thinks its normal to give every object 2 names- one English and one French. One thing I love is when she comes home from school, she knows I’m going to ask her ‘how was school, who did you play with’ so before I have a chance to ask, each time she comes home she looks at me and says “Keyris!” and “Luna”, which I came to learn are 2 other kids in her class. I like that she knows the other kids, there was a time I thought she wasn’t social. In fact she seems very social, she often points at our friends who come over and asks “what’s that” because she wants to know their names.
Sebastien 3.9 when we arrived, now almost 4
Sebastien on the other hand adapted to school as if he had been there before. He was excited to go and never asked to stay home. In the first month of school, he had a permanent sub, a man named Michel. He liked this teacher very much and would was very happy to see him each morning. Then the regular teacher Pauline returned and when I asked him, Sebastien said he liked her better.
The kids have a lot of attention, there are 2 teachers to 12 kids. In general, teachers are very well qualified with a lot of knowledge about child development. They do the usual art work of various scribbles in various media, activities to practice making straight lines, putting sticker ‘spots’ onto images of lady bugs. On the back of these masterpieces the teacher writes what development stage this activity is targetting. Something that is very interesting about French culture is how everyone agrees to be on the same system of organization. It can be annoying when you don’t know the rules, but if you do, it’s all very predictable. So each period of school (between the vacations) the work is collected and collated into a little notebook for the parents to keep. So far we’ve experienced fall break and Winter break, I assume we will have a couple spring breaks before we leave. The last day of each period, feels like the last day of school before summer back home. Everyone is excited, even the parents. In my exercise classes, people say ‘bon vacance’ before the break and we don’t meet until the kids go back to school. It is annoying to stop exercising just because of the kids schedule but that is how it works. 10 weeks on, 2 weeks off or so throughout the year.
Sebastien started out in September understanding most of what the kids and teachers were saying in French but answering back in broken French with English mixed in. Little by little, especially each time he played in the cul de sac outside with the neighborhood kids, he incorporated more French in his speaking, including words we don’t like. He started copying his favorite friend’s sassy attitude too. "Oui maman" with a sassy tone, like a teenager! Is this happening to you parents already back home at this age?? What’s with the attitude at 3.5??
Now 4 months later, he is finally using verbs. He still speaks a lot of English with us especially me but now instead of English words peppering his French, French words are peppering his English. I thought it was interesting when he started putting French verbs in English sentences. (what are you mang-ing?) Right now he is getting prepositions all mixed up in both languages. Like saying “attend pour moi” in French (that’s an extra ‘for’ he doesn’t need to say which shows he was trying to use the English contstruction for that phrase) or “Anais is being mean at me,” which shows he’s using the French construction in his English. I wonder if this is the next section that will straighten out in the coming months. We will see.
French ways:
It turns out that our village had the most births per capita over any other town in all of France. When Devin and I picked this place because we wanted the opposite of our old region, somewhere with more kids to play with, we had no idea about this statistic. It is probably like living outside of Berkeley in more suburban towns where most households have kids. We know a lot of families and through the school whom we see in the streets on our daily trek back and forth to school (9 to school, 12 back for lunch, 2 back for nap, 5 for pick-up) Once we know someone through a mutual acquaintance, we are able to have conversations with other parents. there's an American mother I've learned of from the chicken merchant at the Thursday market and I'm hoping to meet her one day. In general, kids and parenting seems to be about the same. There are cultural differences and my kids are always the louder ones playing on the slide the "wrong" way but in general kids and parenting seem universal. I personally miss Totland and being able to show up at the park any day any time and finding other kids to play with with other parents to talk to and trade parenting tips.
Playing together
Just last month or so, Sebastien and Anais have started to play together. This is a big help because Sebastien is one of those kids that needs constant companionship. Now Anais plays with him and they’re starting to invent different games together. This makes it a lot easier at dinner making time. Also, it makes me very happy to witness their lifelong friendship begin.
What they are into
Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Sebastien got a skateboard, 10 hotwheels from the movie Cars, and batman pajamas. Anais got a dollhouse, a bicycle and a dolly in a stroller. Then for Anais’ bday, she got a CD player made for kids that she can work. All these things made them really smile (except the dollhouse. In fact that toy is more for me. I play with it more than anyone ;) Sebastien wants to practice his skateboard all the time. And Anais is really into the scooter that our neighbor loaned us. They are also doing drawing, building towers with the blocks and they love to help me cook and bake. They are really helpful in the kitchen and they helped me bake all those Xmas cookies I made this year!
Sleeping
My parents snicker when I tell them that Anais doesn't sleep. Apparently she got this from me and I too never gave my poor parents a break. Sebastien sleeps a lot and falls asleep easily. We have started putting them in the same room so they are used to it before we get back to our 2 bedroom house in Berkeley. This is not working very well, they keep each other up by cracking up over nothing. Anais is usually the instigator....
Here are some photos of our darlings.
We miss all our darlings back home too. What are you and they all doing these days????
Anais loves to try new challenges, explore, wander off... Here's her tricycle in October:
Sweeping the cul de sac in September (and playing with the kitty that sleeps behind there)
She found a kitty! (Oct)
She likes to try all foods. This is pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.
She LOVES her brother "nya-nya" (next to his reward chart which doesn't work anymore)
weekly visit to the donkeys that live down the way just outside the village
Kitty kat cake for her b-day
Sebastien was very focused on learning how to ride this bike (sept)
His favorite friend Louis on our way to school (Oct)
He was/is also very focused on learning to play soccer as well as his friend Louis
his favorite friend from school Basile
Neighborhood kids from cul de sac in Sept. They played together every day when it was still warm and light out!
Sebastien misses everyone in Berkeley including his bud Sacha. Such a cute pic from before we left, I couldn't resist...
