It's a Jungle Out There

Last weekend myself and a friend took our children out to a park in one of the nearby villages. We headed for the play area and let the children run off to the slide whilst we sat on an adjacent bench (IN the play area). After 20 minutes I just could not bear it any longer. WHERE WERE ALL THE PARENTS. OUT of the play area it seemed. For some the childrens play area is a place where you simply leave the darlings whilst you have a smoke and a coffee elsewhere. Preferably at a distance so the shouting and screaming does not interfere with conversation. I am all for parents having rights to and getting their chance to relax but I think it is super mean to achieve that by dumping all responsibility for your offspring onto unwitting strangers. Mediating between young children is difficult anyway but even more so when you don't know who they are.

What happened to learning about sharing and the use of words and phrases like "a moi", "a toi", "chacun son tour", "partage". It became quicly obvious that there is no univerally shared sharing system. More like who can grab the quickest. Is there no playground etiquette?

One baby, about 10 months old, was sitting at the end of the slide with pebbles in his hand. My friend alerted the father who was not worried in the slightest and told us to carry on. Carry on as in saying "ok kids keep coming down the slide, never mind the baby at the end he will provide a soft landing"!

One last thing, the park in the beautiful village of Anduze is well worth a visit. Not only is there the childrens play area but lawns to picnic on, pigeons to chase/feed - depending on your age! There are ducks and swans who are partial to a baguette and a goldfish and koi-carp pond too. May I just say that if you come, we could do with some help in the childrens play area! IT IS A JUNGLE OUT THERE.

The Older Woman

Our neighbours daughter had her fourteenth birthday this weekend and we were invited along to the celebratory Goûter.

My son, who is 3 and half years old, was memerised by all the giggling girlies who were trying out the new make up, music and hair accessories. It was all glitz and glamour and dancing to Mika, until someone suggested football.

Now that really impressed Théo, an older woman who looked good and could still kick a ball!

Give a Mum a laugh and pass this on ............

My friend Sally e-mailed this to me. Have not stopped laughing.

FOR ALL THE GREAT MUMS

I was out walking with my 4 year old daughter. She picked up something off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and asked her not to do that.

"Why?" my daughter asked.

"Because it's been on the ground, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty and probably has germs" I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, "Mummy, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart."

I was thinking quickly. "All mums know this stuff. It's on the Mummy Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mummy."

We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information.

"OH... I get it!" she beamed, "So if you don't pass the test you have to be the Daddy."

"Exactly," I replied back with a big smile on my face.

When you're finished laughing send this to a Mum

A p.s to my post (Homework - Cahia de Vie)

I came across an interesting website called http://www.frenchentree.com/
which has a section called Your Guide to the French Education System. Full of interesting facts.

Now for interesting true stories I suggest you check out this: http://boards.babycentre.co.uk.
It has a section called: Parents in France/French parents

Could hardly believe what I was reading concerning the maitresse in the maternelle section of this school:

There are also many things said about his teacher, not just from English people, one of which was that something was stolen from class (by 3 year old) and she sat them all down and told them she was going to the police and they were thieves, she had most of them in tears even when their parents came to collect them, and many didn't want to go back!

So far we have had a positive experience with our local Maternelle but I would really be interested to read yours. Please leave a comment and let me know.

maternelle

Homework night - Cahia de Vie

Sunday evening is homework night at our house - well not really homework as such but my son, who is 3 and a half, sits down with me and his cahia de vie.

Théo is in the petite section at Maternelle and each Sunday we sit down with his cahia de vie and review his weeks work, look at the announcements and then fill in a couple of pages of things he has been doing of interest over that weekend with family and/or friends. If you have anything especially exciting to report then you bring it to the teachers attention on the Monday morning and your child then talks about it to the class.

What a system - fantastic. It bridges the gap between his school life and home life in an interesting and simple fashion. Your child also gets an opportunity at public speaking at a very early age! Furthermore, as Théo speaks English at home and French at school it has also helped to bridge both the language and culture gap. When he started last September we were encouraged to put in photos of family and friends. We wrote underneath both the English and French names that Théo uses.

The photos also cleared up another mystery. The maîtresse was under the impression that Théo had a brother called Oliver and had been asking him what section of school he was in. Théo had been telling her that I would not let Oliver come into school even though he had BEGGED me. She could hardly believe her eyes when she finally saw a photo of this much talked about Oliver. Yes there was the photo - Oliver chasing a ball! He is of course our much loved, loopy weimaraner. But so much more than that in Théo's eyes.
(for pics of Oliver please look at blog entry Oliver the Weimaraner)

maternelle