School report

Since the girls have been in their new schools for about two months now, I thought a progress report was in order…

Kathleen’s enthusiasm for school has not diminished at all. She continues to be excited about school on a daily basis. She especially likes the games that she and her classmates play at recess and has stated that she wants to teach the games to her friends in the states so that they can play them too. She insists the games are more fun than any other games she played during recess in the past and she has always been one who appreciates recess! Her teacher, Monsieur Blanchard, has done a wonderful job of building Kathleen’s confidence as she develops her French language skills. Each time she enters the classroom (at the beginning of the day, after recess, etc.) she has to say ten new French words just to get into the classroom. Also, while her classmates are learning new English vocabulary or grammar, Monsieur Blanchard has Kathleen do the French equivalent! She was also asked to give a presentation to the class - in French and with pictures – of our trip to Venice. She worked hard on her presentation and was excited that all of her classmates and her teacher enjoyed it! She doesn’t have as much homework as she did last year (thank goodness!), but I think part of the reason is that Monsieur Blanchard doesn’t give her all of the homework he gives the other students because the language is a challenge. She does bring home lots of reading for history (a la French Revolution right now) that I help her with. We often look to Google translate for assistance! She has discovered that certain things in math are done differently in France…apparently, a comma is used here as we use a decimal and a decimal point is used here the same way we used a comma. So, some math problems with big numbers were a bit confusing at first, but now she has the hang of it.

Lucie is much happier at St. Joseph’s than she was at her first French college. She doesn’t like getting up to catch the bus at 7am, but once she gets going, she is okay. She has become friends with a few girls in her class, and they have helped her get settled in. Her French has excelled since starting school, but her days are long and exhausting because it is challenging for an English speaker to follow history, science, math and all of the other 7th grade subjects in French. Sometimes she does come home saying that she had a test that she didn’t know about, and I chalk that up to not being able to follow everything. She doesn’t worry about it, so I am trying not to let it bother me either. We really aren’t worried about her grades since the language is such a challenge and she is learning so much about life and a different culture. I do remind her, however, that we want her to do her best! She did come home the other day beaming…she joyfully reported that she had received the highest grade in the class on a paper (thank goodness for Google translate!) that she had written for history. Plus, she had gotten the highest grade on a report she had written about a modern hero (she chose Barack Obama) for French class. It was a banner day for Lucie! After the appropriate praise, I asked her how she knew how she had done compared to her classmates, and she told me that her teachers had read out the name of the student and the grade he or she received for the assignments. Obviously, some things are done differently…

The tools that the girls use in school are also different here…They write almost everything in pen…and a fountain pen at that! They have all sorts of cool fountain pens for sale in the school supply section of the grocery stores and we had fun picking things out! In college and lycee (high school), the kids are allowed to use these cool things that “erase” the ink of the fountain pens if they make errors, but Kathleen found out the hard way (her teacher disciplined her!) that kids in elementary school can’t use the cool eraser pen. Another notable difference for school tools is that a ruler is indispensible here. They use their ruler constantly…for underlining everything (titles, words, etc.), for writing math symbols (equal signs, subtraction sign, etc.) and even for crossing out errors you make on your paper. (Kathleen can’t use the eraser pen so must cross out her errors in a straight line with a ruler!). There are lots of other school supplies that are different from what we are used to in the states, and it was sure fun to shop for them and get my labeler to them. Simple pleasures!

The girls have requested that I make sure and report about the difference between school lunch here in France and those they enjoyed in South Carolina…no smiley fries or popcorn chicken here…The lunch period is about an hour and a half and includes different courses… A typical lunch menu for the cantine at Lucie’s school starts with a green or lentil bean salad, then there is turkey breast with a mushroom cream sauce and au gratin potatoes, a serving of cheese such as emmental or camembert and then fruit or a small cake. Every time I read the menu to Lucie, she rolls her eyes and says ‘gross’ as I drool and wonder if I can have lunch there!! Fish is served every Friday and Lucie has actually started to enjoy that, but she is not really keen on the rabbit with prune sauce that was served last week. Oh well! Kathleen likes to come home for lunch (she says she needs the break) so she usually eats lunch with us, but she has eaten at school a few times. Their menu is similar to Lucie’s and always sounds good to me, but Kathleen isn’t the most adventurous eater, so is happier coming home for lunch. It is fun to walk back and forth to pick her up and take her back…she tells me about her morning on the way home for lunch and is eager to get back to school after lunch. Life is good.