Moving to France with primary-aged children..?

[CSLewis]

Our kids have always been home-educated, but we are thinking of moving to France for 6-12 months. My husband's family is French, so we would like them to get a good grounding in the language before they get too much older.

However, I am concernced about the leap from being home-educated in the UK (with a relaxed, child-led style of learning) to going to Primary School in France, which I've heard is a much more rigid system than in the UK. Plus I know nothing about the system at all. My eldest dd will turn 8 mid-August - does this mean she will be the youngest in her year as would be the case in the UK?

The other thing I'm thinking of is a more relaxed school-ish environment - Montessori/Waldorf, etc - but don't even know if these exist in France.

Of course, we could just carry on home-educating, which would be a lot simpler in many ways, but would make making friends and learning the language much more difficult...

Any advice/ideas/help very welcome!

You can at least home school in France, its illegal in Germany. From friends who have lived in France for a while, the schools are very different in different areas. One family loved theirs in the Alps so much they never came back, another girl told her parents if they didn't come back after a year she would come back by herself (and live with Granddad).

My husband speaks French well, but I wouldn't say his vocabulary was 100% - his mother is French, his father is fluent, and they always spoke French with their mother growing up - which has led to him not really remembering to speak to his own children in French, as he assumes it's the mother's job!

I'm not French at all, learnt it at school, and can get by and understand conversations, but definitely do not know enough to ensure my children learn it well. Once immersed in the language, though, I think mine would improve rapidly as well, and then I could help to maintain theirs once we left France.

We're considering this move for economic reasons as well, not just for the children's language skills. I'm currently thinking of moving over there in April (with a four-month old baby as well as my other four), either getting them a French tutor OR an assistante maternelle to give them a bit of a headstart in the language - they understand a little, but nowhere near enough. That would give us four/five months to settle in, get the house sorted, research schools etc, and then they could start in September with the rest of their class, rather than dump them in the middle of the year with practically no French...

Sorry this is so long! I appreciate your replies.