Anyone else's DC starting Maternelle in France tomorrow?

[SquidgyMummy]

That's it really. DS is only 2.10, but is starting petite section tomorrow.
Seems a bit weird to me as he is so young, only just potty trained (spare pants and trousers packed.) I'm glad there is no uniform, because in my head, i am just thinking of him starting a different nursery, (as opposed to creche.)

Also he is only doing half days, as i don't work and cannot bear to have my pfb away from me all day

I feel pretty relaxed about it as it the local village school, only 8 in petite section and about 22 in the whole of maternelle. However i'm sure tomorrow there will be tears (from me...)

It will be fine! My DD was 2.10 when she started, in a class of 15 and half days.

Merci, Bonsoir!

My DD2 - 2.8 - is starting in a class of 30 tomorrow. My eldest has just passed her Bac so I know what we're in for - for the next 15 years.....

DD2 is so incredibly shy and has spent every minute of every day (well almost) with me so I'm expecting tears in the morning.

Wow zimbomaman that is a big gap!
Well we dropped off DS this morning, stayed about an hour then he cried and clung to DP. La Maitresse ng said it would only last 5 minutes, which it did - we were standing outside listening!

anyway am picking him up after lunch, so better make the most of my couple of hours of free time!

Just off to get mine now. It was chaos this morning. We didn't cry but about a dozen others were screaming.

Glad it went well for you .

Yes the gap is a mixture of nature not doing what it should and me being able to convince DH that a third child was a good idea! There is DS (14) in between the girls.

Just back to a very happy girl. The (male) teacher said she was 'mimi' and not shy and played happily with Lego. Not bad for a first day.

Hope you did something good with the first hours of freedom - I cleaned......

I went to the supermarket.

On thursday i will be more organised and go to the gymn, as i have done zero exercise apart a bit of swimming this summer.

DS had a great time - they have a gigantic sand pit at the school.
Also he apparently ate really well at lunch. You know what a French "cantine" is like. The 3 courses would put my lunchtime sandwich to shame

Get us, hey - cleaning and supermarket shop! We know how to live.

Yes to excercise! DS starts college again tomorrow at 10.00am which cuts up my free maternelle time (yes, we have school 5 days a week here). A run in the forest is programmed first thing Thursday.

The novelty of cantine food soon wears off - my older two really appreciate my very average cooking after being subjected to years of frozen apples and uncooked bread . Great that your little one ate so well on his first day though. Mine is sleeping soundly now.

It's not so much the food per se as the learning to sit down nicely for ages like french children. On the try out mornings in june, the other 2 & 3 year olds were sat in their chairs for about 40mins. DS once he had eaten enough was off exploring the dining room after 10 mins I am hoping that nice table manners will be part of his education francaise

He looks very tired but i generally try and avoid naps now as otherwise he will not sleep till 10pm. but we have been invited for dinner, deliberately planned for tonight as wednesdays are free for DS, so he can have a nap in the car, a late night and then i can try and get him to bed early tomorrow. (Well that's the theory anyway!!)

Aaah, I understand now. Mine are half French so are used to loooong meals. Table manners are another thing! DD2 has a phrase; 'you must want must wear your fingers'. This translates as, 'I'm giving up on using a fork and am shoving everything in my mouth with my chubby little hands'.

Have a fun dinner out tonight - food always tastes better when cooked by someone else.

Am going to watch this thread. My eldest will be starting next year. She is only 2.5 so in nursery this year (and loving it so far).

Bit late to the thread but DS2.10 also started last week (full time except Wednesday afternoon). There was one boy having hysterics there which eventually set DS off (but i also think we missed our window). He then had hysterics every single day we've dropped him off except for this morning. Hopefully we've turned a corner. The hysterics have lasted less than 5 minutes though and the teacher says he's great and having a fab time. He always seems perfectly happy at pick-up and jumps around shouting, "yippee school," when he wakes up so who knows?

Today his teacher greeted us back from her day off the strike by requesting every parent bring in 3 litres of fruit juice (rota up on the classroom door) to expand the children's taste buds Don't really want DS drinking quantities of cheap juice (which is what I suspect most will bring in) every day, but ho hum.

Are yours in mixed classes? We have half and half classes mixed between petite, moyenne and grande section (so DS is in a petite/moyenne class) but I don't know if that's normal. Seems to work well though.

It's not living up to the promise everyone made about school tiring him out though. He's still full of beans and wants to spend a couple of hours in the park after school

Hey Ginger and AllS 'welcome'.

We too had tears on Friday. I think the fact that we arrived at the same time as a little boy who was crying hysterically combined with the realization that school is going to happen every day was a bit too much. Today she was quite happily playing when I left.

The mixed levels are quite common - they tend to happen when there aren't enough children to justify opening a new class. They tend to work quite well. I know of a little boy who has jumped two years of school due to the double levels (he is very bright) - he simply did his work and then listened to what the older children were being taught.

Ah yes, the strikes..... My DS (who is in college) normally cuts through a park on the way to school - apparently the park workers were on strike too and the gates were locked so he had to walk all the way around. He has already missed a Maths lesson because the teacher was on 'formation'. Hey ho to another school year .

That's interesting about the mixed levels. Our school says they find it useful for helping the younger ones settle in and the older ones also enjoy helping the younger ones. I don't really know how it works in practise though as i don't really know what they're doing every day

Yes, it is a bit of a mystery especially if your DCs aren't too talkative at the end of the day.

They try to encourage the 'living in community' philosophy during the maternelle years so it would make sense that the school get the older ones to make the younger ones feel welcome. I think this would also be where your teacher is coming from about the juice. I remember my DS's moyenne section teacher asking us to bring in breakfast for them. Her class project involved healthy eating - she explained that many of the kids didn't want to eat breakfast at home so she came up with their first ritual of the day at school:-

Each table had 4 children sitting at it and each day of the week (excluding Wed) a different child had to serve their table. They had to count how many wanted milk or juice, bread, fruit ect - remember the order - get it from the buffet - and serve it. This encouraged their numeracy and social skill whilst educating them on healthy foods. The kids took it very seriously and enjoyed the whole process right up to cleaning up afterwards.

We are having our class meeting tonight so, hopefully, we'll know a little more about what happens during the morning apart from playing with Lego.

That's a good idea about the breakfast. The juice thing is advertised as specifically to increase their exposure to different flavours but I'm not sure fruit juice is the best way to do it really. I did half-jokingly say to DH that i should make some beetroot and orange or carrot and ginger juices in my juicer but I've chickened out and bought 3 litres at Leclerc today - apricot, grape and mango. Hope that's acceptably flavourful

Our class meeting is next week so maybe she'll give us some more info on the juice thing then and we'll find out what DS has been doing apart from playing with cars and having a nap

Oh, and have fun at your class meeting zimbo (should I pronounce that in my had in an English or a French accent? )

at the thought of zeeeembo.

The teacher explained a typical morning at nursery:-
Welcome time
Group sitting to go through register, day, weather etc
Activity such as board game, drawing etc
Loo time
Gym
Recreation
Return to class for workshop (dirty work) - painting etc
Group story time, singing
Home time

He also explained his priorities (develop language) and what the children should be capable of doing by the end of the year. The expectations are very low - count to 5, use 'je' when asking for something, being able to follow a simple instruction etc. His goal is to get them to like school as much as possible.

Exotic fruit juice flavours should go down well with the teacher. The children may take convincing .

Let us know how your meeting goes so we can compare notes and bon weekend.

Will do (I was thinking more along the lines of Zamboe, like the pronunciation of pant pint )

Interesting about the expectations, especially the 'je' thing - I'd already noticed DS staying to use his personal pronouns since he started last week (and in all his languages, not just French). Not 100% right but still an obvious lap of linguistic comprehension.

Well DS never drinks juice at home and always refuses it if offered but maybe the peer pressure well have an effect At least they'll have at least one day where they're not drinking reconstituted orange juice yes I'm a snob wrt French supposedly superior eating habits and I don't care

Wtf auto correct?
*starting
*leap
*will

Boon wokond as that gendarme in Allo Allo wouldn't say

We had our class meeting last night.

Day organisation is almost exactly the same as for you Zimbo.

We didn't get specific year goals, only the 6 themes studied over the whole of the maternelle career and the associated goals when I can be bothered to read them The main themes for this term are language and "being a pupil".

It's apparently the only school in the district operating a mixed age class. The teacher was very positive about how well it works and said she'd never go back to single age class teaching. She said they're already over the crying phase whereas it could last until All Saints in the single age classes

I was there with an Italian friend whose son is in the same class. We were having a good laugh when the teacher was telling us about the books/paperwork: "not much". As usual in France it's a lot:
Class book (for notices/communications)
Work book
Activities diary (like a scrap book the children put together)
Evaluation book
Development book (exercise book that they draw a "bon homme" in every week so they can see the development over the whole maternelle career) I really like the idea of this.

There's also a class mascot with his own travel journal

They do lots of physical activities - gym, swimming, danse contemporaine and they'll have regular outings to the local cultural centre (10 min walk away) to go to the mediatheque, exhibitions, shows, etc.

There's also the first gastro epidemic of the year...

I was wondering how everyone was getting on.

Your teacher sounds as though she has invested more time and effort into her class planning than most which is great. I like the idea of a 'bonhomme' book too. DD2 sat down on Monday and drew a circle with dots for eyes and nose. She added lines on either side of the face for ears and then drew a line across the top. I said, 'oh, you've done the hair too.' She looked at me, with a very indignant scowl, and said, 'no, that's a hat.'

She's almost pushing me to get out in the mornings now.

Gastro shall closely be followed by les poux.....

Yes, she did mention the poux... We've already started checking - do you have any recommendations for effective products here?

That's really impressive of your DD Zimbo. DS has started drawing proper circles (ie joined up individual rounds, rather than endless scribbled loops) but hasn't drawn a face yet. Although he did say he'd drawn a picture of me yesterday, so we'll see. I was actually quite impressed by his progress, the circles arrived after the first week. As did proper use of personal pronouns

I don't know how many outings are normal, but I'm pretty happy with the programme she's outlined. She also wants to take them to an educational farm to either help with the vindange (sp?) or do some bread making, which sounds fun.

I'm glad to say that I can't recommend any lice products here because the one and only time my elder two needed treatment was when we discovered the little white eggs on DD1's head during a ferry crossing to the UK. A very helpful lady at Boots sold me an oily product which had to be applied overnight (head scarves to sleep in). There is a product being advertised quite a bit on TV at the moment but I forget its name.

Yes, drawing circles has definitely improved since school started. We're finding her much more independent too - wanting to get dressed herself (leggings on her head this morning), strap herself into her car seat etc. I am finding myself having to be extremely patient but loving the progress all the same.

Your outings sound very good - I really enjoyed being able to accompany DS's classes whenever I could. Vendange is a fantastic idea - get the know-how in as young as you can .