Holy moly! It's been almost a year...I've been thinking about posting but never got around to it. Something to do with lack of time...
A lot has happened this year in the life of my bilingual children.
Suzanne will be turning 10 in 6 weeks. When I began this blog, she was barely speaking. And now, she's a fully bilingual young lady. She's thriving in the environment of the bilingual class at school. I can't say enough for positive reinforcement, of which there is not enough in the French school system. Her English teacher this year is amazing and I've told her as much. She's positive, full of energy and since Suzanne's English is better than the other kids in her class, she uses Suzanne as a helper. So that positive energy is really giving Suzanne confidence, something all little girls could use a little more of. (As a reminder, Suzanne is in the international section of a public school so she has 3 hours of English a week. This doesn't seem like much, but is so much more than she'd get at a traditional public school). The main issue right now is hormones and social issues. I've spent so long telling Suzanne that difference is good that she actually believe it. Yes! And now she's starting to learn to stand up for herself. I'm proud of the person she is becoming. But I'm not looking forward to the bumpy road ahead ie puberty.
Max has been more of a challenge. My little boy is turning 7 this summer. He's always been a bit anxious. But it turns out he's what the French call précoce, which in English is gifted. We've been doing a lot of reading up on what that means and basically he's wired differently than other people so his brain goes at light speed ALL THE TIME. That's why he's had issues in school in the past; that's also why he's always been sensitive (physically and emotionally) and that also why he was bored at school. As soon as we got the results, we went to speak to his teacher along with the principal of the school. His teacher was also Suzanne's 1st grade teacher whom, you may remember, was not the most skilled in dealing with child psychology. So when the principal offered to take Max into her triple level class we said YES! I'm happy to report that he is now thriving at school. There are still many social challenges, mostly because he prefers to be one on one and because he gets so emotional that some friends just don't want to deal with him. But he seems to be feeling fairly good with himself. He even read 2 chapters of a book in English. For the past year and a half, he's resisted reading, claiming he doesn't know how. But I know he does. And then the other night, I read a chapter of Little Bear and told him it was time for bed. So he asked if he could read alone. He spent the next 10 minutes alone in his bed reading out loud in English. I was amazed. I hope that we can keep up his self-confidence because it's going to be a rough road ahead. The French school system doesn't adapt to difference...I realized last week that there are no handicapped kids in either of the kids' schools. So where are they all ????
In other news, I got my wallet stolen on a business trip to Germany. And I've spent the last month trying to deal with the frustrations of French administration. A good example is when the city hall called me to say the Préfecture needed a certain document to process my ID card; but the Préfecture didn't even ask for said document when they took my driver's licence request. Some things never change....
I will try to be more diligent with my blog. I'm working on a new cookbook at the moment. I think the old one wore me out. And the last year has been full of introspection, including a bilan de compétences , which was actually fairly emotionally exhausting. As I tell my kids, I won't promise but I'll try to get back here more often.
Tuesday 12 April 2016
What a difference a year makes.
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10 comments:
Hey there, came across your blog address as I was cleaning out the long, long list of internet favorites, and glad I clicked on it! A year is nothing in the life of a working mother with a family to deal with, it was nice to read you are still going strong. Sounds like Max is lucky so far, a triple level class sounds great. My son is très haut potential too and has struggled through the French School system, skipping CM1, but otherwise not being given much special attention. If only he had been a "troubled kid" he would have gotten more help! Actually, want your opinion on a theory: I know quite a few bilingual families with gifted kids. Is this 1) because bilingualism accentuâtes gifted tendancies? or 2) because parents who leave their country and comfort zone are so crazy they pass that on to their kids? Hmmm...
I hadn't checked your blog in many, many months so how nice to see a new post! Please don't stop writing about your family's bilingual adventures.
I hear you about the schools here being unable to handle kids who are different, gifted, physically handicapped, autistic, etc. I hope your son will thrive in his new class. I have homeschooled my eldest two for the last 3 years after they tried six very frustrating months of maternelle, and it has definitely turned out to be the best solution for us. Now they can go as fast as they want in the areas where they are especially at ease, take music and dance and art classes, plunge headlong into the subjects that obsess them at any given moment (we recently spent weeks reading about Egypt and many hours in the Egyptian galleries at the Louvre), and take extra time for the things that don't come as easily. And it is great for keeping their bilingualism balanced because we are free to do lessons in both English and French and travel to the US for a couple months every winter. Anyway. About the handicapped kids, through our network of homeschooling parents in France I have met many families with handicapped children who homeschool because the local public school cannot accommodate special needs. I can't believe the burden this puts on the parents, especially when I think about some friends of mine back in the US whose autistic son attends a great public school program with tons of support for the whole family. It makes me pretty furious, actually. Some choose to homeschool their special-needs kids because they feel it is best environment for them but others would love to see their kids integrated into the school system. I am so glad it is legal to homeschool in France because it works out great for my family but it is definitely a hard choice, pretty much excluding a full-time career for at least one parent, and shouldn't be imposed on anyone. The irony is that it is still legal for the moment but more and more restrictive every year, and various political bodies are working hard to ban homeschooling EXCEPT for handicapped children--whom the Education Ministry still doesn't want to deal with. Hooray for égalité. :-/
Hello Anonymous,
Would you be able to provide contact info for the home schooling network in France you mentioned? My son would kill to get homeschooled (well, maybe not actually kill, but not far from it...) and I have been so discouraged in my investigations down the homeschooling avenue, even from most of my and my husband's family. I would love to hear how to go about doing it, legally and effectively.
Thank you so much,
CMOI
P.S. New laws are being voted this week/month, including a décret (part of the "Egalité et citoyenneté" measure) from the minister of Education requiring inspectors to test homeschooled children according to their supposed grade level. I know this sounds fine to most people, but most of the homeschooling associations are strongly opposed to this proposed change because it means that they can label kids as failures and require them to return to school immediately if they an extra year to learn to read, or if they were already in public school but were struggling because they were bullied or because there was no support for their learning disability or other problem and were recently pulled out and now need time to catch up, or are extremely gifted in math and NEED to go way beyond the program of their school year but maybe haven't yet mastered the year's civics or grammar program, or because they are following another program, are bilingual and doing two national curricula at once...like us...just to name some examples I've seen. There's also another amendment under discussion, put forth by a certain Mr. Ciotti, to ban all homeschooling except for athletes and sick and handicapped kids, which I mentioned in my first message above. But along with many other families for whose children this option was a real lifesaver, I am hoping with all my might that it won't go through and sending lots of letters to senators and deputies.
I know this is an information overload but I think it's better for you to know about all the potential headaches that await you if you go down this otherwise awesomely fun road. ;-) It might also be useful to some other parent out there who reads this blog and has a gifted bilingual kid in need of something different. When your child is constantly unhappy, it's good to have some options. I will check back here in case you have any other questions and maybe we can find another way to stay in touch, perhaps by exchanging our email addresses by contacting the kind author of this blog, because I fear I have already used up her patience on this subject.
No problem about high jacking ! I'm glad my blog still has a purpose ! thanks for giving it some life and forcing me to have a look at it again. Maybe it'll even motivate me to post more often...:)
in response to Cmoi's first comment, "1) because bilingualism accentuâtes gifted tendancies? or 2) because parents who leave their country and comfort zone are so crazy they pass that on to their kids? " I did a bit of thinking about this...I read that bilingual kids are more sensitive to non-verbal cues. I wonder if that can also accentuate the giftedness. Plus, the kids are already dealing with so much information, maybe they just develop it as a coping mechanism. We are also thinking our daughter is précoce (or a zebra or HP or whatever you want to call it), but since girls tend to adapt better than boys, she seems to be hiding in plain site.
Anonymous, thanks for the all the information. Reading your comments, I realize how lucky we are here in Lille to have access to a good public bilingual school. I have never considered homeschooling for my children and can imagine, with France being very strict on standardization, that it is a major headache. I was told by another mother of a HP kid that one of the "best" private schools has a special section for gifted kids. But rather than teach to their differences, they try to "reprogram" them so they'll fit in the box and can reintegrate the "normal" class. Vive la difference, right?
Oops, I guess one of my comments with specific contact and administrative info didn't go through (it was pretty long). To get started, Cmoi, look for some of the many "IEF" (instruction en famille) groups on Facebook, look up correspondence schools or visit the LEDA or LAIA websites. We can get in touch with each other, too.
Thanks a bunch for the great blog and for this interesting conversation, Reb!
Thank you so much for all the info and advice, Anonymous. I will definately look at those sites. In fact, since my son is 12 and going into 3e, our homeschooling - if I can convince his dad to give it a go - would involve a distance teaching school. That way he can a) be autonomous and b) learn stuff I don't know like physics and Spanish. But it is sure that having someone to exchange with would be great. How can we get in touch via email without posting it here? Can you help Reb?
And a word on your daughter - she probably is HP too, it does run in families, but she might do fine without extra headaches. My older son is just as HP as my younger one (who cries in the car on the way to school at 12 years old), but does fine because he is very gregarious and loves the social aspect of school. Also he is attention-impaired and spends most of his day on the moon, so the classroom is less stressful!!! There are lots of ways to cope, lets hope she finds one that fits.
Thanks for all the support!
if you're on facebook, go to Becca's Cookies Lille. Send me a private message and I'll be the interface to put you in touch :)
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