Key Learnings in CP (first grade)

June 2006. We can’t believe that we have been here for almost a full school year. Zoe-Pascale is doing fantastic with all “tres bien” and the teacher told her she is the best in reading in her class. She does report however that school is very serious. Unlike maternalle (kindgarten) CP(first grade) Zoe reports that” it is much more demanding and requires a great deal more of desk work, and the boys are noisy and need to be controlled.” Being in a french village school she is not only learning the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also how to stand up to herself, push a boy when he pushes her, and not to be bullied. As an only child these are not skills she necessarily learns at home.

In addition to becoming fluent in French (orally, reading and writing) she is learning Occitan. From everything she tells me it is a very important language in this region. Seriously, they are trying to revitalize the provencal language which used to be spoken in the south of France. It is a mixture of French, Spanish, Italian, and Latin. The picture above is from her Occitan performance. She was asked to be one of the two "Chef de Equipe" Team leaders and make sure everyone knew what to do and keep "the boys" under control.  A tough job she reported. She asked us what we would suggest to get the boys to listen to her and using our management consulting expertise we came up with the perfect solution. -- Tell them that if they listen to her and put on a good show she will give them a Bon Bon (candy)!  It worked like magic!!!

Zoe-Pascale's favorite new pasttime is reading!!!! This is the best since her parents love to read. She suggested we all sit in bed and read to each other from all of our books..What a lovely idea!!!