Both girls started collège ok if somewhat shell-shocked by the amount there is to think of each day, plus the standards expected are very high. Last night we crashed out at around 9pm; today was more like 10pm AND they haeve lessons starting 8am tomorrow morning!! Will we make it to the weekend?! There are so many new terms to understand. However there are some great ideas- 2 hrs a week of ‘accompagnement personalisé’ where they can go over what they want to with a teacher, plus the RE teacher organises a singing group where they can take their instruments to play as well; they go into old peoples’ homes to perform from time to time. So I think things’ll be fine, once we’ve got up to cruising speed…
@ Liam, interesting article, our 2 are generally spoken to in English at home (as we’re both English) but are immersed in French outside. Our 2 year old seems to have no problem understanding the same item has a French/English description & regularly flips between the 2. The other day in London she declared she would like La Glace but in France she said she wanted Ice-Cream - over time we’re sure she’ll get them the right way round for where she is but it is amazing as they certainly are like little sponges. I wish it was so easy for us to absorb another language!
Thanks Liam, good advise and what we did was go to the French Embassy in New Zealand who were very helpful.
All underway and we move full time in December at the end of the NZ school year.
Hello Franglais Kids. Mrs Wife and I had our “mi-beuf” in january.
Heres An Interesting article… http://pda.physorg.com/news/2011-08-links-bilingual-babies-vocabulary-early.html
@Peter Baker, have you contacted your consulat in france. the British consulat have answered all my questions (some quite bizarre) and given us some fantastic advice so i guess yours would be able to tell you the simplest way to go about it.
Hi Nicole,
Have you sorted out where you are going yet? The Directrice of our school has just announced her departure this weekend - and she is going to Megeve. She is really lovely and speaks English so if you are going there I can give you an introduction.
All the best
Tracy
Hi Nicole,
Chamonix is definitely an international town where the predominant language is English. It is a contributory factor as to why we left as that is not why we live in France. The school in question is St Jeanne d’Arc in Les Pelerins, a private school, although not in the same definitions as British private schools.
It is a great place to live, just not for us - it is a very expensive place to live as well.
Good luck with the move and if you decide to move to Chamonix please don’t hesitate to contact me for help.
Hello everyone,
Our new website for Blackhen is now up and running. Check it out and spread the word! We are hoping to get the Blackhen forum running very soon…watch this space, or follow us on twitter.It will be a good place for all mums & dads to comment, ask advice or share ideas.
Hmm - that sounds a bit complicated (hopefully I am wrong!) - I suggest you create a separate discussion / blog post. That way we can tweet / Fb it to a wider audience and hopefully get you some answers! CX
Can anyone fill me in on the registration process necessary with the local Marie about becoming permant residents. We have had a holiday home for 10 years and we live beside the Marie so they know who we are, but we have never needed to register as we only came for short breaks.
My wife and 2 sons hold Latvian, EU passports and I hold a New Zealand passport, so non EU.
I am not sure if they should register first then once established I apply as the spouse or we all do it together?
Any guidance much appreciated.
Best Regards
Peter
Hi Jennifer, we are in Grezels, 46700 a small village on the Lot river nearest town is Prayssac and about 30 klm from Cahors.
On another important matter, I just picked up my Triumph Speedmaster so looking forward to riding up your way to say hi in the near future.
Looking for advise, we have had a home in France for just over 10 years as a summer holiday home and we are finally looking to move on a permant basis. We live in the Lot valley in Dept 46.
Our youngest son will be 13 in August he is bi lingual in English and Latvian. We are concerned 13 is too late to join the French system, so I am looking for any advise of parents who moved to France with children of a similar age?
Hi Nicole,
Whereabouts in the Haute Savoie? It is a huge area and some areas such as Chamonix are inundated with English speakers - so much so that some classes have as many as 5 or 6 English speaking kids in the class and consequently find it very hard to learn French.
Any and all typing howlers are excused for busy mums! I think probably the time spent in class would not end up so different - school here is 8.30 until 2.30 with two very short breaks. I think the breaks in France are a bit longer. I think it would be good for Shaun to learn from the beginning, When he has progressed enough they can then reassess which class is more appropriate for him. One thing he always complains about school here is that it’s so noisy - both teachers and students have a tendency to shout at each other, and when he was recovering from an ear infection the other week, it was terrible for him. I love the idea that some of the classes are mixed age groups. it reduces any sense of “stigma” for the kids as it will be seen as quite normal.
Oh, how I wish I could go back and correct some of the howlers in that last comment ‘wrote’ learning lol!!!
If your son will be 7 in this calendar year (Jan - Dec) then he would be due to enter CE1 in September. However, it would be a huge advantage to hum to enter CP, which is the class below and the first year of compulsory schooling.
In CP the children learn to read for the first time and practise writing words for the first time in joined up writing which they all use from the beginning.
The advantage of learning to read from the beginning would be perfect as he would learn the language and the correct pronunciation all at the same time and you would learn when he does his homework.
I don’t know what education is like in Malta but in France it is super old fashioned, desks of 2 by 2, wrote learning, dictation and a very long school day. Our school is 8.40am to 4.40pm followed by homework every night - and that is in CP, my daughter’s class.
The other thing to note is that the classes are often mixed up classes - my son is in MS/GS so although he is just 4 yrs and 5mths (practically the youngest) there are children in his class that are 6 yrs and 4mths already, so the age difference will not be noticed by the other kids. Children often redouble a year at this age as well - that is between GS/CP/CE1.
Ha ha ha thanks Nola. The single mothers with identical sons are taking over France! I love the fact that you’re trying to lure me to CM. I will definitely have a close look at the agencies around there. I’m a little of a fatalist - if that is where we will be happiest, a property will suddenly pop up within days of my being ready. A teenage babysitter is an excellent idea. I work from home anyway and Shaun gets bored when mummy’s concentrating on a project, so having someone who will amuse/teach at the same time is excellent, even just a couple of hours a week. I have found a French tutor here (Malta) but she is not available until the end of May. I’m hoping though that a few intensive lessons over the weeks will give him a good enough grounding to start adding to his vocabulary when he hears the “real” French and he will settle quickly.
CM is very cheap - send me your price range and criteria and will try lure you here! My son is at very good local primary (state, they went privately in Bordeaux). I also came here as a single mother with four kids of 1, 4, 9 and 11. They picked up French remarkably fast - the 4 year old was sleeptalking in french after 6 weeks. I actually wonder if learning some of the syllabus before hand would help as much as a basic grounding in French. The system here is so different - in the UK they learn to read at 4, here formal schooling starts at 6, thus they learn to read later but faster. There are no other English speaking children in my youngest schools, their older sister started at college here and there were several English kids there - she is now at college near Paris (!) but that is another story and no necessarily a reflection on the local schooling.
Tbh, I would give him light grounding before and then extra help with a tutor or whatever (a local teenager would be good as a baby sitter as they would have the playground lingo and local accent and be v au fait with what and how they learn at school) and then a formal tutor if Shaun is really struggling.
Contact me if I can be of any help. PS.
Your son is the older double of my youngest. Will find a photo!
Thanks Nola. I do look occasionally for properties in the CM but they don’t seem to come up very often within my budget (single mum etc etc). When the flat sells, I will do an intensive search so I can sort out a proper viewing itinerary as we will only have 4 or 5 days to race around looking for the perfect nest while the animals are pining away waiting for us. It’s what is on the syllabus at the primary school I will need so Shaun can concentrate his learning on that and not be too far behind the other children.
Can’t figure out how to edit - have just seen he is 6, so Primaire.