We’re back home again for La Rentree which I gave little thought to as neither of my nippers are going this year. I didn’t realise what effect it would have on my 2 year old though.
Her friends have all started Maternelle this year, 1 in our village as he was born in 2008 so was eligible, and 2 in our nearby town of Pezenas which accommodates from age 2 (our maternelle is 2008 only this year which is mostly 3 year olds although her friend is only 2).
She asked to go and see her friends and of course I explained they were at school, so her reply was that she wanted to go to school. I then explained she couldn’t go to school as she still wears nappies and doesn’t use her potty like her friends. My first lesson from this is that I should have said the truth - you are too young to go to our village school and we want you to go to our village school.
Instead she took my explanation as a challenge & promptly threw off her nappy declaring her need for the potty. She then did 4 pee’s in the potty over the rest of the day - only 1 accident. I’m really pleased about this as I tried before with her & she kept asking for her nappy on. However at the end of the day she said triumphantly, can I go to school now? Zut!
I then told her the truth but said we’d walk up to the school to meet her friend only to discover he was at home still sleeping as school in the morning means he is so tired he needs really long siestas (it used to be her who outslept him).
She was over the moon to see all the little children though and I now have no doubts whatsoever about putting her in school next September.
I’ve tried again with the potty this morning and had mixed results so far & now run out of ‘big girl pants’ but she seems to know that to be a big girl she needs to use the potty so I’m hoping this spell at home might allow me to take a dry little girl back to England as I don’t really want to try potty training in a rented flat. Tiled floors which can be cleaned and dry in seconds at 30degrees are perfect!
So with her now intent on using her potty so she can be a big girl & go to school like her friends I now wonder whether I should put her part time into school in England whilst my hubby finishes his contract or whether to wait till we’re back in our village full time…I thought it was all about us deciding when to put her into school but actually she seems to want to decide herself. My little girl is growing up, it’s scary!
Hi Tracy - I’ve been using mini marshmallow 
Excellent Suzanne, don’t know about UK schools but is there a local garderie she could go to part time. Or perhaps there is a private school she could go to just for the PPS year? There are usually very keen to take PPS who attend for just the mornings.
Great news on the potty training front, though as it will be so much easier to have her out of nappies by the time no 3 comes along. Buy loads of cheap big girl pants in a large size so they come down quicker! We also rewarded every sucess with a chocolate button - know it’s bribery but we called it an incentive!