la chorale

one rainy morning, my kids were lining up as usual.

someone ran to me, "maîtresse, il y a clara qui pleure."

i went up to clara and asked what was going on.

"je veux pas aller a l'ecole." poor clara couldn't finish her sentence without swallowing every second word. (i don't wanna go to school.)

"pourquoi pas?" (why not?)

"parce qu'il y a la chorale aujourd'hui." (cos there's music class today.)

"mais oui, c'est bien, la chorale, non?" (but it's cool, no?)

"non, j'ai peur de la maîtresse a la maternelle." (no, cos i'm scared of the teacher from kindie. - NB: it's the kindergarten teacher from right next door who does music. most primary schools have a kindergarten right next door. it's called "le groupe scolaire". sometimes they share the same playground, but with a fence that divides the two. some kids will show you who their siblings are.)

"pourquoi t'a peur de maîtresse?" (why are you scared of her?)

silence... well, her facial expression said everything.

"c'est pas grave clara, on va faire anglais tout de suite, tout va mieux, d'accord?" (it's alright, we're gonna have english later and everything's gonna be fine, ok?)

i patted her on head, she continued on sobbing a bit more before running and screaming again during the break.

later, she came in to have english with a big big smile jumping up and down.