name the images game

my CP's are such little geniuses.

they always crack me up with the most random things.

the maitresse stuck some pictures on the blackboard and asked them what they were.

they all jumped up and down sticking hands up in the air.

"sheesh!"

"ping!" (as in ping-pong.)

"trois-bit!"

"non, c'est roi-bit."

"beurk!"

"quatre!"

you've got to try and listen to how these sound in french.

click the little speaker underneath the french input tab.

well, now it's your turn to tell me what the imges were.

allez! dites-moi!

when in rome... but what happens when one leaves rome?

so in fact, deep down, am a pessimistic person.

we aren't even half way through march, am already worrying about how life would be after april.

it'll be so hard to get back to the "normal" world, where everything works and is efficiently done without having to cross words with the bureaucrats.

let's face it, at the very beginning, i was really worried about this whole system:

schools are closed on wednesdays, kids are off school for at least 2 weeks every 6 weeks.

what are they able to learn?

how on earth do they have enough time to learn anything?

after being "in the system" for some 6 months now (nearly a quarter of which was holidays), you'd think i've changed my mind a bit?

well, to be frank, i am still very worried.

but hey, that's the way it is.

if it has been working for the french for decades, it must be working in some ways.

mysterious? yes. but it works, even if it appears otherwise.

i love having wednesdays off - meaning, you start a new week with monday syndrome.

after a whole day of adjusting, you're slowly getting back to reality and are ready to switch back to "work" mode.

but then it's wednesday again!

knowing that, tuesday afternoon gets just as bad as monday morning if not worse.

you can't use a bell-shaped curve to explain productivity here.

first, the word "productivity" simply does not exist in their dictionary here.

second, a bell-shaped curve is called a "normal distribution" curve.

anything but "normal"!? nah, i thought not either.

then you'll experience the exact same thing, once again, till friday afternoon.

i don't know what primary kids should be doing.

but life does get really hard later on, so let them just have wednesdays off and be nuts while they still can i say!

who cares what you've learnt in primary school, let's just have more holidays and enjoy being a primary pupil (or primary teacher come to that).

but then it's much harder for me when i do leave this wonderful "system".

i will have to go to work on wednesdays, or even saturdays and sundays like how i used to.

and i won't be having 2 weeks off work every 6 weeks and still get paid.

i won't have to pay half of my salary as tax and receive some super detailed payslip only rocket scientists could figure out...

or to expect to pay only $12 if my medical bill was something like $500.

i guess it is true then - the only way to enjoy france is to live outside it.

sheeps, ships and chips.

remember how i told my kids that the word "sheeps" does not exist in the english language?

well, i think i succeeded.

we learned about lunch box contents today, and somehow, there's a pack of chips in it.

i was being lazy and didn't do my own drawings, and then the book screwed things up for me, once again, successfully, thanks.

so in this book, valerian has the following items in his lunch box:

1. chips

2. a bottle of water

3. a box of orange juice

4. an apple

5. a banana

6. a sandwich

7. a yoghurt

8. cookies

okay, let's leave valerian's parents out of this whole issue of inappropriate diet.

chips, is somehow very difficult for my kids to pronounce.

they kept giving me "ships".

"no, you can't eat ships." i told my only blond, E.

"sheeps?" he looked at me with puppy eyes.

"non non non, sheeps, ca n'existe pas en anglais!" little P told him off straight away.

"voila, tres tres bien P, et que veux dire 'sheep'?" (bingo, very good, what does sheep mean in french?)

"les moutons!"

"on mange les sheep, et ships." E turned to me with more confidence this time.

"no, tchips, not ships."

"ships, sheeps, chips, sheep..." he was so confused.

after correcting pronunciations one by one, i came back to E.

"so, what would like to put in your own lunch box?"

"euh, apple, water, yoghurt, banana, et, sheep."

"pourquoi les sheep?"

"parce que 'sheeps', ca existe pas en anglais."

excellent! re-learned something we've done ages ago and didn't really get what was meant to be taught today.

but who cares, at least he now knows 1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep...

might help later in his life when he couldn't fall asleep and had to count sheep in english aloud.

ne quitte pas la france!

before the break, (oh the generous system of school holidays in france i shall miss you so when i do leave), i was being lazy and sitting on the bench sunbathing with my kids during lunch break.

this girl F, she crawled up the bench and sat next to me and clang to me like a koala.

it was so cute when i said that i was cold, she put some other kids' down jackets on me to keep me warm.

"so where do you live?"

"you mean here in france?"

"yes, where do you live?"

"___, you know it?"

"bah, no."

"okay..."

"and before that, where did you live?"

"well, you know, sheepland."

"wow, so you actually live somewhere else before coming to france?"

"yes? that's the whole point?"

"then how long are you gonna stay in france for?"

"i haven't a clue, as soon as this thing finishes, i shall leave france."

"oooooh, ne quitte pas la france, stp." she said that while holding my hand tighter.

i felt something, i knew that moment, it would be really hard to leave my cute kids.

well, i shall not play "every time we say goodbye" too often then i guess?

kids are easy to please, ou pas? (cont'd)

(little i thought english classes are such a blah, she didn't want to learn.)

the upward turning point was in the class where we learnt "days of the week".
kids learn things easier through songs.
so i found a version of "days of the week" song.
it was sung to the music of "twinkle twinkle little star", which also happens to be the same tune as the alphabet song.

thanks Mozart!
it was quite easy, the music, not the lyrics, of course not.

as i asked who would like to sing for the whole class, little I was the only one who raised hand.
although off tune and blahed most of the words out.
i gave her a flower as a reward for having the courage to sing in front of the entire class.
she was super content and was smiling so big till the end of the class.

then it was one day during break time, she kicked her ball up high and it got stuck on the beam.
she came to ask her class teacher for help.
as any normal french teacher would say, "well, pity that you lost it, i can't do anything to help. don't do it again next time."
i saw the whole thing happening, so i decided to help her out.
it was really easy, only would take 2 mins if you really wanted to help.
all it takes is hitting it with another ball.
i told her not to worry, i could help her to get it after english.

so she remembered, and waited for me after class to rescue her.
it was lucky that i saw one of my bigger kids holding a ball in his hand walking pass.
so i borrowed it and off i went.
it wasn't successful at the first attemp, i'm no basketball player, so...
seeing me trying to get the ball off for little i, my bigger kids offered to help.
couple of tries later, little i got her favourite hello kitty ball back.

after that, whenever she sees me in the playground, she'll run to me and give me big big hugs.
so you think kids are hard to please?
just observe and be patient, you shall find what they really need.

kids are easy to please, ou pas?

i used to dislike kids for one reason: they're so screamy.
there are of course, exceptions.
some kids are incredibly well behaved and quiet, but it's often the noisy ones that get all the attention.
it was only natural to think that kids are hard to please.
cos why else the parents have absolutely no skills or whatsoever to control their own kids?

so there's this girl little "I" in my ce1 class.
she plays with other boys, kicks balls, runs wildly in the playground and you will never find one minute during break time that she's standing still.
when i first started "socialising" with the kids, she was with other girls.
and she was the only one who thought doing english was such a blah.
it wasn't particularly encouraging at the very beginning for an english-speaking person to teach english in french, who also had no experience dealing with kids at all.
i won't take this personal, it must have been the previous teacher who made it miserable for her.
but one thing i promised her: i will make english interesting, you will see.

well, did i make english interesting?
i don't know.
we sang, we read stories, we coloured images, we had competitions of guessing words between girls and boys...
she was getting interested gradually.
things were going the right direction.

after one class while watching them getting their coats on, i told her that she's made great progress over the past few weeks, and that brought a big smile to her face.
she was participating more in classes, too.
the upward turning point was in one particular class...

being blunt

"so why do you have so many pimples on your face?" my 6-y-o CP asked.

"well, i haven't a clue either."

"my mum has pimples too!" another one commented.

"yeah, and it's not very pleasant, having pimples. sometimes, it hurts."

"awww, it's okay, you still look pretty anyway." another kid hugged me and kissed me on my cheek.

"yes, you look pretty!" another one came to hug me too.

"thanks girls, you are pretty yourselves too!"

we were sitting on the bench in the playground.

they kept wanting to climb up and sit on my laps.

it was overwhelming, having something that's not dogs sitting on my laps.

i love my kids when they're not being nuts and/or screamy.