Cold Spaghetti

More official news… Will and Kate were both accepted to Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orleans for the 2008-2009 school year! We took the news with bittersweet excitement… it’s time for Will to move on from preschool and we applied for both to have the option of keeping the kids in the same school (sibling discount!) It was a bit of a surprise to us that both kids got in, we’re misty-eyed about our kids moving on from Abeona, but we’re thrilled!

Ecole Bilingue is a French immersion school. It’s taught by French Nationals and approved by the French Government. We love the teachers and the staff. In terms of price, it’s not cheap but with everything added it will be about the same as we’re paying now. The school feels great — like a big family — the same loving environment we’ve come to know at Abeona. The school is very diverse… staff, teachers, students, and families, representing a range of nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnicities. The music and art programs are wonderful; we adore the music teacher! We feel very very lucky to have found a good place to continue our children’s education!

Yesterday, we attended a parent meeting where Will was evaluated by two of the teachers. He did great. The “test” was a series of developmental exercises, the same that Abeona went through with us for our parent/teacher conferences a few weeks back. Things like jumping on one foot, walking in a line, crawling, writing his name, counting, etc. Will answered some questions in English and Spanish (upon request). They were surprised that he still uses both hands interchangeably. I assumed that it was normal for kids to not have a dominate hand yet, but apparently this is not so. The teachers were very surprised and said that they had never seen a child use both hands so freely at this age? He writes, eats, and draws with both hands, sometimes trading the utensil or pen back and forth in one sitting. They had him repeat some words (colors) in French… like his parents, his accent will take some work.

Here’s the issue: in the French system, children’s grade levels are determined according to the school calendar year. So, Will is eligible for Kindergarten, which is the class they accepted him into. He wouldn’t be the youngest in the class, but he wouldn’t be the oldest either. The age isn’t really an issue for us, it’s the language. About 2/3-3/4 of the students will have had a year of French in pre-K. Usually, students are recommended to have 2 years of French immersion before 1st grade (a year to listen, a year to speak). His teachers felt that he would be fine; many students start French at Kindergarten and are completely caught up by the end of the year. He wouldn’t be the only one starting with no French. He will do the summer program at EB, so he’ll have a little French before the school year starts, so that is something. I’m not sure exactly what to do (the school is willing to put him in either Kindergarten or pre-K, whatever we want). I terms of play and school day structure, the preK and Kindergarten are very similar — only the Kindergarten does not take a nap. Both have morning and afternoon outside recess and structured playtime. I’m just unsure of what is best for Will.

The other issue is that Kate must be potty trained — no pull-ups or trainers — by the start of the school year. If she’s not potty trained, we have to pay for her slot until she’s ready. Talk about incentive for success! This goes against my tendency to ‘wait until they’re ready’ and puts pressure on us finding success with potty-ing this summer.

Paul and I are going to start taking classes at the Alliance Francaise — I wish NOLA had a Spanish language center like this!! We’re also wondering if we can find someone there who could teach French from Spanish… so we can practice our Spanish at the same time.