School Vacation and Preschool Update

School started less than 2 months ago and here we are at our first school vacation. The kids have a fall break for "La Toussaint" - All Saints' Day, November 1st. (Pretty funny for a country that prides itself on being secular, but they appreciate their holidays too much to give them up for a matter of principle.) They get a week and a half off, and it is really too bad for us that this doesn't happen, say, around Thanksgiving instead of Halloween. We will be taking advantage of this break for a quick trip up to the mountains this weekend to check on the condo.

Benjamin still loves preschool, and we are using the happy face charts mentioned in a previous post in an attempt to get him to come up with HIS happy face on instead of dealing with a cranky Benjamin all through lunch. He still very clearly needs a nap most days, which is what we keep telling the teacher, who wants us to leave him in school all day. I could go with that, if the teacher would also take him home with him and deal with Benjamin himself after school, too.

We finally have some idea of what Benjamin does at preschool, because he brought home his work from September and October.

(Note the Halloween-influenced October design; the holiday must be gaining ground if it has entered the educational system.)

I was AMAZED to see this on one of his papers, because he refuses to write alphabet letters with me at home, so I had NO IDEA he knew how to write his name!

And this is how you know Benjamin goes to a French preschool. No counting of apples or books here, they count baguettes, pains au chocolat (chocolate bread pastries), and petits beurres (typical French butter cookies)!