Journée des Doudous

At Tae's school they have something called the Cahier de Vie.  It is a little book with pictures of the students and the activities that they do together.  Each student gets to take the book home with them one of the days so they can look through it and add their own things.  I found a few things funny in this little 'book of life' of the students at Ecole d'Orielles.

these are all Tae's classmates.  Can you spot Tae?

 This would be the first thing I thought was cute/funny.  There is an entire page dedicated to Tae, the new kid from Los Angeles.... ooohhh ahhhhh.  How cute is that?  All the kids think Tae is cool anyway, because he is different, and I love it.  He has so many friends at his school.

It says 'Since October 5, there is a new student in our class.  Here is Tae (pronounced Tay), he is from Los Angeles.

Now here is what I think is funny.  At the beginning of the school year for Tae, he still didn't speak any French and didn't know many people.  There was a day for their doudous.  They had a party for them, etc. etc.  A couple days before they gave us a sheet of paper that told us when the kids should bring their doudous.  Well, Tae doesn't have a doudou, so I asked him what he wanted to bring.  I think it was the first toy he had seen or something, but he chose to take this little dog thing that I am pretty sure we got in a happy meal or something.  haha  Check out the pictures...



To the left it says 'A recption with our doudous.' and 'one is happy and it shows!' 

Now look at the left hand page.  I know it isn't all that clear, but each picture is of the kid standing up and showing their doudous. Can you spot Tae?  I'll give you a hint, he isn't nearly excited as the other kids.  Below is a little better picture of that page.

It is the second to last row, picture on the left, Tae is sitting down like 'what is going on here?'

 Now this picture really cracks me up.  All the kids sitting with their doudous.  Check out Tae, bottom row, third from the end.  hahahahaha Holding his little doggy.  This cracks me up.

'Our portrait with our doudou'

the little boy to the right is Tae's best friend in school

So I was showing Lavar the book last night.  Journée des Doudous.  Day of the doudous.  Lavar says "you know you're in France when they have a 'day of the doudous.'"  Then we laughed about it a bit.  We love our life... haha

Proud Momma

Today is the first day that Tae is staying full day at school!  Ever!  I am a little torn about it.  After all, I am a stay at home mom and I stay home so I can be with my kids and raise them.  But now I am sending Tae off to school full days?  So part of me feels a little guilty about it.  Then, with the help of my always sensible husband, I started to think it through.  First of all, Tae needs to go to school.  He is a social kid and loves to be around people and have friends.  To keep him home would be torture for him.  Second, he needs to learn French.  It is the only way that he is going to feel comfortable here and be able to make and maintain friendships.  Not to mention that it will be awesome when he is older.  Thirdly, he wants to go.  He likes his classmates and enjoys whatever it is they do there.  Anyway, all that to say that the good out way the bad and it will make it easier to make things fun for him at home.  Like I said, today is the first day, so we will see!

French school is very family centered.  Or at least I think that is the reason.  It could be that the teachers don't want to work as much.  But French school starts at 8:30ish and goes until 11:20.  You take a break from 11:20 to 1:20 and then the kids go back.  So you get a nice little break to have lunch as a family.  Then they take a nap at school and stay until 4:20.  Then you come home for the day.  So the good part is that I am not leaving him all day.   He does get the nice little break.  But he loves it.  He loves his friends and teachers. 

So now I must say, I am so proud of him.  On a few occasions I have seen kids in his class, these are 3, 4, and 5 years olds mind you, with a doudou (remember that post?), and a BINKI!  A binki??  These kids are not even toddlers anymore, they are kids.  They have teeth.  And they can't go to school without a binki and a doudou?  Today Tae walked back to school after lunch and right into that classroom.  He went to his teacher who showed him his nap-time bed and he said "bye, mommy!" and was ready to be back at school.  No binki, no blanket, no doudou.  He is such a big boy.  As I was trying to prepare him before he left that the other kids were going to have those things (I didn't want him to see them and think he needed them), he just said "ya, but I'm a big boy, mommy.  I don't need those things."  Wow.  I must attribute most of this toughness to Lavar.  He is an excellent dad.  I know most people that see him in action think he is too strick, but we are raising an eventual man, not a boy.  And this eventual man is going to conquer the world. 

{Sorry if I offended any moms out there who let their older kids have binkis.  But seriously, it might be time to give it up... :)}