Back to School

With all of the other topics that I wanted to share, I haven’t yet had a chance to write about the start of a new school year. As parents, the apprehension of our children to going to school is balanced directly by our joy in sending them. This year is the big year for us, as not only is our daughter Miriam starting CP (Cours préparatoire), which is the first year of elementary school, but we also are sending our son Daniel to Petite Section for his first year of preschool.

This is the moment that we have been waiting for, for about a year. During this time Daniel has been constantly asking when he can go to school like his big sister. Well, that day has finally come. As a parent I had been steeling myself for that first day, knowing that no matter how excited Daniel seemed to be to go to school, he would feel differently when he actually got there. Somehow, on the way to school I allowed myself to believe that maybe things would be different with Daniel, and he would be happy to be at school for the first time. Sadly, I was wrong in my thinking, and Daniel cried, just like most children, as he realized that being at school means being separated from his parents, and meeting new people.

Since then, however, things have progressed rapidly. Given that this is our second go-round, we have been doing our best to prepare Daniel for school by getting him to watch videos in French, speaking to him in French occasionally, and of course getting him to play with Miriam and her friends, who speak French together. This is a big improvement on our preparations for Miriam’s first day at school three years ago, when she entered the classroom for the first time with minimal French language skills. This, and the difference in personality, may have contributed to Daniel’s quite acclimatization to the school environment. After just one month, Daniel now walks into the classroom on his own accord, without pouting or whining. As a parent, it is a huge relief to be able to get the children to school without a lot of whining, and without having to spend energy hyping the kids up for school, or trying to distract them.

Of course, given that both children are now in school, my wife Alex is finally free for most of the day, to do what she wants to do. This is a much-deserved break after six years of raising children all day, every day. She finally can do the things that can’t be done with kids, like simply going for a run, or do things which would be much more difficult with children, like going into Paris.

Daniel is not the only one undergoing a big change. Miriam’s schooling is more serious than before, and as she learns to read and write French in school, we are doing our best to complement that with English and Chinese learning at home. Meanwhile, we’ve also picked out one extracurricular activity, gymnastics, for her to do on Wednesdays, when there is no school, as well as on Friday evenings. It feels good to see her doing something she enjoys with other kids, and we are so lucky to live a few minutes’ walk from the practice gym.

As a father, it’s important to be leading our familiy to grow in a smooth and constant manner, and this Back to School season definitely feels like that. With both kids now in school, I can see our family transitioning into a new phase, and it’s a wonderful thing.