Last Day of School and the passing of the goldfish

Today was our son's last day of his first year of "école maternelle." This is normally a 3 year program that kind of puts preschool and kindergarten together. In September, he will move from the "petite section" (youngest section) to the "section moyenne" (middle section) and our older daugther will enter the "petite section." So we'll have 2 kids at the same school next year.

My wife and Claire made chocolate cupcakes for the class to eat in the afternoon. Our son's teacher Najette and his classmates all like cupcakes, which are based on a box mix that some friend carried over sometime from the U.S.

We weren't sure what to do with our 3 goldfish (2 of whom we named "Dorothy" (after the goldfish on Sesame Street) and "Toto" (the faithful dog of Dorothy in the wizard of Oz. My wife and our friend Antoinette were even praying about what to do with them, as it would be hard to have someone come in and clean the tank during our absence.

Several days ago, my wife asked Najette if she knew anyone looking for goldfish. It turned out that she was interested in getting some for her family. So "voila." We brought them in to school at the end of the day to pass on to her. She has promised to name the other one "Joel" after our son. It's a relief to know that they will be in good hands. We plan on purchasing some new fish upon our return.

I can't believe that he has made it through his first ye4r of school. It seems like we were just dropping him off at that school for his first day in early September last year. Now it's 9 1/2 months later.

We have been quite happy with this particular school, its system of teaching, and its teachers. We're sad that Najette won't be back next year for our elder daughter's class, as she was so patient with our son and his limited French and experience in a collective environment. She would use her limited English with him when there were times when he really didn't understand the French. When I thanked her today, she said that his French had really taken off recently.

It's really a grace of God to have caring teachers who really are looking out for the best of their students. Sylvie, the principal of the school, also keeps her eye on our son and on the progress of the other students as well.

The 2nd year teacher, Aurélie, is great with child now and won't be back next year while on maternity leave. So both our son and daughter will have teachers new to the school. Najette was new to the school this year and did very well. We are praying for 2 good teachers for the younger and middle sections.

After school, I went with our son and daughter and Claire to our last session of the swim time that we normally do twice a week. Yesterday was our elder daughter's last session on the 0-3 group, as she'll graduate to our son's age by September. Again, we're thankful for caring lifeguards at both the Monday morning class for the 0-3 year olds and the Tuesday and Friday afternoon classes for the 3-6 year olds.

Pierre and Mauricette, 2 of the lifeguards for the older section, also have been patient and encouraging with our son. It seems that the progress he's made in his swimming has paralleled that of his French. He started out slow, but has made great progress in the last couple of months.

As I was driving today, it struck me that I really didn't feel like a foreigner or afraid to drive in city traffic here. That's a huge change from when we got our car 6 years ago and were afraid to take it out or parallel park it. Having multiple children has forced us to drive and get comfortable doing so.

It was encouraging to be able to say to many kids and parents that we would see them in September. We really don't feel like strangers in our neighborhood anymore. Because our children's school is semi-private, it draws people from a number of different neighborhoods and school districts in Paris. So we're able to broaden our horizons throughout our district.