Ah-Antibes

So much to report from our first days in Antibes——

First of all- quelle difference! We left goat farms, chateaux and hillside vineyards and arrived to orange trees, Spanish tile roofs and bustling alleyways. It’s a hubbub and we hardly stick out in Antibes. In fact, I would venture to say we aren’t even considered loud here!! 

The kids were great on the 6 hour train ride from Paris to Antibes. It was so quiet on the train. We went first class because it was such a long ride and we had a table among the four of us, so I made the kids do school work to catch up. When we got down to the coast, the train hugged the shore and kept giving us glimpses of the Mediterranean. 

The kids were a little shell-shocked, having had the town of Sancerre to ourselves and encountering very few people in the streets. We walked from the train station to our house with the help of our hostess. Nothing reacclimates you like a 6 block walk rolling your suitcases over cobblestones and getting caught in the swirl of people out enjoying the great weather on a Saturday afternoon. The boys didn’t quite know what to make of all the humanity at first. Now they’re strolling the busy streets like locals.

While our hostess was showing me around, Samuel and Cooper decided to check out the roof top terrace. Apparently, that wasn’t the view they were looking for, so they climbed out onto the roof of the house—onto the Spanish tile, and over to the neighbor’s roof. Now this is funny in hindsight and actually, not really. A neighbor yelled to our hostess that the boys were on the roof. She freaked out, now my French is getting muddled as I try to assuage her fears, that my children can smell it when I am distracted and seize such weak moments to lose their minds and do something so impulsive that neither medication nor threat of bodily harm can prevent their bad decisions.

I have since fashioned a lock out of zip ties and my luggage lock.

Sunday we checked out the town, but Cooper was insistent that we go to the beach. From the train we saw kids swimming at the beach, so Cooper was dead set on getting in the water. I forced them to walk around for two hours, then we headed to play on the beach. It was a little chilly, but it didn’t stop Coops. The family in front of us had a little folding table, kneeling size, set with china and they were having tea, but it was very diverse. College students and families with small children. We encountered so many Italians all walking in the direction from Italy- weird- it was like they really walked from Italy, and maybe they did. 

One downside to the diversity is that many people have experience speaking English, so when they hear you trying to speak French, they want to help you out and speak English back to you. This is not helpful if you are here to learn French. There is a large ex-pat community — mostly English and Aussies— from the yachting industry, so everyone seems to have a little English.

At the park this afternoon, a mom started talking to us and when she heard us speak English, she started speaking English. She told me and Samuel that in Antibes, they are used to hearing a British accent, to which Samuel then responded— oh I can speak in a British accent for you if it’s easier—IN A BRITISH ACCENT. He went on for the remainder of our conversation. I finally got frustrated and told him— Samuel- we can here to improve our French, not your British accent! Too much Monty Python for him. 

I am going to need to get creative for more immersion for my kids. Our French classes aren’t scheduled til Mid April when they start their youth program.

Ok— homeschool. Really this blog is trying to do two things (because I am too lazy to maintain two blogs)— keep my friends and family updated on my happenings, but to help my homeschool friends who are interested in the whole homeschool-abroad thing. Someone from a  homeschool list-serv recently reached out to me via a link to my blog! She is actually going to the same school in Sancerre. So glad we connected, now I can give her some advice that I would have liked to received in advance! Love it— small world, getting smaller. Even smaller homeschool world I guess.

SOOO:  non-homeschoolers, avert your eyes, or read below and have an appreciation of how great/challenging it is to orchestrate intentional learning experiences for your kids.

Full-on homeschool started today with three boys and three subjects in three hours. Coops is the X factor, but I found that reading to him for parts of it really helps. He’s 7— if there are some moms with advice for me and that age group— bring it. Today he made the connection that the ancient Greeks founded Antipolis (Antibes) and that some of their walls are still here. That was worth all of the effort. Do love how TSOW tells the story. Also using BBC-History primary web site.

Bennett (9) started measurements (to keep up with his school’s curriculum) but of course we included metric system. He had a little aha-moment at the grocery store today when he noticed the apple juice was in CL— hmmm. 

Tomorrow, we go to the Archeology museum in Antibes to put it all together before we move on to the Romans for two weeks to prep for our trip to the ancient sites in Arles and Nimes. 

Never having done homeschool for three at once, it was like after school homework on amphetamines. No sooner did I get one set up then somebody needed me to check something or needed a material. Electronic books and materials: upside— I didn’t have to pack more books (we already have way too many, then we got more at French school); downside— we have one mac and two kindles, so we are always switching devices, or one needs something the other one has, etc. Kindle Fire has web, but it’s not great. Also— effing passwords are going to kill me. Every site requires a log-in, and because we are in France, our stuff is not always recognized or saved. And here’s news— there is a lot of content that is unavailable for viewing outside of the US. It’s against US copyright (and, I am sure, because of piracy laws). I have gotten around some of it by purchasing the episodes/movies. Then, everything needs to load— good lord- wish we could just open a book! Alors, half of my homeschooling has been IT support thus far, but hopefully I’ve troubleshotten all of that shot. 

Also— Bennett and Cooper aren’t really independent for homeschool yet. Samuel knows the drill; he checks the syllabus and gets his materials and gets going. Part of it is that I have only one hard copy of the syllabus. I was trying to save the amount of paper I brought. Really each kids needs his own for independence.

More about our binders later— but they’ve been a pain. I can’t seem to get comfortable with a workaround, but they are so heavy and cumbersome!

That’s all the news for one blog— it’s going to be called a blong if I keep going!