Settling in—

Had a great day today, St. Patrick's Day and the beginning of our second full school week in Antibes. I’ve got it down now as far as getting everyone set up with their work. I am spending more time with Cooper. After working with Samuel who is so independent, I wasn’t quite prepared for the seven-year old version of homeschool. I had to back up a bit, doing more reading aloud and redirecting. As I mentioned previously, everyone seems to benefit when I read aloud- especially in this small house, because there is no escaping it! 

Today was great because we were reading about some of the Celts who managed to give the Romans some notorious beatings— appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day I guess— and my favorite the bodacious Boudicea. Samuel already knew all about her thanks to Horrible Histories (where he gets most of his history knowledge from— no apologies). And of course because we are in France, we’re learning about some of the Gauls who put up good fights too. 

I found an Irish pub in Antibes where we could celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

The boys started with a new “tutor” today. I am not proud of this, but I’ve basically hired someone for my kids to speak French to. I mentioned before, many people think they’re helping us out by speaking English. Actually, they’re helping themselves out because they don’t need to hear us stumbling along in French! Anyway- our “tutor” meets us at the park twice a week to guide my children in speaking French. We'll have her for a few weeks until the kids have their other language school here in Antibes for one week in April. Today she helped Bennett and Cooper talk and play with another little boy at the park. She took Samuel to a comic book store around the corner and helped him talk about comic books. Tomorrow, as a bonus, we’re also having a picnic with her and her two little girls. I am hoping to get the kids more conversation experience.  

Cooper and Samuel also started karate today! Samuel picked up a brochure at the tourist office, but the dojo was too far and we don’t have a car. I made a wrong turn heading home Saturday and passed right by a karate studio- one block away (and these blocks are very small). We went by today to get more information and Cooper’s class was starting right then. I asked him when he wanted to start and he said “right now!” OK then. Since we’re only here for six weeks now, the director is only charging us “licensing” to cover his insurance- 34e. I observed Samuel’s class and the kids are so kind and of course it’s all in French. The kids really liked having an American in class. Yeah— my work here is done.

That only leaves Bennett, who is my contrarian. He never wants to do what his brothers want to do. But he is my middle. I fight it all of the time, but not this time. Unfortunately, just like karate in Norfolk, my boys aren’t in the same age groups, so only one boy is there at a time, and we now have karate for two and a half hours twice weekly. But, since it’s so close— Samuel can walk to and from by himself. Today Bennett picked up Cooper for me because I had already committed to yoga. All of this is like five houses away from ours. I could not have asked for a better set up.

Good for my boys! They jumped right in. I asked Cooper how it went and he said— mom! they let you fight with each other right away! Another bonus- my kids recognized some of the kids from the park at karate. After one week, I feel like we have a little universe forming.