Armistice Day

Today, Armistice Day, is a National holiday, and so last night homework was not a priority. Selma came as usual, and we invited her to play "Market Day" with us. I don't remember where this game appeared from, and as far as I know it never had any instructions enclosed. After a quick search on Google, all was explained. I am glad now that I saved it from the dustbin when we moved.

We spent a happy time buying and selling farm animals, losing cards when our animals jumped the hedges, and winning them when we landed on the lucky crowing cockerel, or on the farmer playing cards with his cronies. It was good to see both boys playing in French for nearly an hour.

Today the sun re-appeared, and the children helped François to pick up the leaves in the garden.

Who would have thought that one little silver birch tree could go on and on producing so many dead leaves. There are sacks of them waiting in the garage to be taken to the dump.

Caroline arrived this afternoon, and took the boys to the park. We had nems (little Vietnamese spring rolls) for supper, and Louis' tooth fell out, his second in two days! He is very pleased.

Nouns and Worms

Louis has recently discovered the dreaded gender problem in French. All nouns are masculine or feminine, even if they are plainly not girls or boys. Why is a nose masculine and an ear feminine? A knife masculine and a fork feminine? You just have to remember the gender of every new noun that you learn.  François helpfully told him that Mamie still makes mistakes, even after all these years. I hope that this revelation will be a motivation, and not a discouragement.

This afternoon, as it is Wednesday, Louis was invited to play with Timothée. Sacha helped François to pot some chrysanthamums, and was pleased to find a ladybird in the garden as well as various worms.

Praise and Sounds

I heard nice things about both boys today. Sacha's teacher told me that although he is sometimes in a dream, he is smiling and pleasant all the time and very much loved by the other children. It will be hard for the class when he leaves at Christmas.

Louis' class are allowed to spend time in the school library, and choose a book to take home for the week. One of the pupils has a grandmother who comes in to help. She came up to congratulate me on Louis' polite behaviour, (he had apparently remembered to say s'il vous plaît and merci and au revoir Madame, )  and was gratified that Louis had chosen a French book to take home. It seems that other English speaking pupils tend to  choose books from the English section.

We tried a new game this evening, which worked well. It was a Sound Bingo. It is an old game of mine for teaching English to small children, but it works just as well in French. There is a cassette tape of various sounds, and we each had a card with pictures on it. If for example we heard chirping, then the person with a picture of a bird singing could cover it with a counter, as long as he had said what he could hear. Thank goodness that François was with us to tell us the different motor sounds - a lorry, a motor bike, a car, and a tractor (1980s models of course,) all sound extremely similar to me.

Football

This morning's trip to the swimming pool was much less serene :  there was a swimming gala going on, and all the pools were very full.

After lunch, a quick game of football in the garden ended abruptly when the ball took upon itself to go sailing over the back wall. A new family moved into that house in the summer (replacing the owners of our dear visiting cat,) and so the football team didn't know how they would be received. But all was well. Nick identified the house, Louis did the explaining, without any previous coaching, and the ball was recovered. To their surprise, the lady knew them by sight, as her  little girl, Clara, is in Sacha's class. (I had no idea.) The boys returned with a packet of sweets each as well as the ball, so they agreed that  it was Certainly A Lucky Thing that the ball had gone over.

We went to the Parc de la Garenne to play some more serious football, but were sidetracked by Vietnamese pigs, and TWO playgrounds.


It was nearly home time and the light was failing when they remembered the football. However, it was a tremendous game. I think that it was a draw.

Tanks, and a milestone.

This morning Nick and the boys went to the swimming pool. There were very few swimmers in the smaller pool,  so they were able to play water games without getting into anybody's way.

After lunch we took off for Saumur, in the direction of the Musée des Blindées - the Tank Museum. The guide at the aeroplane museum had said that the children would enjoy it, and it was a visit to remember.

The major 20th century conflicts were related through the development of the armoured vehicle.


There were more than 200 tanks, troop carriers, and artillery vehicles from more than 17 different countries.

There were 12 exhibition halls :  the France 1940 Hall, the German Hall, the Allies Hall, the Warsaw Pact Hall...and of course the children's area where the children were invited to climb aboard.

This evening, in the restaurant, Louis suddenly remembered to tell me that the little orange nightlight next to the door in his bedroom was broken. "Tell Papy what has happened, and he'll mend it for you," I said. Louis turned to François and gave a beautiful translation into French.

We were so impressed. Louis, unaware of our delight,  went on eating his caramel pancake.