As future settlers of Quebec, where french is widely spoken, the children, by law, have to be enrolled in a French school. While it was not initially a concern, it developed into one as we thought more about it. Riel and I may be inept in helping them with their lessons, particularly in Science and Math, where terminologies will be in French. While Quebec has English schools, they only accept students who are eligible under a set of government criteria which my kids do not fall under. It is their way of protecting their French culture. An exception is if we send the kids to an independent English school that do not receive government funding or support. This, however, costs a fortune. An annual tuition fee is around $10k for “each” child — I have three kids! Being on a limited budget, we simply cannot afford it. Besides, we are not insane to throw that much for what — two prep boys and a Grade 2? Man, they’re not even in high school or college!
In the meantime, we’re familiarizing ourselves with the language. We do have a French tutor (hmmm… that sounded kinky) and formal training will start in a couple of weeks. I have no doubt the kids will learn fast, but me???
French 101
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And by the way, I noticed an increased traffic to the site since I moved to wordpress. I only know about a handful of you, and I’m clueless on the rest. Who are you? Thanks for stopping by.
KQOTD. The children suddenly had a craving for donuts, but there was none available. So instead, I shared with them a knock-knock donut joke that I learned a few days ago (Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. DONUT fun… etc.) Big mistake. BIG. While the joke generated a few laughs, the kids were quick to tease me back. They sang chorously: “Jingle Bells, Mommy smells, Mommy laid an egg. See how fun, she ate a fly, then Mommy lost her hair, hey!” Sheesh, they were singing and laughing again and again that it became my LSS (last song syndrome). Pity me.