2 posts tagged “précoce”
It was a sad day yesterday. Freya had her last day at the précoce (nursery school) in the morning and then her last afternoon at the forest crèche. She's been going to précoce only since September but is already a favourite of her two teachers. I haven't really got to know them so well so it wasn't so terribly sad for me and Freya seems quite oblivious to the emotion of it all. Well, she is only three!
The forest crèche was quite another matter though. I've been driving her there every day, Monday to Friday, for almost a year and a half now. When she first started going, she hadn't started to talk yet and then I would listen to podcasts or my Ludlum Bourne audiobooks. Soon she started talking and then we started listening to music in the car. I remember one of the first things was the Yellow Submarine, and she would come home and tell mummy "rine, rine" - that was all she could say to say that she'd been listening to the Yellow Submarine. It's funny to think that she couldn't say those words back then. Fast forward to her last day and she's now fluent and able to express herself very well not only in English but in Luxembourgish too.
The music grew and she soon had several playlists strung together (one of which I posted about back in February). Then I rediscovered All Aboard, a tape that I had when I was a youngster and the Laughing Policeman soon became a firm favourite, along with the Hippopotamus song, Goodness Gracious Me, the Bee Song, Granddad, My Brother, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, etc. And, of course, the last week has been taken up with Christmas songs.
The forest crèche is such a wonderful concept and she has learned so much there. The building itself is right in the middle of the forest, right off the beaten track, and every day they go out into the forest, rain, hail or shine. You should see them all dressed up in their snow suits, gloves and balaclavas or their boodlebox and raincoats (boodlebox is Luxish for waterproof trousers - no doubt I'm spelling it wrongly but I really must write it down lest I forget as I'm sure I would very soon!) And in summer it's t-shirt, had and sunscreen and off they go. She's learned a lot of confidence by going there. I remember after her first week Lorraine telling me that they were throwing rocks off a sheer drop and laughing, but I thought she was exaggerating. She stayed with Freya for her first few weeks you see in case she got upset at being left on her own at the tender age of two. I went along with them one day, and, sure enough, the drop was as sheer as could be. They would climb trees and slide down muddy slopes on their behinds. You should see the state that their clothes got into. It must be great to be so carefree and be able to have such fun.
She's made a lot of friends there, one of whom we're spending the morning with on Sunday as it happens - a little boy with a Russian mother and Lux-ish father, so Mikhail is one of the few other kids there that I can actually talk to! (I speak Russian, for those who didn't know).
It was terribly difficult saying goodbye to her teachers, well, difficult for me and the teachers anyway. One of the teachers was in tears and I admit that I was having to fight them back myself (and am now, as it happens). We're so fortunate to have got a place there and that Freya was able to go for so long. It's such a pity that Hamish will never know such a place, but when we move we'll have the beach and mountains on our doorstep and an au pair and mum will be home every day too, so, although it will be different for him, hopefully it will be just as good. I must say though that I'm feeling terribly sad about it, but nostalgic and happy for the memory of taking my little girl to crèche every day. Once we move I'll be working every day and not even home for lunch so I won't get to spend the afternoons with my little boy at home either. It's all going to change and I know that we will all be much happier being back home and being by the sea again.
We're lucky parents to have such great kids and their whole lives ahead of them. I can imagine now how my mum and dad must have felt when Brian and I were that age, but it's something one can never really imagine until one becomes a parent. I'm grateful to have found out the secret of true happiness and the love of a parent. I couldn't be without it now.
<sniff>
So thank you everyone at the bëschcrèche!
The music grew and she soon had several playlists strung together (one of which I posted about back in February). Then I rediscovered All Aboard, a tape that I had when I was a youngster and the Laughing Policeman soon became a firm favourite, along with the Hippopotamus song, Goodness Gracious Me, the Bee Song, Granddad, My Brother, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, etc. And, of course, the last week has been taken up with Christmas songs.
The forest crèche is such a wonderful concept and she has learned so much there. The building itself is right in the middle of the forest, right off the beaten track, and every day they go out into the forest, rain, hail or shine. You should see them all dressed up in their snow suits, gloves and balaclavas or their boodlebox and raincoats (boodlebox is Luxish for waterproof trousers - no doubt I'm spelling it wrongly but I really must write it down lest I forget as I'm sure I would very soon!) And in summer it's t-shirt, had and sunscreen and off they go. She's learned a lot of confidence by going there. I remember after her first week Lorraine telling me that they were throwing rocks off a sheer drop and laughing, but I thought she was exaggerating. She stayed with Freya for her first few weeks you see in case she got upset at being left on her own at the tender age of two. I went along with them one day, and, sure enough, the drop was as sheer as could be. They would climb trees and slide down muddy slopes on their behinds. You should see the state that their clothes got into. It must be great to be so carefree and be able to have such fun.
She's made a lot of friends there, one of whom we're spending the morning with on Sunday as it happens - a little boy with a Russian mother and Lux-ish father, so Mikhail is one of the few other kids there that I can actually talk to! (I speak Russian, for those who didn't know).
It was terribly difficult saying goodbye to her teachers, well, difficult for me and the teachers anyway. One of the teachers was in tears and I admit that I was having to fight them back myself (and am now, as it happens). We're so fortunate to have got a place there and that Freya was able to go for so long. It's such a pity that Hamish will never know such a place, but when we move we'll have the beach and mountains on our doorstep and an au pair and mum will be home every day too, so, although it will be different for him, hopefully it will be just as good. I must say though that I'm feeling terribly sad about it, but nostalgic and happy for the memory of taking my little girl to crèche every day. Once we move I'll be working every day and not even home for lunch so I won't get to spend the afternoons with my little boy at home either. It's all going to change and I know that we will all be much happier being back home and being by the sea again.
We're lucky parents to have such great kids and their whole lives ahead of them. I can imagine now how my mum and dad must have felt when Brian and I were that age, but it's something one can never really imagine until one becomes a parent. I'm grateful to have found out the secret of true happiness and the love of a parent. I couldn't be without it now.
<sniff>
So thank you everyone at the bëschcrèche!
Freya had her first afternoon at nursery school (called précoce in these here parts) today. Mum was worried that it wouldn't go well and that Freya wouldn't let her leave. She can be quite funny can our little Freya. Even though she'd been going to crèche on her own for nearly a year, she still didn't want to go in to Little Gym on her own. But she was fine. Mum dropped her off at two and she was perfectly happy.
Just after lunch and getting ready to go out. It's only a five minute walk from our flat but mum took her early so that they could go to the park first.
See you at 10 to 4 daddy. That actually takes me back as that was when I finished school too, until they changed it to a more respectable 3.30 that is.
I drove past the gathering crowd outside the school countless times, knowing that my time would come. And I was right - it did, today.
She's looking a bit bewildered, but that ain't nothing - you should've seen me!
There's a great little park just behind the nursery school. That's where mummy took her before school started and was the first place she wanted to go when she came out. She had a lot of fun there.
And finally on our way home, only to get there we had to pass yet another park. Naturally, we had to play in there for a while as well.
All in all it was a fun day. She still hasn't really told us much of what she did there. She told me that they did a puzzle after dark, whatever that might mean, and that they didn't do any painting. I think she was rather hoping that they would, so we did some painting when we got home.
She'll be going from now on on Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings and I really think she's going to get a lot out of it. I imagine her Luxembourgish will come on in leaps and bounds. It's such a shame it isn't French that they use at the crèche and at précoce, you know, something useful. But I guess that the language acquisition thing will be good for her regardless of whether it's a real language or not. Not that I have any feelings about it of course!
