home decor and garden are very famous in the world

Mademoiselle had her first written exam for her French Baccalaureat today.  This is a Pretty Big Deal.    The French system offers very little opportunity to try your hand out at exams, so it was practically a first.  The Baccalaureat are the French end-of-high-school exams and are spread over two years.

We decided last night that we'd be leaving extra early this morning, the exam was at 8.30am, so it would be good to be there at least 20 minutes ahead of time.  Sounded good, controlled, planned ... reassuring.

Mademoiselle had a good breakfast, triple checked her ID papers  and off we went.

On the way to school in the car she was exchanging text messages with her friends "wow, they're already there!  Why do they want to be there before 8, they're mad" ....

A few minutes later, just before 8, she reads another text ..... "weird ... why are they going into the exam room already?!"  

I chime in, a sinking feeling in my stomach  "Honey, please don't tell me the exam is at 8 and not 8.30!"

She pulls out the exam register paper from her bag, "wow, that's so weird, it's at 8, why didn't anyone tell me?!!"

pause for a few long deep breaths ......

We cruised into the school car park at 4 minutes past 8, having broken most speed limits en route and taken a bus lane down the last section of the road.  She jumped out of the car, blew me a kiss, and said "don't worry mummy, it will be fine, love you!"  and off she went.

I watched her speed into school, long blonde hair in the wind, legs up to her armpits, beautiful and  happy.  Yup, happy and - all things considered - remarkably calm and together.  I sat in the car thinking "where did my little girl go, who only five minutes ago was setting off for her first day of kindergarten?!"

Four hours later she emerged smiling and still happy, content with her exam, the lateness put down as something silly but not life-threatening.  I guess she's right.

So with all this rambling, I just wanted to say that I think our kids are part of a generation that will deal with pressures we never imagined.  They need to be strong, they need to be stress resistant, and they need to know how to stay happy and smiling whatever life throws their way.

I wish the best of luck to all those sitting end of year exams - may you live out your dreams, and look forward to a wonderful life ahead of you, no matter which path you go down.  And you know what?  turning up five minutes late to an exam - in the grand scheme of things - is really not that dreadful!

I wish I could have been a better horsewoman

.....

I could continue for much longer, but I won't ...

If you have published your life list just let me know and I'll add you to the post, or if you simply want to write your life list in my comment box I would be honoured, beyond honoured actually.

Thank you to everybody who left such  kind comments after my post about the old lady yesterday.   You are more than generous, you are the reason I continue to write this blog.

Merci mes amis, à demain!

PS.  Here is a beautiful annexe to my post.  A lady sent me a lovely email in reaction to this post, and gave me permission to quote her :  

We adopted the rule 'speak to Mummy in English to Papa in French".  This worked for us because I was at home with the children and I spoke the 'foreign' language.  We used to buy all the childrens'  videocassetes

in English, no hardship there, dubbed films just aren't the same.

In the French school system they don't really start reading until 4 to 5 years old, which left me space to teach them to read in English for a year beforehand.

I have always spoken to my children in English, from the delivery room on, I guess before even.  And they always speak to me in English.  Primary school is the first hurdle because a child who has been all day in a French environment finds it tricky to switch back to English the moment he runs to his Mummy's arms.  I remember some sweet conversations:

 my son -    "Mummy, I fell over in the cour and the maitresse essuied my genou with a mouchoir"

 me  - "Really?!  Shall we try that again ...  you fell in the playground and the teacher wiped your knee with a handkerchief? .... well that was kind of her"

Franglais had to be banned, it's too easy to lapse into a mix of languages, using whichever word springs to mind first.

Our dinner table held some surprises for guests.  I remember my eldest, then 4 years old, coming to the table with  dessert plates and working his way around the room "one for you, and one for you, and une pour toi and .... are you English ou Français?"

Today I can say they are perfectly bilingual, and able to pass themselves off as either English or French.  Between them I have noticed that a funny set of codes has developed unnoticed.  They generally speak to each other in the language being used around them, when alone together (can I say that?!)  the boys use English and the girls mostly use English until they are on horseback then it is only French - go figure.

Being bilingual seems to be an advantage at school and professionally, but in those early years the main motivation was being able to communicate with both sides of the family.





In the anglo saxon world I read that there is less and less enthusiasm for learning foreign languages - this seems a shame to me.  It's not only about vocabulary and grammar, it's also about opening up to a different culture, and in today's world we surely need to do that more and more.

I LOVE to have the house full, the children home, friends to visit, dinners to prepare and tables to lay.  But part of that pleasure is knowing that when it's all over, even though I continue to be busy, I shall carve out a little bit of me-time.