America meets France à l'école

eye eye yeye!

Who ever thought bringing two little children to school could be so exhausting...

Little Miss LOVES everything about school - her teacher - her classmates - and lately this little French boy, named Clement (claymon if you want to hear the real pronunciation here)
Little Miss chases away the other little girls so she can "have some alone time with Clement"
Um what part of NORMAL is this for a five year old? YIKES! I patiently explained that it is best for her to have a lot of friends vs just being friends with the little boy who wears a SpiderMan coat and really cool sneakers! I explain that having little GIRL friends is nice too...
FIVE. people. FIVE - Kindergarten...

S Man... oh he is the source of my exhaustion these days. One day he hates school and from the minute he gets out of bed tries to talk me out of bringing him. The next, he runs off into the classroom without saying goodbye... and then again we return to the little boy who doesn't want to go in there "with those French kids!", mind you, and needs to be PEELED off of my neck by the teacher as I turn quickly and make my escape... EXHAUSTING! He goes for three hours every morning. His teacher even speaks a little English to him... Yesterday was awesome - not a peep when he got up - he got dressed - he got in the van - got out at school - changed into his school shoes and deposited his coat on the rack - told me "that spaceship is rouge Momma". "That means Red in French, Momma"... turns on his heels and leaves me in his dust. I go to pick him up and he is playing in the hall with the other children and seems very happy... ahhhh that does a momma's heart good!

Today... all the children come out of school except S Man... Teacher finally comes out with his jacket in her hand. I'm thinking the zipper must have broken or something, but no, S Man "will not put on his jacket", the teacher says. I go into the school and he is throwing scooters, yes scooters - the one's you ride... across the entrance hall! Yelling and screaming as I try to put his jacket on. Teacher is explaining to him that the school is closed now and he has to go home. S Man doesn't listen to anything, continues on his tirade until I swiftly swoop him up with his jacket and try to hold him as he is kicking, hitting, screaming at the top of his lungs... I deposit him in his booster and try to get it snapped, more kicking and screaming... YIKES! Finally I succeed and we are off... Poor Little Miss just stays by my side, climbs into her seat and snaps her seatbelt all ready to head home...

We get home and S Man won't get out of the van. I go get him because it is raining - no, It's Pouring and the van is getting wet inside because he won't shut the door... I carry him in kicking and screaming and deposit him on the couch... He doesn't want his shoes off - he throws magazines across the room - throws my cookbook, throws everything in sight and then finally sits quietly.

I purposely did not unpack the bucket of Play Dough and all the little pieces after we moved. It's a very large bucket full and it always means a big mess to pick up afterwards... Today, the bucket came down off the top of the hutch and deposited onto the diningroom table... S Man, of course, is excited about this and immediately goes to play. I let him simmer down until he begins chatting with Little Miss (who is also very happy to see said bucket of PlayDough, assorted cutters and other things) and finally am able to ask him why he was so angry today...

His answer - " I don't know" ...

So there you have it... Tomorrow there is no school (no school on Weds here) but I'm sure we will have another adventure of American boy attends French school on Thursday
(no Thanksgiving holiday here!)