Today was Colin's first day at his first structured playgroup, L'Ecole Maternelle (means nursery school, I think), which is held at a nearby church here in Chineham. This group is part of the L'Ecole Francaise (The French School) here in Chineham, run by a non-profit group, headed by the wonderful Chansopha Beirmann and a team of very kind people.
The group is small, only 6 today, including one boy, Robin, whom Colin has made friends with over the summer. He is French/Chinese and he and his parents and baby brother moved here recently from Bejing (moved because of his father's company). Colin loves playing with Robin at the park and now they are "partners in crime" at this playgroup, too. There are a few other boys and girls there, ranging from Colin's age to about 4 1/2. In fact, when I signed him up they told me that he had to be at least 2 years and 9 months old to join. TODAY, Colin is exactly 2 years and 9 months old! Must be fate?
The playgroup's aim is to provide pre-school children with a predominantly French-speaking play environment, so they can become familiar and be at ease around foreign languages. This should help the children to develop an ear for other languages, whichever they may learn or encounter in the future. He may pick up a few words of French, too, which will be fun for us (we've already taught him to say "Ooh La La!").
Colin seemed to really like the group, getting stuck in right away, playing with play dough, toys, and puzzles. He loved his snack of milk and carrot sticks, and they sang songs at the end of the session. They will learn a few songs in french, including "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," although Colin just sang along in English today.
It felt a bit odd for me to take Colin and drop him off for the two hour session, as he is rarely without either Shaun or I, but I came back a little early at the end to watch for a few minutes. I had tea and chatted with the other mothers who are all very nice, one who used to live in Seattle! Small world, eh??? Anyway, I think Colin and I will enjoy the break from each other twice a week and it will be a new adventure for all of us!!!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
Our First Boot Sale...
Okay, sorry to bore you all, but we thought we'd post a little bit about what we got up to this past Sunday. We went to a local Car Boot Sale and sold a bunch of stuff, which was quite interesting, really. The Car Boot Sale is like a combination Garage Sale/Flea Market, where sellers load their car boots up (that is the TRUNK of the car for you yanks) with anything they wish to sell, the usual junk we all have lying around the house, and park at a local site on the given day, usually paying a fee for use of the space. The public comes along to buy the junk, er, bric-a-brac, and hopefully everyone has fun.
Sounds funny, but most British people have no garages to sell things from at their homes, as the bulk of homes in Britain were built before cars (hence no garages, in case you aren't quite following). And yard sales? Well, we don't call them yards, for one, just "front gardens," but most people don't have big front gardens anyway, builders usually opt to make the back garden a bigger feature. Oh, the differences between our two countries never end!
Well, we sold loads of stuff, despite it being a drizzly day, and we met lots of nice people, and a few characters, to boot (no pun intended). At first Shaun found it hard to part with items, selling them only for a few pennies, but he later got the hang of it, and got into haggling with people, arriving at just the right price for each bit of tat (at boot sales you rarely price things in advance as people like to bargain with you). It was a real hoot!
I was a good haggler myself on the day, chatty as always, and got several people asking me where I am from, no surprise there, eh?
Colin was happy playing in our new car while we sold things, turning on the hazard lights, blinkers, wipers, etc. whenever our backs were turned. Also, as we had expected, he kept stealing the toys we were selling and hiding them in the car boot! He was especially possesive about some trains we were selling (none of his favourites, just some we'd gotten at past boot sales). He went so far as to hide them under some wrapping, the clever kid! We were able to distract him with some chocolate milk and I am happy to say that the toys went to new homes, hooray!
We ended up with a few empty boxes and a load of cash at the end. Not a fortune, but satisfying none the less. I bought a few last minute knick-knacks while people were packing up, so I went home with a few bargains, too. We go to boot sales every few weeks, and I have to say that I am hooked on them, both as a buyer and as a seller. Wish us luck on our future sales!
Sounds funny, but most British people have no garages to sell things from at their homes, as the bulk of homes in Britain were built before cars (hence no garages, in case you aren't quite following). And yard sales? Well, we don't call them yards, for one, just "front gardens," but most people don't have big front gardens anyway, builders usually opt to make the back garden a bigger feature. Oh, the differences between our two countries never end!
Well, we sold loads of stuff, despite it being a drizzly day, and we met lots of nice people, and a few characters, to boot (no pun intended). At first Shaun found it hard to part with items, selling them only for a few pennies, but he later got the hang of it, and got into haggling with people, arriving at just the right price for each bit of tat (at boot sales you rarely price things in advance as people like to bargain with you). It was a real hoot!
I was a good haggler myself on the day, chatty as always, and got several people asking me where I am from, no surprise there, eh?
Colin was happy playing in our new car while we sold things, turning on the hazard lights, blinkers, wipers, etc. whenever our backs were turned. Also, as we had expected, he kept stealing the toys we were selling and hiding them in the car boot! He was especially possesive about some trains we were selling (none of his favourites, just some we'd gotten at past boot sales). He went so far as to hide them under some wrapping, the clever kid! We were able to distract him with some chocolate milk and I am happy to say that the toys went to new homes, hooray!
We ended up with a few empty boxes and a load of cash at the end. Not a fortune, but satisfying none the less. I bought a few last minute knick-knacks while people were packing up, so I went home with a few bargains, too. We go to boot sales every few weeks, and I have to say that I am hooked on them, both as a buyer and as a seller. Wish us luck on our future sales!
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