This is the first week that is not one of school vacation here. Now we are into the "Don't you go to school?" and it is so much fun, contrary me thinks anyway. The answer, "we are homeschooled" is quickly followed by another question directed to me; "How do you do it?" or "Isn't it hard?" Mostly I just smile and say; "With lots of joy." or: "Isn't is great to be able to travel outside of the expensive season?"
Today the children are being homeschooled at their grandparents' house, all in French. The grandparents' idea of fun is playing board games like Four Horses, the Family Game, Mille Bourne, or this other game that all the kids love. It goes like this; you write down six categories on a piece of paper, pick a letter out of the alphabet and write down something in each category that starts with that letter. It is really hard, even for a native speaker, but for semi-bilingual children, it is a great challenge. They have such fun playing this game that Lily came home and sat down with two picture dictionaries to "study" last night; one with names of fruits and vegetables, one with names of professions and jobs. The categories mainly consist of those two, names of countries or cities, first names, names of objects, names of flowers or trees, names of animals, it's up to the person writing out the sheets when beginning. The way you get to any letter is to tell someone to start saying the alphabet silently until you say "stop". That is the letter you start with.
Tomorrow they will be car-schooled as we travel across the southwestern part of the country to the Midi. Along the highway there won't be too much to see, but I bet, given the choice between me reading the history of Toulouse aloud or them finding a version of the game to play, we can make up a game or two for the road, in French even! (And I'll have the history book handy, just in case.)
