Saturday, October 30, 2010

Touring


Mr. K and I have been touring schools for Piglet for several weeks now. We are leaning heavily towards a language immersion program and with this in mind, our breakfast conversation with Piglet goes something like this:

Me: Piglet, can you say cwahssan (croissant)?

Piglet: Cwahssan!!!

Me: Piglet, can you say fromage?

Piglet: Fromage!

Mr. K: Piglet, can you say "I am speaking a dead European language?"

Oh that Mr. K, he thinks he is so funny.

If he had his druthers, we would enroll Piglet in a Mandarin Chinese immersion program.

Yesterday.

He figures that it will serve Piglet well to know the language of our "future overlords."

And he may have a point.

But let's face it, "Ni Hao Ma!" does not have the same flair as "Bonjour Maman!" And to be honest, the school with Mandarin immersion is, as Mr. K put it, "kind of a dump." Some facilities are modern and new while two of the main buildings should probably be checked for asbestos and mold. Seriously. MVK never jokes about mold and I'm telling you that there was a dank smell that hinted at something more. Thankfully, the classroom where the three year-olds are housed is in one of the newer buildings but the four year-olds are in mold central so we would only have one year before having to decide what to do next.

The school of the dead European language is fantastic all-around. The grounds are lovely and well-maintained and the buildings are bright and clean. The children all appeared happy and confident, not to mention adorable with their "s'il te plait" this and "oui, c'est bon!" that. The teachers are all native speakers and the head of school who has a PhD, stated a very compelling case for language immersion. I was smitten from the get-go, imagining my Piglet being all French speaking and fabulous.

Because that right there is the truth.

The French language is freaking fabulous. Sure, it's not as useful as sayyyyyy Spanish or Mandarin, but who needs useful when you can have FABULOUS?! Just saying.

Besides, let's just call a spade a spade. Mr. K is a genius-level uber geek. Signs point to Piglet having inherited the geek gene. Odds are that while it would be an amazing gift for him to be bilingual, he probably wouldn't need it in his chosen career.

Did you catch that?

I just charted my 2.5 year-old's career path.

NO, I DO NOT HAVE CONTROL ISSUES.

Thank you very much.

Moving on!

While we cannot believe that the time has come to consider preschools for Piglet, we know that he will probably be ready to start in January and certainly next fall. It's an exciting process for us and especially for Mr. K who loves to learn and loves that he will be able to share this journey with Piglet soon.

I am having so much fun touring schools and imagining Piglet making pipe cleaner art and handprint wreaths. Though I'm pretty sure my parents didn't go through this elaborate process with me. I think they just picked a place that was clean and where the people didn't seem like they would practice corporal punishment.

Ah, how times have changed.

Piglet, enjoy your last days of lounging and raiding the pantry. Change is a-comin'!


P.S. - To my new fan Liz, this one was for you. Now you can say "TWO freaking posts in October?" Put me out of my misery and hit follow already!

11 comments:

V said...

I am Greek and try to speak only Greek in the house. We currently have both kids in a Montessori school and really like it. Unfortunately there is no second language taught in that school at this age levels (2yrs and 10ms) but hope to eventually switch to something like what you are describing...

Christie said...

Oui! J'adore les langues étrangères.

Mo said...

how exciting to be looking at schools for piglet. can't wait to see which one you decide on!

ellyn said...

Mais Oui! J'adore le cake! But seriously you can't go wrong in preschool as long as it is a positive experience. Vive la France (& le Kims)!

'Murgdan' said...

Oh how fun! And such great choices! (minus the mold). And speaking of languages, have you tried the 'Little Pim' language DVDs? We've gotten a ton of them from the library--because of course my hubby has decided our son will speak at least 5 languages when he grows up--but I seriously love the idea of a language immersion preschool...I don't know if we have anything like that down here in these parts... :-)

Anonymous said...

i have never seen a place like this around my neck of the woods. B assures me that there has to be one...but I haven't heard of it. I'd love to send our little ones to the local university's preschool program. they have art and spanish and field trips AND closed circuit cameras that i would be able to watch from my office. the problem? it costs MORE than tuition. seriously. and for two? yikes! i think that we may have to start a "pre-school" account.

yay to two posts in october!! :)

Katell said...

French is definitely a plus once we will try to hook Piglet with Aitana ;=)

MGerson said...

Glad you're having fun with the preschool touring! After reading your post, I feel bad that my munchkin will be able to understand "Don't eat the paste" in just English! ;)

paoyser said...

I'm your 80th!!!

I feel so special, a post for me :)

Keep on writing Sista!!! and good luck with school searching, I'm sure Piglet will do excellent wherever he goes.

Liz

Anonymous said...

If he goes to French Immersion and then goes to Gilkey he can take Mandarin...just a thought :) He could speak three languages!!!
Julie

Ouijigirl said...

Well hey there... Liz was right to be a fan of yours now.. but i bet i clicked on follow much faster than she did.. for it only took me this post to decide that i wanted to read more about you and your piglets who by the way are totally adorable!

Must say your sense of humour is truely amazing and has made me...well like cyberspacers say... "LOL"

Im sure your piglets are gonna be ahead of their time if they inherit their papa's geeks and their "maman's" sense of humour towards life. Keep it up. Could be hard work for a mother of three.. Coz i have one piglet now and she's draining me out of things to laugh at already!!! :) Good luck dear... I'm officially a follower!!