The School Story

David and I just returned from dropping the children off for their first day of school. I am going to attempt to write "the story" of how this came to be without soaking the keyboard in tears. Perhaps this account will be the perfect distraction for me. God, I hope so, because right now it is all I can do to avoid going into the full blown Ugly Cry.

Originally, my hope was to find a group of homeschoolers in France with whom we could connect and continue to homeschool (as we do in the States.) I knew it was a shot in the dark. For the record, I did find homeschoolers - but they are an hour+ away from here and they didn't know anyone in this area who homeschools. That left us with the difficult decision of sending the children to school or homeschooling in utter isolation.

Seeing how our goals for this year include language acquisition, cultural immersion and making some friends, our only option really was to send the children to school. At first it seemed I was going to get exactly what I wanted - which was to send the children for half the day. This would have been the best compromise. A couple weeks before we arrived here however I was informed this was not going to be possible. But by then, the idea of going to school had grown on Bo & Vivi, so we discussed it and they requested a chance at going full-day. Needless to say, this kicked my nerves into high gear.

There have been many challenges/obstacles along the way, which of course have made me question whether or not we are making the right decision. But everyone insists this is the best, fastest way for the children to learn French and really the only way for them to make any friends. So I have pressed on, nerves on a rampage and prayers going up every 10 seconds for God's hand of Blessing to be upon this crazy ordeal.

The first challenge in sending the kids to school came in the vaccination requirements. Children in France are absolutely required to have diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccinations. Luckily for Bo, I guess, I hadn't educated myself on vaccinations until he had already received these as an infant, so he was all set. But Vivi has only had Dt, and that just this past June in preparation for this trip. I had hoped we could avoid having to get her the polio vaccine here, but she will go tomorrow to receive it and the mandatory physical (for Bo as well) for entrance into school, unless I can convince the doctor to do otherwise. (Getting to the doctor has been another wild experience in itself, worthy of a separate post which will be written forthwith.)

A completely unanticipated obstacle has been the need for the children to be insured. Not with the standard US medical insurance (which of course they have) but with a French "civil responsibility" insurance and a "personal insurance." These insurances are required of anyone who wants to do anything, anywhere, with anyone in this country. Basically, it means if you break something somewhere, you're insured to repair or replace said item. So we are in the process of getting this for all of us (because of course David needs it as well to play volleyball and who knows what I will end up needing it for, but I am sure I will need it for something).

Another decision we've dragged our heels with has been school lunch. The children get an hour for lunch and recess where we have the choice to leave them at school or bring them home. If they stay, they eat a full restaurant-type meal (appetizer, main meal, dessert and drinks) and have free-play time. All along I have been thinking it would be best to bring them home for lunch, thereby saving the 6.20euro a day ($9-) and giving the kids a break from the immersion for a bit. But everyone here, and I do mean EVERYONE, says this is a very bad idea because it is during this free time that the children will make friends and get to relax and play. I've been told this time is critical social-time and it would be a shame for our children to never get the chance to just hang out with the other children. Plus, logistically, it would be difficult to have them for lunch each day because Vivi's school is about 10 minutes away by car (which means half her break would be used up with the commute). So for today and tomorrow we will take a picnic lunch, pick up Bo in Cravant and drive to Vivi's school in Panzoult for the lunch time and then drop Bo back off at his school afterwards. But starting Thursday they will stay there for the whole day. Without me. And me without them.

Aside from the pending doctor's visit, we are still trying to get Vivi's Dt record from our doctor's office in NH. This is proving a challenge because of HIPA. HIPA laws state the office cannot email the document to me and their fax machine won't dial an international number. HIPA also prevents anyone else from picking up the document for us, unless they have our written permission. The only person who has this is our attorney (who is also our best friend), but he works in the opposite direction of our doctor's office, so this is a challenge. I am pretty sure the only way he can get this dumb paper is to show up in person. Needless to say I am beginning to not care one bit whether we get this ridiculous sheet of paper or not.

Lastly, I think we have finally managed to convince everyone involved that we really and truly do not have a "Liverette de famille" - because whatever this is, it doesn't exist in the States. This "Family Booklet" is just that - a little booklet you receive when you marry with pages in it for information about the happy couple and any little results of their happiness (with room for up to Nine Results!!). This booklet proves you are a family. I chuckled at the thought of what Family Booklets would look like in America what with the brokenness of our family units and how complicated the branches of our family trees can become. There would be addendems and entire bottles worth of White-Out in most books! Thankfully, everyone appears to be willing to take our familial-relations on faith.

Added to this exhaustive list of hoops to jump through is the fact we've had to do it all in the midst of a very thick language fog. We've slowly pieced together what's been needed through bi-lingual emails, choppy conversations with the teachers, the mayor's office and local parents, or my sketchy attempts at translating various French government websites. There have been countless miscommunications resulting in confusion or frustration. But in the end, I guess it is all working out because the children have now been in school for a full hour and no one has called home yet.

I am anxiously awaiting news as to how the first day went. I'll be sure to let you know. As we say here in France, "On va voir" - We will see!