Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

The First Day of School

                                       

School starts today in France. The backpacks are packed with reams of paper, ink pens, rulers and the other required tools for school work. Sacha starts high school today, Chelsea is a Senior. Oh! They have grown taller than me…time is measured differently in a Mother’s heart.

When they arrive at school the will stand with their other classmates outside the main door. The director will step out with the teachers standing behind him. He will announce each home-room teacher individually, then precede to announce each student attending that particular home room. The students walk up present themselves, then stand behind the teacher. When the teacher has her entire class gathered, they walk into the school. Seniors are last.

What is a memory of yours of the first day of school?

photo: I like to think that this vintage card is of a boy saying good bye, with his flute, to summer holidays.

Comments

24 responses to “The First Day of School”

  1. Britt-Arnhild

    In Norway school started two weeks ago. My youngest started in 5th grade, she is 10. I was away in Oslo all week and couldn’t be there for the very important mother-daughter talk when she came home every day. Cell phones is a blessing, we were able to talk every day 🙂
    Good luck to your kids.

    Reply
  2. Carol

    My little nephew has his very first school day today, can’t wait to go and see him this afternoon to hear what it was like and to bring him some pressies that I’ve got him.
    I can remember that in all the excitement of my first school day back in 1969 my mum forgot my schoolcone at home, so they had to go back to get it, while I was in class with my teacher and when we came out, all the parents where there waiting with the schoolcones, but not mine. EEK! Luckily this shock did not last long because after a few minutes I saw them coming, rather running back lol My little sis got a little schoolcone as well. I still have pictures of both of us with the cones.

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  3. Jeanne

    On my very first day of school ever they had to take me literally lifted away from my Mother and Grandmother as I did not want to leave them.
    I became safe at school and got out of my shyness and was a very good student.
    I loved grade school I had fabulous memories.
    High school was an all girls business school and very boring!
    Love you

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  4. Carol

    Oh I forgot, that maybe you won’t know what a schoolcone/or paper funnel, we call it “Schultüte” here is, it’s a tradition we have, so here is the explanation:
    A long pointed cone made of cardboard and filled with sweets or small presents. Given to children in Germany on their first school day.

    Reply
  5. Shannon Lewis

    Wow, your kids are starting two polar opposite milestones. What a day.
    My first day of kindergarten stands out. I was 2 weeks late starting because I was recovering from having my appendix taken out.
    By then the kids had made their friends and there I stood outside of the school alone standing out from the crowd. A boy approached me and asked me my name. I was so painfully shy, I pointed to my name tag because I didn’t dare say a word.
    He said “But I can’t read”, so I had to whisper my name as my throat was so tight with nervousness.

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  6. meredith

    I remember a new dress. I liked it so much I wore it on the second day of school as well.

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  7. constance Muller

    Dear Corey,
    I found you and your beautiful blog through Ulla. I’ve been enjoying reading it so much. This morning a shed a little sentimenal tear even though I don’t have my own children. Thanks again for sharing.
    Constance

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  8. Linda

    I remember those boxes of fat crayons. We each had a little box in which to put our belongs on a book shelf with our name on it. I had to wait until everyone else got their own box because I didn’t know how to read when I started school, not even my own name. Time has moved on and there is nothing I would rather do than read.

    Reply
  9. diana

    I always loved school and the first day of school was always like the beginning of the new year for me… I do remember taking the wrong bus home one year and ending up on the opposite side of town !! Lots of drama as we were in a foreign nation and I did not speak the language !!

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  10. Sarah

    Bonne chance to your kids at La Rentree! I’m new to your blog and interested in hearing about your children’s language acquisition process, which is probably not something you’re planning on covering here. But if you have raised them bilingually, I’d love to hear about that process. I have a blog about teaching languages to children via my teaching French to my nephew. Please come visit and share some ideas from your experience! In fact, if you’d be wiling to have me do a brief profile of one or both of your kids (if indeed they are bilingual), please write to me at babybilingual (at) gmail (dot) com. Merci bien!

    Reply
  11. ParisBreakfasts

    Funny! I just saw Diabolo Menth at the Aliance Francais a few weeks ago and les goss did the same exact thing 1st day of class!? Merci Corey 🙂

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  12. Jos

    Oh my!! Good luck and happiness to your children today!
    Wow, so Chelsea is a senior? It will be a special year for her. What a magical time in all of your lives!

    Reply
  13. pepek

    What an elegant site you have!
    My memories of the first day of school: The smell of the classroom, new varnish, chalkdust. The excitement when the new readers were passed out. (I loved Dick and Jane, Baby Sally, and Spot and Puff. I memorized my reading book each year.) The wonder of having a new desk, someplace all my own, to keep my things in.
    (My third grade reader, Friendly Village, featured Alice and Jerry: “I know a village where you would like to live. I would like to live there, too. The streets run up hill and down, and there are flowers in every garden.”) See? I told you!
    Thanks for the memories….

    Reply
  14. Jenny

    My Dad carried me kicking and screaming into school in the first grade. After that…I knew I had to go. And I loved it! I love what you describe about the first day of school in France. Learning should be about ceremony and respect for others and order.

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  15. expatraveler

    I like to think of my memory watching children in St. Louis France start school. Things are so different since you stand outside the school and aren’t aloud inside…
    It’s so funny to watch parents pick up the little ones from school for lunch too! But it’s also amusing. I’m so glad I didn’t have to worry about the nosing parents!

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  16. Becca

    the photo of Chelsea is hysterical! Someday … she will treasure it more than anything else. What an imaginative way to stay busy on lonely winter days! I love it …

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  17. mikaelah

    the first day of school mom woudl make something special like waffles and I was always so upset about starting school (major separation anxiety) that I never could eat them.

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  18. Elaine

    I remember my daughter’s first day of school and her last. The years inbetween were fleeting. Sometimes I wonder if someone gave my life rollerskates so that it could move faster.

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  19. Amber

    I remember the first day of school, when I was young and the boys were cute and goofy. But I will always remember Wyatt walking in front of me on his first day… Mom was just too slow!
    🙂

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  20. berrie

    we just had our first day of school here too! You’re kiddos are getting older Corey;o) I too have a senior* it’s fun to watch them ‘take off’ isn’t it? xo

    Reply
  21. Francabollo

    On the first day in the First Grade at Murdock Elementary in Willows, I spent the first recess shadowing the one-year-older Orama. I remember sitting next to him on that long bench that spanned the width of the outside wall of the auditorium/cafeteria. I don’t know how he felt about his skinny little pony-tailed cousin tagging along but it was a bit of comfort to me. Thanks Orama.

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  22. mary ann

    i don’t really remember my very 1st day of school (kindergarten)…it’s all a blur really…i do remember getting sugar cookies & chocolate milk for snack time & one day, my father brought me to school & it was a teacher’s institute day…i remember sitting with my k-teacher & we had to wait for my mom to get me from the nearby hospital where she worked (dad had already gone to work)…that’s what happens i guess when new immigrants don’t get the american school system at first!

    Reply
  23. susanna

    I don’t really remember my very first day at school although I remember being in Kindergarten in Inuvik, a town near the Arctic Ocean. My sister and I would walk to school, bundled in our snowsuits over the “sidewalks” which were really just planks of wood over the ice and mud. I remember making a huge balloon out of parachute fabric with my inuit and military classmates. I remember returning home after school, avoiding the huskies in the backyard of a house near my own home.

    Reply
  24. mary jane

    On my first day it rained and the bus passed us by…we were late and the nun helped me off with my rain boots…I remember being very excited to get started with the business of learning how to write my name however when I had to stay behind a desk all morning it came to me that school wasn’t going to be as easy an adventure as I had lived in my dreams.

    Reply

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