WEDNESDAY'S OFF

The kids have Wednesday's off here and there is no school.  Nice you may say but I say O bother.  It completely breaks the week in half and then I am left on Thursday morning explaining why we have to go to school AGAIN.  Anyway Samuel had an appointment in Sallanches so we went for a picnic afterwards.  Sallanches is about 16 km away so not far.  WRONG.  It take 35 minutes and if you get behind a truck 40 and if it's snowing 50 minutes.  We do this trip on Mondays and Thursday mornings as Samuel goes to an exchange teacher specializing in teaching kids French who aren't French.  Great for Samuel, and it's free as it's offered by the government schools.  Not so great for Manu and me, we are exhausted, it's a case of there and back at 8am and then there and back again at 11am but Samuel is benefiting so we do it.

Down the road from Sallanches is Lac Passy, a huge area in front of Mount Blanc, so nice to chill.

After that it was home to try Benjamin's new bike.  Yip we succumbed to the pressure from a 4 year old.  When we got to France last year, Samuel's French grandparents very kindly bought him a bicycle for his 7th birthday.  Of course we felt it would be nice for Benjamin to have one to so we bought him one second hand from a rich old cow in Megeve, and needless to say it fell apart about a week later.  So we said for his 5th birthday he could have a bike.  We bought it early as they break up for two months in July so he can get some good riding in before the snow arrives.

Having never ridden a bike with two wheels I am very impressed.  Off he went no problem.

Samuel has been very homesick recently and is the main subject brought up by his teachers constantly.  His life as he knew it seems to have stopped since he left South Africa.  So I made him and his brother do a project.  We cut out maps of South Africa and pasted on all the pictures and things they missed most.  It was lovely to see them happy.  Of course nobody got left out, from Aunty Linda, there nanny Doreen, to Luke and William, Jess and Georgie, Isabella and Peter and of course Jessica Curtis.  Even the cat we had to leave behind got a look in.  Also featured on Benjamin's map was a baboon of course and most importantly the jungle gym and playground from Fish Hoek Pre-Primary he misses so much.

I asked Samuel 'why all the fishes?'  '...because of the aquarium mommy'  Silly me.  Amazing the things they remember.

And lastly, when leaving the psychologist with Samuel yesterday she said I must play Uno and Scrabble with Samuel.  I am killing myself with this child to do homework, read books, do our sums, play educative games.  I wonder why the simple pleasures in life never get mentioned, like skimming stones, running through fields of daffodils or just picking up wood with dad.  Just as important as books me thinks.