Test a new English Practice program for kids 7-12

Here’ s a link to try out a new online language practice program for kids, between 7 and 12 I’d say, who are learning English in school in France or in a French speaking country:

Rich Morning Show kids’ English language program

It’s an animated program, based on a talk show format, the ‘ Rich Morning Show ‘. The children are contestants who answer questions based on short animated video sequences they watch.

There’ s two free sessions for all, and five 21 session programs to win for the first five who sign up.

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Finally a site about the Internet and Children

As I was updating the internationalparents blog, I noticed among the Google generated ads that are automatically sent to the right of the site this link: http://www.internetevolution.com.

I thought, hum, what’s that about?

To my good surprise, its not another site about the latest innovations that are going to mean Web 2.0, and even Web 3.0 are old news. No, this IBM backed site seems, at first glance, to take a societal look at the Web, with parents’ voices being heard loud and clear.

The themes I struggle with as a parent and web fanatic appear there and are debated, at last!
These are:

• How do we prevent our children from accessing shocking content on the web?
  Or put in a positive light: How do we create a safe internet for our children?
• Another question that gets little press is finally addressed: how to manage the security of information on the web? Protect it from thiefs?
• On a related topic, how to protect our identity on the web, ie, prevent that from being ’stolen’ by someone posing as ourself on the wide open web?

The Web we have today is a young, fearless 20 year old creation with no social conscience. We need, as parents and as responsible citizens, to push for a Web that’s conscious of its responsibility towards society because its impact is immense on the young crowd in particular.

- > Here’s the link again: InternetEvolution.com

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Europipole: an incredible international school south of Aix in Cabriès

Finding a good school for your children while moving about worldwide is not easy. Often, as an international parent, you’re looking for a school that’s open to other languages and cultures in its curriculum. You often think of looking for an ‘international’ or bilingual school.

The Aix region is blessed with a few of these schools at the Pre-K, and Primary levels. There’s a ’supply’ issue only at the secondary level (the ‘ collège’ level in French), when the children are 12 to 14 year , where there are two options:

• the private international school IBS, in Luynes, just south of Aix. Tuition there is above 10 000 euros a year.
• The Collège Mignet in Aix, a public school, has a small (30 student big) international section. Tuition is nearly free.

I discovered a great pre-K and Primary school with a German/ French and an English/French track: Europipole. The school calls itself a ‘ bilingual ‘ school as opposed to an international one because it stresses it seeks to give children perfect language litteracy in the two languages chosen. Unlike many international schools which welcomes all sorts of language speakers, with English being the true common language of instruction.

The school is run by a passionate couple who both teach as well as run the school. The school is their second one in the region, after IRIS, a German-French pre-K center in Aix launched in 2000. IRIS is becoming a bilingual English-French pre-K center in september 2008 due to strong demand for this language as opposed to German.

There is a real family atmosphere at Europipole thanks to the couple’s passion for bilinguilism and thanks to the small size of the school. In 2008, it has a little under 100 children, with classes being very small - a maximum of 15 students. They use the facilities of a ‘ centre de loisirs ‘ a sort of municipal holiday and after school facility, with a beautiful natural courtyard surrounded by a beautiful forest and sports facilities including tennis courts. The children have access to these facilities during their sports activities.

The choice to use a municipal facility makes tuition at the school much more reasonable than what is usually expected of private ‘international’ schools. In fact tuition is about 3 000 euros a year. The school has the lunch box system.

English and German are taught by level (from beginner to proficient) by native speaking certified teachers.

- The preK levels have two full days in English or German, depending on their chosen track, and the other two days in French.

- The primary level kids have 1,5 hour in English or German and the remainder in French to follow the French curriculum.

The other pre-K and primary school in the area is CIPEC, also in Luynes, just south of Aix.

Here’s a quick listing of schools with an international curriculum:

-> IRIS: English-French Pre-K in Aix en Provence. Same site as for Europipole.

-> Europipole: Centre de Loisirs Municipal Parc Club de l’arbois 13480 CABRIES . About 30 km south of Aix, 15 km north of Marseille. PreK and Primary. Tél. / Fax : 04 42 315 315.

-> CIPEC: Luynes, 10 km south of Aix.pre-K and primary.
Domaine de Fontvieille - Luynes 13080 AIX EN PROVENCE - FRANCE Tél: +33 (0)4 42 60 84 25 - Fax: + 33 (0)4 42 60 84 26 Email: info @ c-i-p-e-c.com

-> IBS, International Bilingual School of Provence: Domaine des Pins- 500 Petite Route de Bouc-Bel-Air, Luynes. 10km south of Aix. Secondary level. Tél : (33)(0)4 42 24 03 40 Fax : (33)(0)4 42 24 09 81

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Parenting: The Most Important Job..?

Have you ever read or heard from others- usually working parents or mature adults- that, as a parent, and particularly a stay-at-home parent (and often a mom), you’re “doing the most important job” ? Well, I know that deciding as a couple to raise happy, self-confident, open-minded, and healthy children, is one the most beautiful and challenging job two can take on, and friends and acquaintances seem to think that way too, but strangely, the world doesn’t seem to function as if that were the case? Or maybe, holding the most important job translates into: ” You’re on your own, baby ” or, to use VIP speak: ” It’s lonely at the top ” ..

The only Job with no Vacation, Pay or Training:

This “most important job” implies that you as a parent devote a significant amount of your time and energy to raising your children, between 20 hours a week to all your free time.
Often times professionals who become parents in the US have to make a choice between what they think is best for them personally and financially and participating actively in their children’s upbringing.

It’s not rare that remaining in the position they were in before having children means seeing their children little more than an hour or two a day, and some find that’s less than what they wish when their children are very young.

What it doesn’t entail, in my view is that you, as the parent who ends up not working or who works less than you’d like to personally, are going to be doing this parenting job around the clock, exclusively of anything else!

It seems like that’s what parents, often times unknowingly, sign up for when they have children in the US. Given the lack of affordable quality childcare and education, all except a priviledged minority are to stop most of the sort of intellectual and social activity they had prior to having children, and turn solely to playgroups, birthing and parenting seminars and their kids’ activities to be able to have an adult conversation once again outside of their circle of friends and family.

Even though you may be holding ” the most important job ” and you may have expected some recognition for this choice, just as a VIP is treated with some deference, you have in fact become the sole person responsible for your little ones, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week- so now,” you’re on your own, baby ” (or should I say, you and your baby!)!;-)

Try doing something else…

Try being a volunteer on the board of a non profit for instance. You have some time on your hands- supposedly anyway- and you’d like to use it wisely by helping a local non profit of your choice as a volunteer board member. Well, if you were that prestigious, Wall Street broker who has to travel from New York to San Francisco to attend the board meetings, you might just get reimbursement for your trip because travel is a deductible expense. But say you’re just a local parent who knows the issues, and has a genuine interest in helping out, and.. you need to get child care for those few hours? You pick up the tab baby! You’re doing the most important job, ain’t ya?

C’mon, I know being there for one’s children is important in this country, but is it important to be there 100% of the time? Couldn’t there be recognition that as parents, entrusted with our sacred task of producing the best citizens a country can have, we are allowed and hell, even encouraged to take a breather, either for ourselves or to be able to continue playing a role in our community outside of attending children’s ballet classes?

Say you wished to go one step further.. As a parent, you have a neat business idea that’d be compatible with your family life. You’d like to create an exercise studio cum coffee house where children can be cared for for a fee while parents enjoy flexing and stretching those sore back muscles for an hour or so…Don’t you have about a hundred people in mind already who’d kill for such a place? If you were that person starting a venture fund who needs to offer a good meal to a prospective client so as to help get those few millions you want to invest for her, you might well be able to write off that luncheon at Chez Panisse as a business expense.

But say you have to incurr child care expenses of $800 to $1,200 a month simply to research your market, make contacts with prospective clients and lenders and search for a location..? You pick up the tab, you most important job holder you! Yeah, it sure is lonely at the very top - especially among the few who do start a business under these circumstances!;-)

Now for the small (and lighter) stuff…

Mobility for VIPs and their trusted cargo:

Try taking a bus in the city by the bay…It saves on parking tickets and it’s less polluting, so given the option, why not? If you were so lucky as to be handicapped, obese or a senior, you’d get a royal treatment.. The bus would start making this beeping noise while the platform would descend to the street level while you royally mount the vehicule. But if you happen to be a ” most important job holder ” with one or more of your precious ones, well, you can :

• fold your stroller,
• carry ‘them kids up on the bus while holding the stroller with your third hand and those huge arm muscles you have as a VIP
• and hold on ’cause the bus is already moving and you haven’t paid and no one’s moving to give up their seat.. ”

Oh, and is Billy crying now ’cause you pulled on his arm? Please quiet him down.”

Next try going to Children’s Hospital in Oakland and parking where you can then roll your stroller out of the parking garage. Are you handicapped? Not officially. Are you a doctor here, a nurse? Nope, I’m holding the most important job, you see.. Well then you can’t park in those spaces that are on the street level, you have to go up and then find some way to get down those stairs (there’s no elevator you see) with a stroller and a three year old who doesn’t feel like walking…

It’s a tough job, the most important job they say, although if you were landing here from Mars, you may not know it..;-)

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What would life be like in a society where raising happy, well adjusted, open-minded children was really considered the most important job?

First of all nannies and parents accompanied by children would be welcomed with a cheerful hello by bus drivers while every adult with the capacity to move would volunteer to get up to give up their seat at the front of the bus to let the little ones sit down…The bus driver would help the caregiver(s) fold the stroller and the babycarrier so he/she could watch the children and the survival bag with the snacks, the bottles, the diapers, the blanket and the Tylenol… ( We have had our child bag taken from us in a bus while attending to our children….). If little Will is still munching on a banana, the driver would kindly ask the child to put it away for now rather than telling him to get off the bus or throw the offending fruit OUT! (Real story number two).

On a higher plane, newspapers and radios would include in their regular news, the way sports results are blasted out to our ears every fifteen minutes, information that’d be relevant to parents, such as school and day care rankings, missing children info, parents having found a great way to manage their work and family life, etc… I suggest The great San Francisco newspaper The Chronicle call this daily or weekend section Family Matters (duh), where they would cover the challenges and the joys of raising children so as to inspire us all- and when I say all, I mean parents acting as such, as well as parents as business and political leaders. Parenting magazines can still get into the nitty gritty of potty-training but why are the issues around raising kids, which are so important to a society and are dealt with by what, 70% of the population, not central to the media? How does pro football impact me in my daily life, huh?

Parents with a career prior to having children who decide to stay at home, not because they have too much cash lying around or are just plain old lazy, but because they think it’s best for their children for a while would get some sort of tax break, recognizing their contribution to society as ones whose children, on average, will have less agressive behaviour, less drugs and alcohol use, and, on a more positive note, will be more open-minded, generous and confident contributors to tomorrow’s economy and society.

Getting a few hours of child care a week would be recommended, if not mandatory, after expert studies (that Frenchparents co-founder Valerie and moi could perform for a fraction of the fee my pediatrician Dr. Steven Rosenbaum would charge by the way!) would have shown that an adult with a normal IQ cannot keep a sane and fresh mind if he or she spends eight hours a day attending to very young- or even older- children. Even teachers don’t spend that much time in their classrooms- and they have people who can talk- even talk back, I know- in front of them!

Participating in an activity, whether it be a part time job, a cause of some sort, or even a sports or arts activity, would then not be prohibitive financially for many, making society a place where parents would still be visible, active contributors rather than shadows behind their children with no public voice- not to mention pains in restaurants! And where more men would be tempted by the stay-at-home option? Now that’d signal a change…;-)

When they’d eventually decide to get back to work, these parents would be recognized not as drop outs or slackers but as those having taken time off to become more mature, accomplished individual with a richer approach to life - and a knack with handling bratty colleagues!

In order to help measure their contributions and efforts, with no PowerPoint presentations to show, here are the data that could be used to assess the usefulness of their work:

• Number of shouting matches a week between them and their kids would appear on their resume so as to be compared to the nationally broadcast working parent averages, as well as:
• Index of resistance to food items ( especially anything naturally green or yellow)
• (Related to the above) Number of sandwiches and pizzas vs hot meals eaten a week by child. ( Studies would have shown that intaking too much peperoni pizza as a child makes you more likely to vote for Arnold Schwartzenegger in gubernatorial elections).
• Average time required to go to bed at night.
• Number of bribes ( with an index going from popsicles up to high end dolls or trucks ) required to accomplish: a/ a family outing b/ a chore.
• Number of fits a week in public places

and a few others to be determined would also be yardsticks to measure these individual’s accomplishments vs working parents’ averages.Then having the Most Important Job would finally deserve its name…

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More OECD countries focusing on early childhood as key to education success

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/img/common/dot.gif - 19/09/2006 - A new OECD report on early childhood policy, shows that more countries are making early childhood education and care a priority, with greater attention paid to service quality. Increasingly, it shows, the early years are viewed as the first step in lifelong learning and a key to successful social, family and education policies.

Attitudes to education are deeply embedded in country contexts, values and beliefs, and the 20 countries reviewed( Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States) all have diverse strategies in this field. Their variations reflect differing attitudes and cultural and social beliefs about young children, the roles of families and government and the purposes of early childhood education and care.

href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/startingstrong : Starting Strong provides a comparative analysis of policy developments and issues, highlighting innovative approaches and proposing policy options that can be adapted to different national contexts.
Among other things, it notes:

• a growing consensus, based on research from a wide range of countries covering demographics, social change and cost-benefit analyses, shows that governments must invest in and regulate early childhood education and care;
• a trend towards integrating early childhood policy and administration under one ministry, often education moves towards greater contact between early childhood centres and schools, and growing use of national curricular frameworks in the early childhood sector;
• the provision of at least two years of kindergarten before children enter compulsory schooling growing, but still insufficient, government investment in services
• more participatory approaches to quality improvement, based on wide consultation of stakeholders and the engagement of professional staff in documentation and research
• clearer ideas at government level of the qualifications needed by staff to engage with rapidly changing social and family conditions
  an increase in university chairs in early childhood education and care policy
• and a recognition of the need for more country research and data collection in the field.

Finally, if the legislators can direct their glance not only towards higher education but towards those not-so-glamourous early years of education, that would be a great help to us parents who believe early experiences are the crucial stepping stones on which a child will build and develop - and who appreciate every help they can get to provide the best experience for their kids. And that state investment in those years is among the best investment they can make for the country.
Thanks to the OECD for pushing this thought too!

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