I like ice-cream Mummy

Well we made it to the last day of school; it seems to have gone slow and fast at the same time as it hasn't sunk in that we've survived another year in a foreign country. Actually survive isn't the right word as we're really happy here!
Can't really say I feel excited though now that term has finished as I just feel so drained, but I'm sure a good holiday will get me fighting fit again!

We received Olivia's school report yesterday evening which I had secretly been looking forward to as we've seen huge progress in just about every area including her social interactions as she used to be very shy. I'm about to do a proud bragging Mummy bit so feel free to stop reading but it's my journal and even though she can be a pain in the bum, she's my pain in the bum and I adore her.

Her report was wonderful and she has more than succeeded the expectation for her grade in so many areas. Seems she's pretty good at maths and art but it is her language where she really excels. Olivia has always been very good at talking and now her reading and writing have progressed at amazing speed with the Head Teacher and Assistant Head stopping us and Olivia on the way out to compliment her for her work this year. However the area where we have been really surprised is French. Her teacher took us to one side a few weeks ago to say that in 20 years of teaching at the school he has never met a student at the age of five with Olivia's language background (complete anglophone at home and she didn't attend a francophone creche pre-school, unlike her brother) make such quick progress in a language. She can make connections, she can remember things having only been told once and she is not afraid to experiment with the language and try out new constructions. However they are concerned that she will plateau as there is no-one in the grade with the same language background to challenge her so it has been suggested that next year she may take her lessons with native french speakers which has never been done in the school before at this age. I'm embarrassed/proud to say that I actually have to ask Olivia how to say certain words in french and she corrects my pronunciation!
Her report did also say that she has to learn that she is not the only person in the class and she must allow other students to answer questions and speak! Actually this was mentioned a few times as well as her inability to finish a task in the allotted time. She is the same at home so hopefully we can work on some strategies to sort this out.

As school finished at 12pm we took the kids to the faculty lunch where they were really well behaved and we actually got to sit and eat a meal and chat to colleagues while they played and entertained each other. They were rewarded with ice-creams and for some reason only known to Dexter he has taken to biting the bottom of the cone first to try and make as much mess as possible!

I'm a very proud Mum at the moment. Love them both to bits, x