What happens at Maternelle?

[winter singer]

Hi all,

DD will be 3 in September and it seems as though everyone I talk to here is asking me if she'll be starting school then.

It's hard for me to figure out what kids do at maternelle all day - I hear different accounts from different people and the local teacher says he 'just follows the system', whatever that means - but I'm worried that it's overly formal and structured. A friend told me that kids get scolded for things like coloring over the lines! Add to that the fact the DD is extremely sensitive and reserved and her French is still limited, and I worry even more.

On the other hand, I do want her to have a chance to play with other kids, and by that age they're almost all in school all day....

If anyone has kids who have experienced maternelle I'd very much appreciate any impressions you (and they) had of it! 

[IsaFrench]

well, it depends a bit on the teacher (the head teacher in any kindergaten school or even grade school in France does NOT have autority on how the individual teachers follow the guidelines they are given = "le programme", basically, every teacher is allowed leeway on how to achieve their goals)

typically, it starts with a 20 minutes slot for arrivals

during which time children are encouraged to go by themselves to put their coat on the rack outside the class identified with their photo, then they go to a table to pick up their card with their photo and name (after a few month, the photo disapear because they can by then recognise their name) and put it up in the right slot on the wall and then they can choose which atelier they go to during arrival time; there might be a table with plasticine, another with crayons, a corner with a play kitchen, another places with specifi toys for that day

when everybody has arrived and the parents are gone

then it's bathroom break, as a group, in line in the corridor etc ...

then it can either be gym time (twice a week for DD2 this year) or back to the class room for whatever activity (reading by the teacher, or colouring or tracing circles or ... whatever) or a little time in the in-school library ...

then it's morning break in the yard

then another time slot for structured activity

then another bathroom break I suppose to the hand clean before lunchtime

lunch in the canteen if parents don't come to pick them up

in first year maternelle, nap time (beds are assigned, sheets are cleaned once a week) with one's favorite soft toy ("le doudou")

they wake up whenever, if they are not up by 3.00 pm they are woken up

there's a little class activity after nap and before another "recreation" which is break time in the yard

there must be another bathroom break sometimes in the afternoon sometimes

and then at 4:20 it's "l'heure des mamans" & most people bring the goûter which french children like to munch on as soon as the bell rings (since meal time might not be before 7:00 pm)

hope this helps !

[IsaFrench]

here's  more details

http://www2.cndp.fr/ecole/quapprend/pdf/755A0211.pdf

look at page 15 to 19 for maternelle

the main ideas are

- vivre ensemble

- agir et s'exprimer avec son corps

- découvrir le monde

of course teachers also try to offer a mix of activities  that help develop language capacity ; listening, talking, asking questions

 + a lot of manual play of different sorts to prepare the hand for the smaller and smaller movements that will be necessary for learning to write 2 years later

forgot to mention in previous post, there's regular singing times too (depends on whatever skill from the teacher, some of them play guitar ....)

+ some teachers from grade school might send 2 or 3 second graders or third graders once a week to go and read a little book in the neighboring kindergarten

DD likes to bring books in english to school, the teacher has limited ability in english but she's been very welcoming about what we braught ... it'a bit like "show and tell"

+ sometimes they have live creatures lent to the school for observation (or dead insects ...)

[IsaFrench]

yesterday they had been observing a rather large spider in one of those magnifying topped plastic jar ... when I saw DD passing though the door with that in her hand I had a fright ...wondering if she was supposed to bring it back home for the night or something (already racing in my mind was = what if the siblings decide to open the jar during the evening ...)

but it was just a kind of "show and tell Mom or Dad what you' ve been looking at today" type of thing

they do bring back home from school library books from the school library ... which I'm not so keen about since we already all have library cards & my eldest borrows books from 3 different places so keeping up with "which books needs to go back where ?" is already a worry & I would rather the youngest didn't have to bring back books from school

my screen keeps on jumping, I don't know why ... hope that first year maternelle doesn't fee too bad to you ... socialising with peers might be a problem if your child doesn't go ... unless you know of other families who are unschooling though and you can contrive your own little group of friends ...

[winter singer]

Many thanks for your replies, IsaFrench, that's really helpful! It seems like it could be interesting and fun from what you say. The link to the French government document about maternelle is very helpful too.

A lot could depend on the teacher I suppose. The school that DD would be going to is a very small rural one with one teacher for the three maternelle years - he's the one who says he just follows the system. I hear different impressions about him from different people.....some like him a lot, others not so much.

I read your post on another thread about the new rule stipulating that children have to be 3 by September 1st in order to enroll. If that's applied strictly here then we'll have another year to wait in any case! (DD's birthday in September 9th.) We do have a few unschooling friends around here so could probably rustle up some socialising time for DD if need be...

[IsaFrench]

well, if it's just one teacher for the 3 age groups, then it might be less structured than the setting I was describing (urban, heavily populated, more than 25 kids per classes etc ...)

yes, it very much depends on the teacher then ... about what type of atmosphere in his class

about the new regulation, ... it might also work the other way = if it's a rural setting and they don't want to risk having a class closing because of not enough students, they might be prepared to bend the rule !!!!

could you ask in spring time if you could drop by for a 2 or 3 hours on one day (without your child) so that you can observe what's happening since schooling is different in your country of origin ? they might say yes and then you would get a clearer idea wheather that would be a good fit for the personality of your child ....

if it is a small village, they might say yes ... (or not, but no harm in asking anyway ....)

[Eclipsepearl]

I was just going to add that in many places, the only children who do all-day maternelle the first year are those whose parents (both/only) work.  If there is a parent at home, they are encourage to bring them home at noon. 

So that means four mornings a week, which isn't that much. Just enough to get up to level in the language. 

The program is not academic. They do some pre-reading skills but in the next two years. Not right away in Petit Section. 

In our case, we live in a border region and we were offered the bilingual French-German program. This is a special situation for border regions and only for the language in question (i.e. no bilingual English available in public). So my children did two days in French and two in German. The German teachers had special qualifications (not German-as-a-subject but trained in bilingual teaching). This was actually a huge advantage but my kids were stronger in French than English. So yes, now they're trilingual and one of the advantages was that since it was NON academic, I didn't worry about the material. They just hear and are encouraged (not required) to use it. 

You might also find out if there are the "international sections" near you in public school and what offerings they have in private. Most big cities have International Sections and English will be one of the languages. This way, she'll be in class with other bilingual children.