Last Day of School

We finally made it to our last day of school on Wednesday, June 27th.  Although, they do have a promotion program on Friday with lunch at the school afterwards.  It has been quite a year, from Aaron walking off campus by himself to Sydney passing her Delph A2 test and Hailey receiving an award.  In case you aren't familiar the Delph A2 it is a test to determine ones proficiency with a foreign language.  She went to Geneva for 2 days to take this test and passed with flying colors.  Sydney and Hailey had great years and let's just say Aaron had a year of adjustment.  I can't expect too much when he started school at 3yrs and was thrown into a truly academic program in a foreign language.  They expect him to sit at his desk and complete his work without disturbing his neighbors.  That is hard for a 5year old to do at times let alone a 3-4 year old boy.

He did make progress and by the end of the school year he wasn't disturbing his neighbors and seemed to be in less time outs.  He was also interacting with other kids and the bus driver in French.  Wow, we were finally getting into a groove, or so I thought.  When I picked him up on the last day of school I realized the reason he wasn't disturbing his neighbors was because his desk was next to the white board and he didn't have any neighbors.  Oh, sometimes ignorance is bliss : )  I am confident he will have a better year next year when he is a little older and more familiar with the school.

At the promotion ceremony they announce three prizes.  One for the highest GPA of the class, another for merit (motivation, hard work, and progress), and lastly for camaraderie or friendship.  The merit prizes is decided by the teachers and the camaraderie by the students.  We were very proud to learn that Hailey received the merit prize for all her hard work and progress.  She worked very hard all year and by the end of the year had caught up with her classmates with the exception of grammar.  Each grade also performs a dance.

This year it was like the Oscars when there were different films nominated and they performed a song from the winning film.  Aaron danced to Rio, Hailey to a French film called Cloclo, and Sydney to another French film Le Petit Nicholas.  I have included video clips from each one.

Our niece, Shelby took a break from her studies in Spain and came to visit for the weekend.  It was a great weekend with the kids program, exploring Lausanne, and spending a day at the pool.  She brought the warm weather with her just for a couple days.  It has been unusually cool here, but it is suppose to warm up for our visitors in July and then we are off to Spain for a week!

Survived our first year

June 1st marked our first year and we have come a long way and all survived! We enjoyed a day on the lake and pizza at the same restaurant we ate at when we first arrived.  It is hard to believe we have been here one year and it is amazing how far we have come.  We arrived in a complete fog and no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. We didn't know the language, what the rules were for parking, or how to manage everyday shopping.  This all provided quite a few laughs along the way and I am sure there will be more to come!

We rented a boat and the kids enjoyed a swim in the lake, which is still pretty cold.  Here are a few pictures.

Afterwards we had pizza and ice cream before heading home for the day.  The kids had school until the end of June, so summer vacation was still a ways off.