It will be soon that we have to register Jo for school. I'm still on the fence about what to do.

When we purchased our home there was a school right down the street. It was French Immersion and with the hopes of having children and walking them to school we arranged to pay our taxes to the Public Board. A few years later that school closed and we didn't ever change our taxes because it just wasn't an issue.

Fast forward a few more years and along came Jo. We have 3 schools here in the little town where we live. 2 belong to the Separate School Board(Catholic) and the other is Public. Jo would be bussed to any of the 3 for the first few years so that's not a concern.

Here's some of the dilemma;
Hubby is french and I am English
Hubby is Catholic and I am Protestant (Jo isn't baptised)
One of the Separate Schools is all French
The other 2 schools are French Immersion.
If we choose to put her in All French she cannot be refused based on religion.
If we choose to put her in All French she goes all day, every day from the beginning saving huge amounts in daycare costs and getting a French Education. She would be going to school with 3 other girls who live on the street.
The other 2 schools she would go full days, 2 days one week and 3 days the next week which still saves in daycare, but how do we get her into a routine and will she get the same quality of education? She would still be going to school with kids from our street.
She can also be bussed to a French Public School which is right across the street from where Hubby and I both work.

Now is the big one......Her birth siblings attend all French School(s). Her birth mom moves frequently and you never know what part of the city she will be in. 3 of her 4 birth siblings carry the same last name as ours. I have absolutely no desire to sit in the school explaining the situation to teachers and staff should they all end up in the same school. Her birth siblings are 13, 9, 5 and 2 so she would be in the same part of the school as at least 2 of them. I think my biggest fear is her being in school with any of the other 4 kids. I don't want her hearing from one of them who her birth family is. My mom knows a teacher's aid who worked at one of the schools that the kids went to and the 2nd one told everyone that he had 3 sisters and 2 brothers. They asked the oldest one and he explained the situation. I don't want Jo having to deal with that until she is older and ready to understand.

My french is terrible and I know that I will learn right along with her, but homework scares me if it is all in french and with the crazy hours that hubby works it could make things difficult. In Northern Ontario there is a large french population and I would love for Jo to have the best start in life so that any opportunities that may arise in her future she is prepared for. Does that make sense?

Another thing is that when she gets notes, report cards or has recitals they will all be in french should she go to an all french school. I want to be able to understand her Mother's Day Poem or her part in the Christmas Pageant.

I'm so confused and have no idea what to do. Krazzy K went through the french immersion program in the Public System and speaks french fluently as does my brother in law. The 2 girls across the street spoke no french until going to school and both are excelling in the french only school and only one of their parents speak french.

Hubby's family is predominately french and the only ones who don't speak the language are the ones who married into it. I wish I knew more, but french immersion didn't start until after I was already in school and 20 minutes a day just didn't cut it for me.

Je parle en francais un petite peux, mais je ne comprends pas toute le temp. I know the basics and can count, do the alphabet but it's just so confusing with the feminine and masculine, the past, present and future....Je, tu, il , elle, nous, vous, ills et elles has been ingrained in my mind, but what the hell do you put after it in a sentence. I need a car, J'ai besion une auto. I have needed a car, J'ai eu besoin une auto. I'm going to need a car...that's as far as I get. Twinmom please correct me if any of that is wrong. The other thing is that most of what is spoken in Northern Ontario we refer to as Franglais. "J'allez a Canadian Tire dans mon pick up avec mon chum pour looké pour les chose to fixé l'auto pour my ol' lady" According to Sytran it should be "Je vais au pneu canadien avec mon ami pour rechercher des choses pour fixer la voiture de mon épouse." Although Canadian Tire is Canadian Tire with no translation, only accents on different syllables.

I kid you not. I have heard worse than that and always give the guys at work a hard time about the kind of french us english people are learning with that kind of french being spoken about us. The installers at work are the worst. They scare me and hubby is right along with them.

Help....J'ai besoine d'aidé

posted by Northern Mom @ 8:49 p.m.

3 Comments:

At 9:21 a.m., BeachMama said…

You have so much more to deal with than the rest of us when it comes to registering for school.

First of all. Move to Ottawa. :) Just kidding of course, or partly kidding.

Second, is there one school that is least likely to contain any of her birth siblings? I would go with that one if there was. You may just have to have that conversation with the pricipal and teachers anyway. And maybe a conversation with the birth siblings, they need to not talk about Jo as anything but a cousin, their Mom should have done that from the beginning.

As for French, we are so far choosing to put J in French Immersion. It doesn't start until Senior Kindergarten so he will have a year to get established and meet some friends, then he will go into french. I was in Late French and I could have used more, Hubby did not take french and is now teaching himself and taking some classes for his new job. He never thought he would be learning french when he was almost 40.

As for the Franglais, we have it here too. I learned Parisienne french in school and all my friends at work spoke this awful mix up of the language, after a while, I could swing with it with certain friends but never someone I didn't know.

All the best with your decisions, I know it will be tough. You could always home school :).
At 10:49 a.m., nancy said…

I tried last night to comment numerous times...wouldn't let me.

I can relate so much with the school decision, but not for the same reasons as the birth siblings.

Us - it's language...I am struggling...have to decide QUICK since registration is in 3 weeks. Yikes!! Am I freaking out? Yes, I am.

Our choice is:

50/50 french/eng
85/15 french/eng till grade 2, then it reverts to 50/50
all french

At this point we are leaning towards the immersion, as it may seem like the best fit for our family, plus I just can't bring myself to deny them at least the opportunity to learn another language, but I also don't wanna shove it down their throat. DH can't speak french, so he shares your concern of not being able to participate with homework.

My problem - even though no matter which one of the three schools we choose, they need to take the bus. But the immersion school is just SOOOO much farther away. Yes, we do have one around the corner, a 5 minute walk, but the lovely Quebec government closed it down just last year. It has really hurt our neighbourhood/community.

Now back to you - cause I seem to have made this about me? Sorry! I too, would have a big concern with the birth sibs...I may opt to stay away for as long as possible, at least till she is older.

Good luck with your decision, I hope you are able to come to a decision that makes you happy.
At 7:01 p.m., Anonymous said…

I think that she will get as good an education from the French Immersion as from the all-French. Kindergarten is not as important as some make it out to be, so every day vs every other day is not a big issue - the one that's more probably has more play-time built in.

I also think that her French will be just fine with Immersion as opposed to all-French, especially since she has family who speak French.

I agree that her cousins should be (have been!) told to consider her as a cousin not a sister. From previous comments about her birth mom, though, I'm not surprised. Do you see them at all - maybe not if you're not worried that they'll say something to Josee? Like the others said, I'd avoid any school where they might show up.

Bummer about the local school closing. Do you know anyone attending the different schools that you could talk to? At least visit the schools and maybe get a sense of things - do they have an open house? Good luck with your decision.