Okay, okay, its probably not a castle for witches and wizards, but it is a REAL castle! Malcolm's school trip left yesterday for five days to the Nettine, a centuries old castle and working farm in the Ardennes that the commune purchased some years ago for their outdoor education opportunities. It seems incredible, but children as young as 5 1/2 go for five days overnight to be taught, entertained, well fed, exercised and enlightened...too bad our son was so reluctant to go.
Two weeks ago Malcolm heard us talking about Nettine...and he said, "I'm not going--you better get your money back". We struggled with this for 13 straight days, and one thing I will say for my oldest, is that he's persistent and consistent. He had tears, gnashing of teeth, temper tantrums, even gave us the silent treatment in order to convince us of his opinion...right up to the night before the morning he was scheduled to leave, then suddenly, he was excited to go! (he tried the old ways, but this time he had a smile in the eyes and was talking about what he wanted to pack and which journal was best to take and what he would write about).
This is a picture of his teacher, Nathalie, and Malcolm embarking on the bus, getting a last minute instructions from Daddy...I hope he has a great time: we've packed with each day's clothes a letter from each of us, and he's to write us back since we gave to the teacher four self-addressed stamped envelopes with writing paper--just like when going to camp, except I don't remember a highway cruiser with TV's taking ME to camp in the Ardennes, ever....!
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