Teacher for the day

Ella's regular teacher came back yesterday, and I'm happy to report that Ella "likes her even better." Notably, this teacher has a system where each day one child (selected in alphabetical order) gets to be the teacher for the day. This child is in charge of being the line leader, closing the door if it is noisy, and various other *very important* responsibilities. Needless to say, being teacher for the day sounds like the best possible thing in the world to Ella.

Despite weather forcasts of rain all week, we have had sunny summer-like weather. Even the hair-dresser on the first floor of our building took advantage of it, by bringing all the chairs and customers outside for their haircuts. Between a productive morning of work and an afternoon meeting, Abe and I also took advantage of the nice weather (and the kids being in school) by having a deliberately leisurely lunch at a sidewalk cafe along the Promenade des Artes. It's the essence of sabbatical to take 2 hours to eat a meal in the middle of the day. Later, the kids played at the playground and we all ate a picnic supper at the beautiful Parc de Buttes-Chaumont. It's an "English style" park, with hills and meandering paths that lead past surprising cliffs and waterfalls. You could easily forget that you are in the middle of Paris.

Abe's French class ... what can I say? If it doesn't kill him, it will make him stronger.