July 14 is one of the most important holidays in France: Bastille Day, or as we call it, “le quatorze juillet.”

Bastille Day celebrates the anniversary of the successful storming of the Bastille fortress and prison on July 14, 1789 by the citizens of Paris. The Bastille was seen as a symbol of royal tyranny and oppression, and the uprising represented a turning point in the French Revolution.

If you’re feeling inspired to celebrate, the French Library will be throwing a celebration at the Liberty Hotel in Boston — more details on the event are here.

À bientôt!

The Consulate General of France in Boston will be hosting a number of events tomorrow in honor of the 74^th annual Massachusetts Lafayette Day, celebrating French-American friendship. The day is named in honor of Marquis de Lafayette, a French General that served under George Washington and fought for the colonies during the American Revolution. Due to his unrelenting commitment to American independence he was made an honorary citizen of the United States – the first of only six people the same honor has ever been bestowed upon.

The celebrations kick off at 9:30 am at the State House with a reenactment of Lafayette’s famous visit there to meet with dignitaries of the time, one of many trips he would take to the city. Other activities during the day include a ceremony to present five American veterans that fought in the liberation of France in WW II with the Légion d’Honneur (France’s highest civilian and military distinction), a procession from the State House to the Lafayette Monument where a wreath will be laid and a “liberty tree” will be planted, a panel on France’s participation in the American Revolution, and a public lecture on Lafayette’s role as an anti-slavery abolitionist.

For the full schedule and to learn more about this extraordinary historical figure, please visit the Consulate General of France in Boston.

À bientôt!

Coming up on May 27 and 28 we will be holding our annual school games, with five teams of students representing various French-speaking countries: France, Monaco, Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada. We will be learning about each country, finding them on the map, playing games, and even trying some of their traditional foods from each country for goûter — waffles from Belgium, maple syrup from Canada, baguettes from France, jam from Monaco, and chocolate from Switzerland! We love teaching our students about different countries, and Les Francofolies gives children a way to experience parts of each of these distinct cultures.

À bientôt!

The Teddy Bear Club was featured and quoted in the last issue of the French publication France-Amérique. We are thrilled to be recognized for our efforts in bilingual education! To save you a trip to the newsstand, here is an excerpt from the article translated into English:

The Bilingual Preschool Boom

Contrary to many traditional preschools suffering from the economic crisis in the United States, French-English bilingual preschools are holding up quite well to the recession as confirmed by Steve Barnett, Director for the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University, by Pascale Setbon, founder of the Language and Laughter Studio in Brooklyn, and by Francois Thibaut, founder of the Language Workshop for Children in NY.

In the Boston suburb of Newton, Laura d’Angosse Perlman, founder of Le Club Nounours - also known as The Teddy Bear Club - states that enrollment has not dropped and she is even considering opening a school in New York. “Parents are coming to realize that a bilingual program is important in today’s world,” she explains. “Since our opening in 1993, we have experienced consistent growth. In 2009, this trend will continue.”

À bientôt!

Children all over France wake up Easter morning, excited to find chocolate Easter eggs and candy hidden throughout the house or the yard. Except unlike American Easter legend, the Easter bunny isn’t responsible for these presents – the eggs were brought by the Easter bells! (We call them “Les cloches de Pâques”).

According the tradition, all of the church bells in France fly to the Vatican three days before the Easter holiday. No bells ring in France from the Thursday before Easter when they depart for Italy until Easter Sunday, when they arrive back in France – with all of the Easter eggs and gifts they’ve picked up on their travels. By the time they ring again on Easter morning, all of the children know the bells are back in town and bearing gifts!

This is why if you are in France over Easter the windows of patisseries are filled with beautiful chocolate bells intricately designed and decorated, in honor of the Easter trip the bells take every year.

À bientôt!

We all know April Fool’s Day in the US is a day to play tricks and practical jokes. In France this custom is similar, but just a bit different. We call it “poisson d’avril” (meaning April’s fish) and the prank is always the same – children spend the day trying to attach a paper fish to other people’s backs without being noticed.

There’s no concrete evidence as to why the date of April 1st is significant, but we do know that France adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, shifting New Year’s Day to the first of January from the first of April. Legend has it that with the resulting confusion the “April Fools” who hadn’t yet adjusted to the new calendar were wishing people a Happy New Year in April, and practical jokes sprung up as a way to poke fun at their mistakes.

But why fish? Your guess is as good as ours – perhaps you should cut out a paper fish and try the “cultural experience” yourself!

À bientôt

Welcome to the Teddy Bear Club blog! We decided to start a blog for our bilingual French preschool (www.teddybearclub.org) to share our latest activities, ideas, and musings with parents and others interested in early childhood education and French culture. We get a lot of questions about French customs, the language, bilingual education, and we want to be able to share our knowledge with everyone.

It seems only appropriate that the blog was launched this week — the Semaine internationale de la Francophonie, an international week-long celebration designed to celebrate the French culture. (for more information on events in Massachusetts, please visit http://www.mri.gouv.qc.ca/franco-newengland/programmation.asp?tri=region)

We hope you enjoy our thoughts, and remember to check back with us often for the latest. You can also add us to your RSS reader by clicking on the icon to the right. Of course let us know if you have any questions you’d like addressed – leave a comment and maybe your question will the be the topic of the next blog

À bientôt,
Laura d’Angosse Perlman
Director, The Teddy Bear Club