Tag Archives: skiing

Fun In France

skiing and learning in France

We flew home yesterday from Tignes, a beautiful ski resort in the Savoie Department in the Rhônes-Alps region in south-east France, where we spent the last week.

Map of France showing Tignes jpg

One of the things I love about homeschooling is being able to take the children away on holiday during school term time when it’s more affordable and crowds are smaller. They learn heaps during these trips and we have so much fun together as a family.

Both children were able to practise their French, especially C(9), who was the only English child in her group ski lesson. Among other things, she learnt several French words for “sorry” as the young skiers routinely bumped into each other!

We took advantage of all the exercise we were getting on the slopes by indulging in plenty of delicious French food…

French food collage

 

family ski holiday in Tignes France
Croissants for breakfast

 

family ski holiday in Tignes France
Chocolats chauds up the mountain

 

We got lots of exercise (rather more than my thighs would have liked!).

skiing in France
J(7) skiing

 

C(9) and J(7) worked hard to reach their respective skiing goals and were both rewarded with the medals they’d been hoping for.  I learned to ski as an adult so I don’t have any of these awards, but they seem to be very important to children!

children's ski medals
Ski medals and kids’ club certificates

They made new friends, which helps reassure me that I’m not making them too weird by homeschooling them! (I know I shouldn’t need it but, you know…)

skiing friends
Where there’s boys, there’s Minecraft…

And when I told them that our bloggy friends over at Adventures in Mommydom are looking at France soon as part of their Around The World In 12 Dishes project, C(9) and J(7) wanted to send this special greeting:

bonjour de France
‘Bonjour de France, Batman, Superman and Princess!”

 

Even the motorway service station near the airport was beautiful.

french motorway services
Breathtaking scenery, even on the motorway

 

And for an introvert like me, the best thing of all about a holiday… coming home. Ahhh!

Back From Skiing

I knew on the journey home today that I’d a lovely week away skiing, but it seems even nicer now I’m luxuriating in the prodigal comfort of home.   The cases are unpacked, a second load of washing is on, my body, hair and spirit have been fully cleansed of the grubbiness of travel in a deep, hot bath.  Big J is feeding the children some much-needed vegetables, and while the rest of my little family enjoy the rugby, I am in My Room.

My Room is a space in the house which is all mine.  It’s a space, I realised while I was away, that I haven’t been making as much use of as I’d like.  I intend to change that.  More on My Room soon.

Meanwhile, some thoughts on the holiday, and coming home:

  • I love coming back from skiing holidays and realising that despite having eaten a ton of gorgeous (ie someone else cooked it) food, I haven’t put on a pound thanks to the enormous amount of energy I burned every day on the slopes.  Not that I’ve been foolish enough to step on a scales, of course!
  • I love that we all have lightly tanned faces (even through the Factor 50).  Noone else would notice it except on olive-skinned Big J and C, but I know that my own face is ever-so-slightly beiger than its usual white and pink 🙂
  • Thanks to free wifi in the hotel bar and Byline on my iPhone, I have read a lot of blogs this week! So much wonderful inspiration – home ed ideas, books to read, apps to try out, resources to investigate…  The children have already immersed themselves in Wizard 101, a free online game that one of the GeekDads was enthusing about.  I love Byline!
  • As well as other people’s blogs and my lovely family, three fantastic books kept me company: two (non-fiction) on my iPhone, one (fiction!) in paperback (I needed something for takeoff and landing 😉 )  More on these soon.
  • I loved that the children begged to go to the hotel’s kids’ club as often as they could, and both made friends there (yay, home educated and they can still “socialise”!)  And I’m loving even more having them back 🙂
  • I loved skiing by day and dining by night with my wonderful husband while the children did their thing.  Ooh the Byline posts we shared!
  • I had a great learning experience over the course of the week’s skiing.  I love learning – and learning about learning.  Again – more soon!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...