Soutien scolaire

Soutien scolaire, or scholastic support, is the generic term in French for things like private tutoring, afterschool classes or other means of additional schooling.

I spent a good portion of the morning looking for soutien scolaire possibilities for Jessica and even a bit for Alexandra.

We had already tried sending Jessica to one of the places where they give classes over the holidays (Objectif Math) last year. However we were certainly unimpressed. We had signed her up, and paid for, two weeks of classes over the holidays. We were actually quite upset when we found out that the second week they did exactly the same class they did the first week. Jessica had gone with a friend which may have made it a bit easier but it we weren't pleased with the investment and choice.

Later in the year, and actually for quite some time, we used some private teachers who came to the house for a individual classes one or two times a week, through a different company (Keep School). We were not happy with the first teacher they sent us. But afterwards we were actually quite lucky and found a very good teacher who worked with Jessica throughout most of the rest of the year and Jessica's work and self-assurance both improved greatly. Unfortunately this year that teacher is no longer teaching.

We have been working unofficially (under the table) with another "teacher", who is actually a prépa student, who has been coming to help Jessica with math a couple of hours a week. Jessica's quite pleased with him. I recently learned he can touch his nose with his tongue and he's double-jointed in many of his fingers. For some reason I did not find these aspects of their learning experience particularly valuable.

We have been receiving a flyer from a local outfit which provides extracurriculum classes just up the street (Assistance Math Physique). I contacted them and have set up a meeting, with Jessica, for tomorrow night at 20:45 which is after their last class (18:30 to 20:30).

I also found an intersting online system with classes, exercises, course material, dictionaries, encyclopedia, calculators and such directly on the web. The content of the site is based on what grade the student is in and follows the national curriculum. The fee is a monthly subscript, with unlimited use, per student. I signed up for an account both for Jessica and for Alexandra with Maxicours. One of the more interesting aspects of Maxicours is that Desney and I can also follow what they are supposed to be doing in school as well as find the "official" explanations for the various subjects. Because it's been many years since either Desney and I were students makes it sometimes difficult for us to remember all of the various subjects and explanations we studied. However the fact that neither of us went to pre-university school in France means that there are many subjects for which we are completely ignorant and clueless. I personally never did French history in school, for example, and am unaware of most of the relevant dates and events. I also never did math in French. Although I am quite comfortable in math I do not know most of the French terminology nor the French methods. Desney and/or I try and read the same books the kids have to read in school for literature (French or English) to allow us to be able to discuss the books with them (admittedly Desney much more than I). But with this Maxicours site we will hopefully be able to find the explanations and exercises for each of these other classes our kids are going through. It will hopefully help both the kids and their seemingly ignorant, but well-meaning, parents.