As you can probably tell from my spotty posting as of late, having the younger kids here is a very different experience than the older kids.
Younger kids are a lot more hands-on than older kids. They need to be constantly entertained, constantly stimulated. But the rewards are great: little kids learn so quickly. A child who knew no French at all before coming can learn twenty vocabulary words nearly immediately if you approach the teaching in the right way.
One of my favorite things that we do with the younger kids (go figure) is the cooking atelier. You’ve already seen them make apricot jam, and now that the apricot season is over, we’ve moved on to peach (coming next…) One of the other items that was featured on the kids’ menu was the quintessential French sandwich, the croque monsieur.
I’ve seen gourmet croque monsieurs with béchamel that looked incredible and that I’d love to make someday, but these mini croque monsieurs were simple enough for the kids to make themselves. The recipe was written out on the whiteboard and illustrated with pictures: buttered sandwich bread, emmental cheese, a slice of ham, cheese and more buttered bread, topped with more grated emmental. The kids could do the whole process themselves, and all we had to do was bake them for ten minutes.
We served them with mustard and fried eggs for those who wanted them (croque madame).
Miam!
