Goodbye to J and J

Last Tuesday I had to say goodbye to to private students that I had the pleasure of teaching since October 2012! They've made appearances on this blog before, here and here, for their respective birthdays.

Julien is now 9 and Justine is now 12, and they've grown so much since I started going to their house and helping them keep up with their English two and a half years ago. Their parents are French expats and they had lived in Mumbai before moving to Casablanca. The kids had attended an American school there, but upon moving here they were put into the French school system. Justine had attended the American school from Kindergarten to Second grade, and her parents didn't want her losing her close-to-native-speaker level in English. For more than two years now I see her once a week and we chat, play English games, do a bit of drama, read, draw, write and much more. I've loved getting to know her and she is a lovely girl, full of intelligence and sympathy. 

Julien only had one year of Kindergarten in English while in India, so while his English is much better than it would have been otherwise, he needed more structured lessons. His receptive skills are extremely good, but though he makes himself understood easily his speaking skills aren't like that of his sister. We've done lots of work with vocabulary and constructions and played many games these past few years, and I've loved spending time with that little red-haired ball of energy. He is a truly sweet kid with a big, big heart.

This weekend they're moving back to France, and I'm truly sad to see them go. When I was there on Tuesday for my last classes with each they both made me these little signs that melted my heart! I'm sure we'll stay in touch and I have a feeling I'll be seeing them again sometime in the future. They'll be outside of Paris so if I ever have an overnight layover or anything I'll know whose door to knock on!