C is for...

Collège.
Here in France, "collège" is the equivalent of middle school. Most kids are 11 when they start collège, and they stay there for 4 years, before going to "lycée" or high school for a final 3 years.
My sweet girl, C, will be starting collège in September, and she's already pretty excited about it. So am I, to be honest. I got a letter in the mail today inviting us to an open day at the collège she'll be attending (which is the sister school to the primary school she's at now) and it's in less than a month. We'll be shown around and the first year (6ème) programme will be explained. I'm guessing we'll meet teachers too...
We've already had to decide which language options she'll be doing - she outright refused to do the "élite" bilingual German class (even though she is most certainly capable of it), preferring instead to do just English for now and then add in Spanish in 2 years. That suits me fine. The German bilingual class is basically what she's going to be doing, but with 2 extra hours of classes to study German. I have no interest in her doing that (I'd have been quite happy for her to do it if she'd wanted to, obviously, but she didn't. End of story) and much prefer that she's decided to do Spanish.
The change from primary to collège is a big one - kids are expected to be autonomous, pretty much all of a sudden. They're given more freedom and have to learn how to manage their time, their homework, their revision. But it's an exciting step and I'm delighted that she's reached it. She may only be 10 (she won't be 11 till the end of December, which will makei her one of the youngest in the school), but I can see that she's ready.
My sweet baby C is growing up!