L'étoile du jour

Yesterday was Solanne's big day. She had been waiting weeks for the day she would be l'étoile du jour.

When we first visited with Solanne's teacher in late August, we were introduced to the notion of the étoile du jour. Each day, a child would have the responsibility and the honour of being the star. This child would get to sit in the middle of circle during circle time and add the date to the calendar. She would bring the attendance sheet to the office and get to pick out a friend to accompany her. She would bring a toy for show-and-tell, and she would get to wear a little hat with a star on it to indicate her special status of the day.

It all sounded like lots of fun, but I was concerned about Solanne's language abilities in French for the first few weeks. Given that she was likely to be one of the first children to be picked for Star duty, on account of our name, I suggested to the teacher that she not put Solanne first. I thought she might cry being put on the spot and asked to talk to all the children.

There are moments in my "career" as a mom that I am happy that I'm wrong, and this was one of them. The teacher happily complied, so Solanne was the last on the roster to go. But after the first day of having an étoile du jour, Solanne came home and asked when she would get her turn. She couldn't wait! We had the calendar with the names of each star for each date. Solanne had to wait over three weeks. She seemed fine with the idea, but she was nearly beside herself with anticipation. Every day, she asked me when she would get her turn. Last Friday, we started a day-by-day countdown.

Weeks ago, she decided what she would wear for her day: a long-sleeved shirt with rainbow stripes on the arms. And about a week before her turn, she told me that she wanted three pig tails for the event. And every time she talked about it, her face lit up and she would literally bounce with joy.

She finally got her big day yesterday. It was everything she'd hoped it would be. It went well. She did the calendar (en français), wore the hat, chose a friend and brought the attendance sheet to the office – she even had the good fortune to run into Maïa in the hall for an impromptu hug. And her pigtails stayed in all day.