Purposeful family living - with a French twist

Bonjour! I'm Michele Cherie: francophile, teacher, writer, wife, and mama to five children. I'm a non-native French speaker in Oregon raising my children in French. IntentionalMama shares our bilingual journey and resources for a culturally-rich family life.

Flying Solo with Young Children: Single Parent Hacks

February 10, 2016 by Michele Cherie in Travel, Reflections on Parenting

One of the most daunting aspects of our family trip to France this past year was knowing that I would be parenting alone for a month and then flying home with my three young children on two flights (totaling 9 hours) until we could rejoin my husband in Oregon. Thankfully, those experiences were mostly smooth, and not worth stressing over far in advance (as we parents are prone to do). Recently, however, one of my close friends told me that she will be flying alone with her three children on more than twenty hours of flights, and she's asked me for advice. Here are the hacks I suggest:

On Returning to Oregon

October 02, 2015 by Michele Cherie in French Language Learning, Travel, Cultural Reflections, French Culture

We're back in Oregon! I'm a bit embarrassed to tell you that we've returned because I wasn't able to blog consistently from Lyon like I had hoped, but now that we are home I can still share posts about France in retrospect. How are you? Have you settled into a school routine? Can you believe it's already October and we're entering the last quarter of the year?!

Winding down and preparing to leave Lyon was emotionally difficult because our rented apartment felt like home from the start, particularly because we loved getting to know our new neighbors and we jumped right into school and meal routines.