It’s a funny thing, the Luxembourgish public school system; it starts at age three with Spillschoul and in Luxembourgish. The first years, gathered under the Cycle 1 umbrella, are focused on socializing, developing fine motor skills and, most importantly, learning the local language. Then, with Cycle 2, the real accademic learning begins, the vernacular language switches to German and stays that way all throughout the primary education. And while Jakob got left behing in Spillschoul for another year, my newly 7-year-old got to bite into the apple of knowledge this September. 
We obviously do take pictures of both children all thorughout the year – for their birthdays, on holidays and just because, but I especially cherish the first-day-of-school ones. It was so emotional, for me especially, having a pre-schooler four years ago – my firstborn, my baby was not a baby any more. Not even a toddler! She was a fully grown child who started school and was going to chat to her friends in a language I would not understand. She would develop her own world of secrets, wispers and giggles with her mates in an obscure chatter, unaccessible to me. So I wanted to capture this day of passage, thus a tradition was born.
Since Mia joined the club of wisdom four years ago, I’ve made it a point to take pictures of her, and later Jakob, on their first day of school.
It’s a proud mom moment going back to look at those shots and see how my cubs have grown up over the years, how much they have changed in just one year!
I make sure I take the afternoon off work to pick them up from school, enquire about the start of the academic year, their new classmates and teacher, shoot a few pictures and take them out for cake. I vividly remember my mother taking me for cake on my very first day of school some 30 years ago and how important and special that made me feel, with tears rolilng down my cheeks as I’m writing this. I try to replicate that feeling with my children since they have a lifetime of school and learning still in front of them and it is essential to me that they see it as fun and important, not a chore, a drag, something to escape from as soon as possible.
Therefore, vive la rentrée!