The opening of the motor skills room at Reminiac in Brittany

Invitation to Motor Skills Room

A couple of weeks ago, we received through the post an invitation to ‘L’ inauguration de la salle de motricité’.

Reminiac now has its own ‘motor skills room’!

Yesterday evening, we went to the inauguration. The motor skills room is located in an outbuilding adjacent to the Mairie and is full of mats, hoops, jumps and tunnels, all designed to encourage motor skill development in small children. In England, we would call this a ’soft play area’… In France, everything is taken much more seriously, this is a Motor Skills Development room!.

There were, would you believe 5 speeches, from the Mayor, an official from the Inspector of Schools, someone from the Town Council, the headmaster of the School and from the lady who had obtained the financing to open this small room. The speeches lasted for 50mins.

After the speeches, some of the smaller children of Reminiac (2 – 5-year-olds) demonstrated the equipment. I was amazed at the orderly way these children behaved. The equipment was laid out as a ‘course’, and the children all followed each other round, there wasn’t any barging in front, no pushing and the older children took the hands of the younger children to help them over trickier obstacles.

After a full demonstration, there were of course aperitifs!