5 GOx@ eigeg INFO-PARENTS COLOMBIE-BRITANNIQUE a CHILD CARE SERVICES IN FRENCH More than two years ago Francophone parents recognized publicly the importance of education at preschool level and commissioned A.P.F.C.B. to work on Child care for French speaking children. The education ofa childis like building a house: the main partis its foundations. In fact what counts is what the child has learned before he or she is 6 years old. The education provided to children during their first years is primordial to their future. Some parents think that a child will have to spend many years of his or her life studying and that few years of liberty before going to school are deserved. However, child care services in French (preschool, day care or mini-franco-fun) offer many advantages fora child’s future: . A way to make friends; . A multitude of experiences that will stimulate intelligence; physical agility; creativity; making decision; . A way to be ready to start school... Moreover, in British Columbia more than 80 per 100 of Francophones have an Anglophone (or allophone) spouse. Under these conditions children are more inclined to be assimilated to the majority and become unilingual English speaking. Yet these children have the possibility to become perfectly bilingual and to be brought up with two cultures one of them being the Francophone CONGRATULATIONS It is almost finished for many students in grade 12. Just the provincial exams and they are going to the college or the university. More than fifty students will get a Programme cadre de francais certificate. [ Bravo! culture in British Columbia. To exploit this possibility parents need help. Child care services in French are a complement to the effort made by Francophone parents in offering a Francophone surrounding to the child who will in return, realize that French is not only Mum’s of Dad’s language but that it is spoken by many other children and adults. More than two years ago Francophone parents recognized publicly the importance of education at preschool level and commissioned A.P.F.C.B. to work on Child care for French speaking children. To summarize the activities of the last two years we will just mention the opening of five Francophone preschools and eight mini-franco-fun; the first provincial meeting of French Early Childhood Educators and parents in November 1994; training sessions for educators provided by the French Government in Saint-Pierre & Miquelon and France; exchange of services between the two countries; opening of the resource centre Tire-Lire answer on. Two years have passed like a flash and during that time, slowly but surely, the Francophone child care network has grown in British Columbia.