learning french

[hram]

My dd is really interested in learning another language. I took two years of french in highschool, although I only know the very basics, I think that would be good language to start with. I think with some practice a lot would come back. I discussed this with her and she is excited about learning french, she enjoyes speaking the little spanish she knows now like counting. Does anyone have any reccomendations on a program for young kids or even some dvd's that would start them on the basics. Thanks

[mirpmama]

My oldest is 7 and when he was 5 we did a "preschool homeschool french class" at the local franco american center - it was great - but expensive and kind of far away - anyway, we tried "flip flop french" last year and i did not like it so we stopped halfway through the year - i dont have any other suggestions - but would love to hear what others say - my husband's grandmother lives in montreal and we go visit - i would love my kids to be able to speak french -i too took it in highschool and can read it ok, but speaking it is a different story!!!

[kittywitty]

Immersion is best. But I have Nallenart which is ok. The Easy French-not so great. Nallenart starts with basics in a conversational manner and has a cd for pronunciation if you can't remember it. That's my top pick for young ones.

[earthmama369]

It's a little cheesy, but my two really like the Hooked On French computer program for ages 4-6. We found it at Ocean State Job Lot of all places, for less than $10, and decided to give it a try on a lark. It's short, not comprehensive, but it's a good introduction to numbers, shapes, basic vocab like that. Usborne has some good starting French books and dictionaries. We also get familiar stories in French from the library or Borders -- Horton Hears a Who, Green Eggs and Ham, Caillou, Robert Munsch stories -- books they they already know well in English and can make the transference to in French. I cobble it together and focus on exposing them to the phonemes and vocabulary of a different language rather than going for fluency now. That will come later if they're interested in pursuing it more in depth. Right now we play with it, so they see the appeal in learning another language.

[mirpmama]

do you think it would work for an 8 year old? he is pretty flexible.....he will be 8 by next year's school year and i would love to start french again.......i meant the hooked on french - sorry - didn't specify....

[tankgirl73]

Originally Posted by kittywitty

Immersion is best. But I have Nallenart which is ok. The Easy French-not so great. Nallenart starts with basics in a conversational manner and has a cd for pronunciation if you can't remember it. That's my top pick for young ones.

Ditto. I tried the Easy French older curriculum with my older son, who even had a little bit of french already, and it was just horrid. Mistakes, mispronounciations, poorly designed lessons, just terrible. Maybe their young kid program is better, but I've kind of become soured on them now...

Nallenart has "l'art de dire", a purely oral program for younger students, and "l'art de lire", a reading-and-writing program for older students (it still starts at the very beginning, it's not a 'sequel' in that sense).

It ain't perfect, I find typos all the time, but I let them know and they fix them. They've recently moved to a subscription mode -- with your purchase of their materials you get access to a bunch of stuff online, including all the materials... so you can re-download the workbook to do some pages again, print out the flashcards if you lose them, get mp3s, there's lots of nice stuff there. This is GREAT for me because we've stopped and re-started the program a couple of times and I had to repurchase some materials, now I don't have to anymore. Make sure you go to nallenart.org.

But even with the CD's, it's not primarily an oral/conversational program, and I found my son was weak with actually speaking french even though he was understanding what he was reading (mostly). So we started using "Ecoutez-Parlez". It's just a listen-and-repeat thing, and they follow along in the book so there is a small degree of written word recognition but that's not the emphasis. It's 10-15 minutes a day, designed for young kids, and is surprisingly effective. DS really enjoys it.

We also have picked up a couple CD's of french children's songs, DD3 loves to sing along. And I sing french folk songs (I grew up in french immersion, I'm fluent though rusty) at bedtime for her. She already will perk up and say "hey, that's french!" when she hears it, even if she doesn't know the words... she just recognizes the sound of the language!

And we have some simple french children's picture books... Toupie is so fun... I get some from the library on occasion... It's fun for them to try and work out an unknown word based on the context and the picture. And we have a couple french-english picture dictionaries.

Phew! I agree that immersion is best, which we're nowhere NEAR doing, and it's the only thing that would have made me consider PS for my kids. But we're doing okay with these materials now.

[kittywitty]

Thanks for that! Wow, I didn't know that about Nallenart now. We've used their stuff for years (5?) and I haven't bought anything lately. Off to check it out!

I was also veeeery disappointed with the Easy French. I'm going to sell mine.

[mirpmama]

usborne - right - i forgot that - i sell the books and yet i totally forgot.....maybe i need some coffee lol......

[NursingMaman]

Hey there. I am French and I am teaching my 2 years old DD French. If you want your kids to watch some French animation, Tchoupi et Doudou is good. Most kids in France watch it and it is good for listening skills. You can find it on youube. Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...choupi+et+doud


I know there is a language programme outthere that teaches French like a French person would learn it. But I cant remember its name. There is also flash card with French words you can buy. I have seen them at Borders.

Hope this helps.
Sylvia

[kittywitty]

Thanks for the link!

We have the flashcards. Are you thinking Rosetta Stone? It's sooo expensive. I posted last week about the difference between Fluenz and Rosetta Stone. No answers yet.

[AAK]

My dd has enjoyed the BBCs website. I don't think it would work as a stand alone, but we like it for what it's worth. She's been doing the Spanish though. Here is a link to the French.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by AAK

My dd has enjoyed the BBCs website. I don't think it would work as a stand alone, but we like it for what it's worth. She's been doing the Spanish though. Here is a link to the French.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/

My daughter uses this sometimes. She likes the Greek page, too.

[zeldamomma]

Originally Posted by AAK

My dd has enjoyed the BBCs website. I don't think it would work as a stand alone, but we like it for what it's worth. She's been doing the Spanish though. Here is a link to the French.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/

Check out the BBC's Primary French program too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryfrench/

It's 2 years of complete elementary level curriculum, online, meant for self-study (a non-reader will need help with some of it).

[hram]

We have been out of town so I havent been able to check this thread but it has some great info! Thanks so much for all the references, there is so much we can use that I never even thought of using. Thanks

[VisionaryMom]

We are doing bits & pieces rather than a formal program. I grew up with a good portion of my family speaking French, and I've taken it for several years. I use it infrequently now, but my kids are familiar with some phrases just from me talking with them. We have some CDs with French children's songs as well as some children's books. I've started DS with conversational the same way you would learn in school.

I just started by saying, "if you wanted to tell someone your name in French, you'd say 'je m'appelle [DS]." He practiced, then said, "how do I ask their name?" And we just go from there. I mentioned nouns and verbs some as I think of them. It's all very informal, though, in part because he's still sorting it from the Spanish he picks up from various places.

[AAK]

Originally Posted by zeldamomma

Check out the BBC's Primary French program too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryfrench/

It's 2 years of complete elementary level curriculum, online, meant for self-study (a non-reader will need help with some of it).

Awesome, I hadn't found this before!

Amy

[kittie313]

I'm using Hooked On French with my K'er and 1st grader. We are pretty sporatic about it though right now. It was actually suggested to us by my H's cousin who is a french professor at the local branch college (just down the road from us) and then we saw it on clearance for like $20 or something at the book store so we got it to do this year. I speak absolutely ZERO french myself, and it is really good for us with being able to to teach it to them because I am learning it alongside the girls instead of having to learn it myself.

But immersion is definitely best if you can do it, I'm working on my spanish now so that once we finish french I can do immersion spanish for a while with them. (I did it with them a while when dd3 was a baby and we had her speech evaluated because she wasn't talking, then we discovered she was speaking SPANISH instead of english lol but they still tagged her with a speech delay for other reasons) I am really enjoying learning languages along with the girls....................