Need to find FRENCH lessons for 11 yr old

[zebra15]

I've looked for this before and given up.  Now I need to find something.

J is 11 and well.. quite demanding with his lessons.  We are slowly moving from unschooling to something more structured- I'm not sure what yet.

He wants to learn French and has been asking for the past couple years. I do NOT speak French. I had 4 yrs of Spanish in High School and only remember a few key terms from 20 yrs ago.

I need something self paced for DS, something that comes with everything in a boxed set.  Audio, books, workbooks etc.

IDK if Rosetta Stone is any good?  

I know the library has some type of program they offer but of course its buried in the website and I can never find it.

Please help...

[Seana]

If you are in or near a city, you should look up the local Alliance Francaise. It's an international French club in most cities that offers lessons, classes and activities for all ages. I'm near Louisville Ky, and just did an immersion weekend, where I got together with other adults who want to work on their French, and we had fun classes, speakers and activities all in French for two days. I'm going to enroll my kids in their summer camp this summer, too. Ours also offers private lessons in several other languages. otherwise, Do you have a community college nearby? perhaps an instructor might give lessons, or even an AP French HS student?

[moominmamma]

Yes, Rosetta Stone is very good. It's also very expensive. My dd17 is living in Montreal and used it intensively to prepare for the francophone environments she's in. She found it very helpful and is still working through it, reviewing, moving ahead in the next level. It didn't make her anything close to fluent but it did a very good job of giving her enough basic vocabulary and enough of an ear for the language that she could get by and add to her learning through general immersion. 

There's livemocha.com which is a free site for language learning. It would be a good place to start. There are also some good "French in 15 minutes a day" or "French on the go" podcasts that are free. If you own familiar DVDs with multiple language options, it can be very helpful to watch them with the French dubbing on ... with or without the English subtitles. You may be able to find French classes in your area, and that would be great because live practice with real fluent native-speakers is the gold standard. Basically it's all good. French is French, and if you're serious about learning it, the more different routes you can experience it through the better. I do think Rosetta Stone is an excellent "spine" for systematic learning.

Miranda