[WCM]

<p>I've hired a tutor to work with my kids to help them learn French. I speak French but never bothered speaking it to my kids (dh doesn't speak it, it's not my first language, it just never felt natural to start yammering on to them in french in our house).I think by having a weekly 'time' when we are supposed to have worked on it, it will help us practice it the other 6 days of the week.</p>
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<p>But what to get the tutor to do with them? (they are 7 and 9). In the past, french tutors have played board games/done crafts, where their speech necessitated learning french. We are not a workbook-learning family, so paper work has no value for their learning.</p>
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<p>Play board games? label stuff in the house, what? then next week, the week after?</p>
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<p>I really appreciate your input and suggestions. </p>
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<p>WCM</p>

 

[JuniperBCN]

<p>This is actually how I earn my living, although I usually work with adults and it's English that I teach.  The most important thing is to realize that 1x/week practice isn't really enough to learn a language.  Ideally it needs to show up (nearly) every day.  The time the kids spend with the tutor should be really focused on activities that involve communication- speaking and listening.  They can do things like reading and writing when the tutor isn't around.  I see my role as more of a facilitator, so I try to gear what I do to the interest of my students.  What do your kids like?  What gets them motivated?  Active things like cooking, playing sports, going for a walk, visiting the grocery store, etc provide a lot of opportunity to produce language and acquire vocabulary in context and that makes it more real and easier to remember.  Also, you should ask the tutor to help you find cool and interesting resources that your kids will enjoy on the web etc for watching and listening when the tutor is not around.... music, tv shows, etc. </p>
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<p>If you give me some ideas about your kids interests, I could pass some concrete ideas along</p>

 

[WCM]

<p>Thanks Juniper, I really appreciate your perspective and ideas. We decided to play an animal card game that first visit, and next vist we'll play a counting game. In between I'll try to reinforce that earning each day, as you said, so it starts to stick. I agree that once a week is not enough.</p>

 

[pigpokey]

<p>Rosetta Stone is well worth it IMO.  It's expensive up front, but it covers up to I think 5 users and 2 computers.  My children do about 5 days a week, 20-30 minutes a day, and that's about one level a year. So it is very consistent.  If you can write down their vocabulary progress for the tutor (run through the core lesson for that unit and take notes, or there may be materials in the box that I didn't get into because I just grabbed the disk and ran with it), then she can have them do conversations around the house that relate to that vocabulary and grammar.</p>