Yes games are good, I had letters and numbers blocks early on, they adapt to level, so it was all a game. Definitely educational games, I loved things like that. I don’t know how old I was when I realized that it was work! University I think:)
If your youngest understand french when you read then he is already miles ahead! I read that languages stay with young minds, so they will both have it in reserve, which is a wonderful thing to give them.
My Dad tried to teach me the devil/genius child chess, but I never had the patience! My mother was big on word games (is Countdown still on television? She and my brother did that every day, it’s a good game for your little one and the very impressive vocabulary!). My mother and brother were good at it, brother thought it was fun and improved well. He’s a smart kiddo too, as smart as I was in his own way, better at some ways of thinking (tech and IT are his thing, I can computer code because super high level finance maths you have to, but I hate it and it doesn’t feel natural to me, my brother feels it like language!). Just yesterday we were discussing my brother’s son, he’s a smart little cookie, like his Dad wants to know how things work (three years old for a few weeks and he was explaining circuits and the way computers work, whaaaaaat, my Dad thought that with my brother than I, I had the edge in general, but honestly I don’t think so. Kids are all different, that’s the magic! My brother could remember anything that made sense to him immediately, I was a studier and needed to study to do well. We’re all different and was never a competition. Fortunately not for countdown because I was useless! I got full marks for the numbers every time, then zero for everything else! My vocabulary and eloquence etc were always way ahead, but reorganizing letters to make words, my brain just doesn’t do it! All brains are different, everyone has their skills and ways of learning/functioning. Same with numbers and numbers the maths/science that followed, it feels smooth as silk to me. However chat to me in french and despite living in France for several years in and off, you’ll have a giggle at my mistakes! It’s another skill and my academia approach only gets me so far! So your little ones having a feel for another language is wonderful.
One thing to watch out for, something I was never aware of but my parents had gently mentioned it over the years, because I was the first child and smart, the talk about the genius/devil child was focused on me. My brother was only a couple of years younger, equally bright, sharper in many areas and a mind that didn’t need forced to remember, was overlooked. Not by my parents, but at school, wider family, friends. There was no talk of how bright he was and whilst my brother continued to do incredibly well and said well achieved, my parents said it was difficult for him as he was always following and it didn’t matter what he did, school and others asked about or talked about the first child, as I was the novelty. I saw no difference but my parents both said later that it was challenging for my brother to be overlooked even when he was doing incredible things himself.
I’m sure you don’t do that at home and your children will be each other’s biggest supporters, but it’s something to watch out for at school and strangers, especially if your first is very bright and interesting. In my family’s experience, with an unusual first child causing conversation and interest, it then doesn’t matter what the second child does, they can’t better the first or do anything “new”, so they are unreasonably overlooked or underestimated. My brother is fine, but I keep an eye out for all children are wonderful in their own way!