What age to start French?

[EauRouge]

Afternoon all,

Dh is Canadian and bilingual. As we plan to emigrate there in a few years I thought that the DDs and I ought to learn French. I only have a couple of years of secondary school French 20 years ago but DH is fluent.

I've no idea when to start though. DD1 is 3.4yo and has a good grasp of grammar for her age. Should I leave it a while longer? Has anyone else taught another language to a pre-schooler?

Oh, and we are planning to HE which is why I posted this in the HE forum TIA.

The easiest way to make your DD bilingual would be to have your DH speak only French to her at home.
She would not understand in the beginning, but at her age she would soon pick it up.
Children learn languages very naturally and would not to be taught. She would just need to hear it and use it.

I agree that to be raised as bilingual would be a massive advantage.

DS1 has been going to Jolie Ronde classes once a week sine the age of 4. I know they take the kids from the age of 3. It is very 'lite' - lots of movement and games and it only lasts half an hour. Ds is the most ungroup-ish person in the world but he is happy to go and definitely picking up the lingo (sentences!)

Thanks for the tips! I've been told about a local group that sounds similar to what you've described, kumquat. I'm going to look into getting some story books in French too so DH can read to the DDs.

my dd has started learning at nursery and she's the same age as yours she loves it and has really started to pick some of it up. I plan on doing more at home and having 'french evening' once a week sometime soon, with french food, flags and listening to some french speaking dvds I have. That sounds really corny now I put it down on paper, no wonder dh rolled his eyes.

Still going to do it though.

Yes, start straightaway. DH to speak ONLY french to your children come what may, you to stick to english in front of them so they don't get confused. My son is totally bilingual as we live in France. We speak english at home, but he spoke french in school before coming out three years ago.
He still speaks perfect french.
You cannot start too early.
But, stick to one parent to each language.

I agree, get DH to speak only French with them.

I think the earlier the better in general.

We have a French-speaking playgroup, which is basically free play followed by French stories & songs. I'm going to start taking DS soon (he's 2.2 y.o.) as I want him to be able to learn a language while he has the opportunity, and we plan to HE too.

A friend said her not-very-good-at-languages dad had made huge strides in his French by using the Michel Thomas CDs. They focus on speaking rather than reading/writing.

Ooh, thanks Angel :) I am crap not very confident at learning languages. I am quite happy to stick to English for the time being!

I have Michel Thomas, he is ace. DD started muttering under her breath the other day and when I asked her what she was doing she said.- French, so I asked her to speak to me in French and she said (in a very French accent) - freeeynch wiz miychel thomassss. That is what the lady says when introducing the cd.

This isn't the cd I've got for her, it's French for kids just learning colours, numbers etc.

How I wish one of us were fluent so we could speak to her in French

I'd love to know any suggestions of how-to-re-learn French for someone who's forgotten a lot but isn't a beginner. I used to be fairly good at it but it's about 15 years since I last learnt/used it, so I need to brush up a bit.

You can use You tube to get French versions of Peppa pig if your DD knows the English versions.