French course for the whole family?

[Helenagrace]

Thought someone on here would be able to suggest a French course that we could do as a family.

DH has good but lapsed French. I miraculously passed O level French and haven't used it since. DD (10) has some rather pathetic French from school and DS (6) has no French.

The plan is to do this over the Summer and continue using it to HE if we go down that route in the Autumn.

Any ideas?

Since there are four of you, might it be good value to hire a tutor? Then you could all do some activity together - I dunno, play Twister or a card game something, or baking, or learn some new songs, sit and do clay sculpture, or whatever all of you like which involves plenty of chatting. Perhaps you could find a talkative person who is quite dynamic and loves kids, and ask him or her to speak only French when at your house. Then the kids would associate this person's arrival with doing fun family things, rather than Let's All Sit and Learn French if you see what I mean.

I've only ever tried one language course which was meant to be suitable for the whole family and I'm afraid it missed the mark completely. However, that doesn't mean the concept was flawed - I think the people running it just weren't engaging enough.

When I've approached tutors they generally dont like family tuition because they say adults and children learn languages in a different way. :/

I know most of you are asking about courses, but for the younger dcs I know that all the key words taught at school are the same words and topics for German, French, and Spanish. I'm not sure about secondary. I have found good resources on tes and have downloaded quite a few. It is more difficult when you want language resources not covered by the ncc. DD wants to learn Italian as quite a few of the pieces she sings are in this language. If anybody knows of cheap if not free resources for this I'd be so happy. Needn't be too advanced neither as only 8.

Sorry I forgot to say, for those not liking school type activities these are more fun and games, such as bingo, matching, etc.

In the first instance you could try the BBC website to brush up your and your DH's French. Then there are lots of websites which are great fun for children. I'd recommend www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/french/french.htm
I use this with 10 and 11 yr olds who I teach online and they love it.
If you want to find a tutor locally I'd suggest that you look for someone who has taught French to young children. It is possible to teach a family successfully.