Early Years help please! How to home ed 3.5yo in English, whilst he is at school in France

[SquidgyMummy]

I hope this makes sense (I initially posted this on Overseas Living, but I thought I would have more luck on the Home Ed boards)

Basically; we are in France, 3.5 yo DS is in the first year of maternelle (pre-school). He doesn't speak much french (although he was born here in France.) DP and I are both British so outside school DS is in an anglophone environment.

I am not too worried about him picking up French, as he will go at his own pace through school. At the moment, he just does mornings, as opposed to whole days, as we live very rurally and DS is an only so the village school is the best way for him to make friends. So I have afternoons and all days wednesdays to introduce a bit more English to him. We also go back to the UK a couple of times a year when his spoken English seems to come on leaps and bounds.

Anyway, we met some friends at the weekend and their daughter has been in the french system since Grande section (age 5) and she cannot read or write in english, (she writes english phonetically as a french person would.)

I therefore want to start teaching DS how to read and write in English. (I did do a TEFL qualification and taught a bit of English to French teenagers, but I have no idea where to start with a pre-schooler)

I read to DS in english and I know he is too young to be reading (and writing by himself) just yet, however, I would like him to be prepared so that his written English doesn't suffer and of course in later years has the option to study in Anglophone countries should he want to.)

I am probably over thinking it at this early stage, but what should I be introducing DS to at the moment in terms of English early years education? If you could point me to any books, websites etc, that would be really helpful.
TIA!

Look on youtube for jolly phonics?

But really it is a bit early to be worry

...ing about his writing!

Thanks for the phonics suggestion; looks good.
I'm not too worried about writing (!)
However he is almost 3 1/2 and I am wondering whether I should be teaching him the English alphabet yet. The mums on the overseas board suggest that it is best to wait for him to master it all in french first them wait till he is about 6 /7 to let him catch up with his english.

I don't know whether there are any advantages/disadvantages to making an early start on English spelling etc, but it's certainly possible to start later. Among those home educated kids who are allowed to tackle reading and writing at the age when they want to, it is very common for that to happen quite considerably later than the age at which these things are presented at school, with no ill effects. So you won't "miss the boat" if you wait.

It seems to me that the best way to improve your son's English reading and writing skills will be to provide him with lots of chances to find things he likes doing in English. Of course, you'll want to have plenty of English books around the house which he enjoys, but there will also be ample opportunities to do things on the internet. The fact that English is so widely used means he'll probably latch onto many things of his own accord. My (monolingual) daughter's grammar and spelling really took off when she began using internet forums and found some novels she loves.

You can get bilingual books, maybe start with them.

Also how old is your friend's daughter? There are a lot of British kids who are monolingual but who spell things phonetically.

Hi,
my son was one when we moved to France and nearly three when he started Maternelle. I read aloud to him in both English and French, and he understood both really quickly. Once reading in French he started to learnt to read all by himself in English, and although at first his spelling was by french rules (very amusing) he rapidly learnt to write good english just by reading in english himself.
We actually took him out of school when he was in CE2, because he was being bullied by those same children he had come up from maternelle with (long story), and because we wanted him to be able to slot back into school in the uk.
His reading age shot up in english and his spelling came naturally to him. So I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.
Let your child learn to read and write in french, read in both languages to him, let him have simple english reading books and if he is bright, he will learn by himself and once he is well established in french, you can introduce some small lessons on spelling etc and he should be fine.
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I have an only just 4yo who is being home ed in English. We live in France, but he doesn't go to maternelle.

We do phonemes with him, and he reads and writes words, but we mostly let him take things at his own pace. He picks up French from his friends, but because he doesn't go to school won't learn to read and write in French until we decide, so that's a bit easier.