Teaching French to 4 year olds

[JoeR]

Anyone out there had the experience of moving to another country and teaching toddlers the language? We are moving to France and I would like to familiarise my 4 year old twins with French. We have no TV - so no videos please - but ANY suggestions on good tapes or books that you could reccomend. Then I have to work on my own language skills....

Hi Joe

The only thing I can think of is that Dorling Kindersly do vocab sticker books (well, they do them in Spanish and I imagine they do them in French).

But kids this age learn best from interacting and speaking. If you want them to learn a bit of French before you go to France then the best thing you can do is to get them a french teacher (well, I say teacher, it would be more of a childminder who speaks in French), or take lessons yourself and play vocabulary games with them.

They will particularly need to learn instructions and directions. But of course they will pick it up when you get to France (it'll just be a bit more painful if they don't learn much beforehand).

Good luck with the move though.

Good luck Joe R - well done! My DP is half french and my french MIL now lives near us in England.

She has my DD one day a week, and from birth has predominently spoken to her in French. The interaction is the best thing IMO - try advertising for a french student/national to come and play with your kids for a couple of hours a week, or find out if any schools offer french to children afterschool and could accomodate you for half an hour before/after the class.

Ideally you might find another french mum (or grandma - if your in the South West you could borrow ours)living in your area whose kids would love to talk in their native tongue! Check out the twinning association too; they may have some good contacts, plus any local schools, colleges, universities, companies that might have french or french speaking employees / students.

The vocab books aren't all that hot on the words that are inportant to a four year old either Teddy Bear, Dolly etc, so get a good dictionary. We've also got some tapes that we made using the world service or tuning into french radio stations - probably more use for you than for your DD's. We got several books in french and english from amazon I think, plus some french nursery rhymes and tapes from somewhere online - I'll try to reunite the case and the tape and find out where they were from! Having adult vocab tapes on in the background might help get them used to the different sounds.... if they are a lot more patient than my DD that is!

Try abebooks for a huge selection of secondhand books. Order by emailing the bookseller otherwise abe slap on a huge fee.

Bonjour, basically agree with what others have said here. I'm french and dh is english so different situation to yours and don't really know of specific books or tapes to learn french this way, I have seen flashcards in french (at M&S, ELC and other places). Have you tried Le Club Francais? they teach through schools usually, but if you can speak to a friendly licensee, they might be able to put you in touch with french speaking families (have a look at www.leclubfrancais.com, and you can find a club near you) You don't live in Bristol by any chance as there is a french school here and a reasonably big french community...
Let us know how you get on, bonne chance!!! You could also listen to Europe 1, french radio on LW (around 180 I think).

Waterbaby - my dh is half french also. His Father has also spoken to my ds in French since birth (most of the time)He is 18 months old but not yet saying anything im french other than Pepere, which is what he calls his Grandad.

How old is your dd and how is her French?

Northerner, DD is 2 at the end of October. For a long time it was hard to distinguish the Fr from the Eng baby-babble, but she is now saying things like hello, goodbye, thank-you, dinners ready, please, go for a walk, and calls all of the toys she has at MIL's by the fr word. I was amazed, given she is there only 1 day out of 7, but the eng and fr language skills developed pretty much in parallel - one week she would start stringing words together in eng, the next she'd be doing it in Fr... so persevere! She has also recently stopped using the Fr at home, unless she is spoken to in Fr she will talk Eng... and lets me know if I get it wrong

DP has tried speaking french to DD but he is very rusty - his parents divorced when he was six, and he lived with his english dad. Until then he had spoken Fr in the house with his mum, but not as a family.

So, DD gets most of her Fr from her grandmother, one full day a week. On the evening of that day we all go over to their place for a meal and just speak Fr - difficult for me as I am far far behind everyone else. MIL used to enjoy teaching me but I think I need to learn from someone else - its awkward to fit in lessons now DD gets tired in the evening. Frenchgirl - I'm not far from Bristol, any suggestions?

cheers bron - just in time for DD's birthday too - will be a bit old for her now, but just right for me

Where are you going to in France JoeR? How soon?

hi waterbaby, I'm in delightful Fishponds (etang de poissons) in Bristol, we could always meet one day if you wanted? have a coffee in Cribbs, or something else?

Thanks frenchgirl, that would be great. I'm just working out my notice and will be taking quite a bit of leave between one job and the other, I'll try to get to the MN meet-up but maybe we could talk about some other dates too? Cribbs or anywhere else would be great... and I can just about manage 'une(?) tasse de café', although have no idea how to write it so will refrain... I passed a sign to fishponds on the way to Ikea recently, didn't I? North Bristol?

HOw did your lesson go today?

My lesson went quite well today, thanks, I'm going to get better and better (remembering their names would be a good start...). Fishponds in near Ikea, it's kind of north east of bristol. I'm going to try to go to the MN meet-up, but happy to meet you another time as well. Parents arriving tonight from France for a couple of weeks, so busy for now, but we could try later in october if you want.

Thanks Frenchgirl - that would be great. well done and good luck with their names - I would be c* at that - and keep accidentally saying "spotty one" "figit" or whatever else I was calling them in my head....
Have a good time with your parents - we'll talk again when things are quieter (and gives me some time to practice )

OK waterbaby, talk soon!!

Bonjour!
Many thanks for the tips - I agree with the radio stations -that is how I am imroving my French, as I can now start to understand distinct words. The native french teacher would be ideal - anyone out here in Roscommon (West of Ireland)listening?!
I have put an ad in the local rag for a french speaker to come up and just natter with us on Saturday mornings, as I think this is the only way - be in a situation where you HAVE to speak french. My five year old is worrying that the cat may have problems with french kitties....
Waterbaby - we are going in the Spring, DH is a tree surgeon and there is more work for him out there in Limousin. We had been throwing the idea around for about a year and decided to go for it and give the kids a chance (5, 4&4)to experience a different language and ure, as well as stretch our own abilities. As I grow organic herbs, we can basically work anywhere.
Tell me how your french lessons are going!

Hi JoeR, which radio station are you listening too? I've found the music based ones too difficult to catch the words, at least with the news ones I have some idea what is going on... but DH has just twiddled the dial and I can't find it again ! Will try the ones Frenchgirl suggested later.

Thats really exciting news; well done for grabbing the opportunity and running with it. Great that you both have portable skills. We're building a business up simultaneously in France and the UK, hopefully it will allow us to spend more time in France (DP's family are originally from Nancy, but have all followed the sun down to the South now, living around Toulouse).

As for the French lessons, DD is doing well, I'm going very slowly... doesn't help that can tell DD is sometimes laughing at my pronunciation!!! Have got a couple of CD's to stick on whilst doing the chores - must try harder!
Found a tape yesterday I thought your DD's might appreciate - its disney songs in French. No idea where we got it from but could send you a copy of it if you like. I like it as the words are actually quite clear in some of the songs. Email me your details if you'd like it.

Well i am reall yshocked &surprised.
my DS (2.2) is in the bath - he has just counted to 5 in spanish with no prompting.
Neither Dh or I speak any spanish - he has picked it up form Dora the Explorer (which he has been watching avidly for about a month)

at this rate he can learn so french too & help me out on holiday next May!!!

I have an avid interest in bilingualism as I now live in Denmark and so I read up on it quite a lot. So, get yourself to amazon.co.uk and order 'The Bilingual Family: A Handbook for Parents' for 10 quid. Absolutely fascinating and you will discover that kids react to a second language and when and how to use it very differently to each other even though they all take to it very easily (because they don't even realise they are doing it until they are about 7 years old!).

Oh, I could go on and on - just get the book!

Joer if u want the orchard toys french stuff i can pick it up and mail it to you, i know companies can be funny about mailing to ireland - they just cant get their heads around the lack of postcodes

Bogwoppit thats my secret plan too....
THanks for the tip DKdad - will order tonight, souunds really intersting.

Can't even speak English now! Sorry!

JoeR, didn't realise you're moving to the Limousin!!! this is where I am from! Uzerche, to be precise.... want to buy my parents' house, they are moving to the south west coast to enjoy their retirement by the sea...?

If you have time before you move you could try La Jolie Ronde - they do classes for little children (from 4 I think) usually held after school at the teacher's home - my son,aged 6, goes to a fabulous class in Whitton and has learned lots of French since he started at Easter - he loves the classes and at that age they aren't self conscious about speaking French - ds was confident enough to ask for a green apple at a stall in Disneyland Paris and spoke to French children happily ! Try the website - www.lajolieronde.co.uk

Frenchgirl - many thanks for the encouraging words on Limousin, we are loking to rent for the first year - any advice? We have also found that we can buy Choupy over the internet - a kind of French First Reader - (are you familiar with him?) He is improving my french too!

Many thanks for the offer of geting thestuff for me, Carrie - how right you are about the lack of post code kerfuffle i have to put up with !

Apologies for my delay in responding, as the advice is great...but I can only access email through the library....so I have to book the hour, occupy kids, remember I booked...

JoeR, T'choupi is great!!! glad you enjoy it too, my dd used to be very keen on him...
The Limousin is very pretty, you'll get hot weather in the summer and quite a bit of rain and cold in the winter, hope you're prepared for it! If I were you, I would probably look for something around the Brive area, which is the most pleasant part of the Limousin for me, and gets the best weather usually. Let me know how it's going, and whether I can help! Any luck with finding a French speaker where you are? have you tried local schools (asking the french teacher if they know any french students in the area)? Bonne chance! By the way, have you got any CDs of french songs for your kids? Henri Des has done loads fo excellent songs, they might be a bit hard at first but they are such good quality that your kids would probably get into them easily, and then start getting used to some of the vocabulary (try Amazon.fr).

Joyeux Noelle to everyone on this thread...we are still practising our French....good news - I have found a Mum who would hapily share the cost of a French teacher on Saturday mornings with her two tots and we have found a primary school teacher who would be happy to spend an hour or two chatting 'a Francais' with the children in exchange for coffee and petrol money!

Frenchgirl - thanks for the info, I am looking forward to checking Brive out!