French for non French speaking parent who wants to encourage off-spring to speak French!

[speedymama]

My French is very basic but I know the every day words like car, milk, room etc. I can say how are you, where is that etc. My DTS are 2yo and barely speaking any English but nevertheless I play French music CD in the background in order that they can get use to hearing another language.

The other day T1 was singing along to one of the songs and I realised that they were starting to pick up the odd word and phrases. Therefore, I would be grateful for a recommendation of a French Music CD aimed at toddlers. Ideally, I would like one with easy to understand and sing along nursery rhymes. The boys are already singing Frere Jacque at nursery and I sing it with them at home so I would like to embrace and encourage their enthusiasm.

TIA

Bumping for you as I'd like to know more about this, too, though my children are year 6 and 7.

I'll keep bumping until we get an answer

Bump.

Bumpity bumpity bump s'il vous plait!

Ivortheengine

Was speaking to some colleagues at work and mentioned about my desire to source some French material to use with my toddlers and they mentioned \link{http://www.linguatots.com/\this}site. It looks interesting.

Has anybody else used this site and if so, were you happy with their materials? I really don't want to spend money on something that is not going to be of benefit.

TIA

try amazon.fr. You can pay with a UK credit/debit card.
Dont forget French radio, easily accessible in UK, play it in the background so that your dts can hear conversations.

Thanks NN, I had not thought of that!

\link{http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/470970/171-2277102-7359418\this came up when I googled 'chansons pour les enfants}

hth

speedymama - I think these two are great, they each have a cd and a lovely book with the words + the songs are very catchy and good to sing along to:
Comptines a Chanter Vol 1 (ed Milan)
Les plus belles comptines des petits lascars 1 a 4 ans (ed Didier)
I'd check if Amazon.co.uk has them and if not .fr should have

Before we moved here, I bought loads of kids books and tapes etc from amazon.co.uk. It was a good start for the kids.
Some people say it confuses young children to learn a 2nd language so young, (mine were 3 and 5 when we came 9 months ago) in fact they actually said it to me. But it is really good for them!! My 3.5 year old dd knows exactly what is french, and what is english... no confusion at all.

I can't get ds to listen to music for fun very much but he does enjoy visiting France and his basic Yr2 French classes at school.
So rather than songs, we are buying some familiar favourites in French so he already knows the story.
For example, \link{http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2871424578/ref=br_b_ts_4/171-2399121-9261817\Eric Carle}

We also picked up a cute Richard Scarry-type Word lift-the-flap book when we were there last year but I can't find the blighter on amazon.fr now :(

try ebay, I got a cd story in french too.

Thank you all! I knew you would come through with suggestions in the end

I am a strong believer in films/tv for teaching foreign languages. My children have square eyes, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of cartoons, but they do speak 3 european languages.

At one point, we were in France, and their main source of English was a series of videos of Kidnapped, the Black Arrow, Treasure Island etc, and they started to talk in eighteenth century phrases.

Nightynight for that precise reason ds is about to be treated to the Complete Adventures of Blake et Mortimer on DVD. I am hoping it is subtitled...

And I wish good quality, quirky French cartoons like Pitt and Kantropp and my personal fave Watch My Chops were available in v/o versions too...

bet he'll enjoy that. and your dd too though, she is just the right age to be hoovering up French vocabulary...

My smallest one has already got one word of German...NEIN! Her favourite word in any language. She has just heard tv up til now, so I am hoping that she is learning it.

Bonjour,

You might be interested in french classes for babies and toddlers.Few classes in Hackney..and more to come next term.

lalangueauchat.wordpress.com/location/

my number is 07963188623

A bientot!

Pauline

We've got lots of DVDs. Some of the ordinary ones you can buy in the UK have a French language option, for example, Maisie, Dora the Explorer and some Disney titles, such as Lady and the Tramp and Tinkerbelle, but not all. Or what about French series for under fives, such as Petit Ours Brun or Tchoupi?

Un Serpent

Off subject a bit, but do you have a full(er) list of the Disney titles that have a French soundtrack as standard?

It would certainly save me money on P&P from amazon.fr ...

I've only really found Disney DVDs with French in France, but I have them sent to the in-laws and pick them up when we visit. It is so ridiculous that the UK ones don't have French on them. Sorry not to be able to save you the postage!

Although, my bilingual favourite is Spongebob, who comes with English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese as standard! Seasons 1 and 2 anyway.

I think series one of Duck Tales has French as well.

Thanks for Spongebob and Duck Tales tip!

To get even further off topic, what really gets me is the money we have wasted as a family because it is not clear that the Frencvh versions do come with Englsih soundtrack as standard. As a result, we now have Winnie l'ourson and Winnie the Pooh, whereas just the former would have done the job; and two Peppa Pig compilations, with different titles, different artwork - and exactly the same contents!

(In case anyone else is a Peppa fan, then "New shoes" and "la chasse au treor" are in fact the same collections; and the French one comes with English soundtrack as standard.

Rant over.

I also don't get why pinocchio does come with Italian and Croatian as standard but not French ...

I've found that for the most part children's dvds bought in France will have English, but that those bought in England will not have French. I don't understand why they don't sell the same ones on both sides of the channel.

What I hate is that a Disney dvd seems to cost a minimum of 15 euros, but I can get them for half the price in the UK, if I'm happy to accept no French, grr!

Good to know about different titles etc still being the same though - I'll pay attention to that!

I do laugh at some of the strange combinations of languages though - I have one here with English, Hebrew and Icelandic :o

Exactly - what is the world's total icelandic-speaking population compared to (even the European) French-speaking population?

And is Eurodisney still in Paris or has it recently moved to Rekjavik?