Giving second language a boost

[Zyxwvu]

Hi there, we have two DC aged 6 and 4, and are (in theory at least) an English/French bilingual household. However we have got rather lazy when it comes to developing their French (DH's language). The six year old understands pretty well in context, but would struggle to say anything beyond the very basic. The four year old understands basic stuff but is very reluctant speaker.
I'd love to get back on track, and thought I'd use the summer holidays to try and get French back into regular use at home. Does anyone have any suggestions of how to do this? I was thinking of getting hold of some French tv shows that they might enjoy (recommendations?), and enforcing French bedtime stories. I wondered about having a French hour or two every day, just to get them back into it while they're not busy with school and other activities. Has anyone successfully improved their kids' second language at this stage? Unfortunately we aren't going to France this summer, but we will be spending a few days with DH's parents at the end of the holidays.
Thanks!

We found the only effective way to get DD to speak German is to put her in a German environment and basically force her. Could you plan a trip to France at another time, October half-term?

She always had a 100% passive understanding. If you want to increase this I would put away English books and TV and concentrate on French material. Storytapes also work very well. We found that DD didn't like TV shows she knew in English, we went back to our childhood and got "vintage TV" series on DVD, maybe Amazon FR can help there.

Rosetta Stone is very good, they wear a headset and get to use the computer so my children like it.

Last summer we got DD (5) a cahier de vacances from amazon.fr. I'll be ordering her another one for this year. She enjoyed it and t kept her occupied, although she did need help so not good for car journeys.

A lot of British TV shows are available in French. DD used to watch a lot of Peppa Pig, La Pat Patrouille (Paw Patrol) and Voici Timmy (Timmy Time) - she now watches Shaun le Mouton. She also likes Mouk, Sam Sam, Tchoupi and Sam Chicotte. I've realised it sounds like she watches a lot of TV!

We also have a French children's cookery book, which encourages us to speak French while baking.

Thanks all, that's useful. I like the idea of a French baking book, DD would love that! And cahier de vacances also a good idea. We are just going to have to insist I think! It's hard as DH not around much and even though my French is good, they know it's not 'my' language so don't really make the effort. Lots of resources will help!

I'm the lazy second language parent here, and dh has managed to get them to improve radically by doing a couple of things:

1. every day, he does a 'phrase of the day' with them, and then they have to check with me whether they got it right. The dc choose what their phrase is, something that they want to tell me, and dh preps it with them.

1. They have learnt a few poems in my language. It's amazing how much it has helped them loosen up and start speaking.

They also had a few ipad games that were in my language, with fairly mixed success. Some were brilliant (one sadly now discontinued), some not much use. An ipad children's story book on little red riding hood and so on was good for ds2 when he was around your youngest's age.

The phrase of the day is a great idea! I will be borrowing that. I think they'll respond to a gimmick. I even thought of buying some silly hats to wear when we speak French to try and make it into a game...

French radio if you have DAB or internet radio apps? Or Audiobooks? Skype with French relatives or friends?

I once heard of a bilingual family in Canada who spoke French upstairs and English downstairs (or vice versa) which I thought was a good idea.

I think you should keep up with your French and basically maintain that you are a French speaking household.

My relatives have English as a second language, and always spent one hour a day with their children only speaking English. They would also watch the odd film or tv shows in English too.. The children are now teens, and completely fluent in English.