Any French / French speaking families up here near Fife?

[MmeMoufle]

Hello! My son is nearly 3 and I have been speaking French to him from day 1. I am not native but have lived out there and am pretty much fluent and decided to give it a go and see what happens!
His French has really taken off over the past couple of months and he now uses whole sentences and automatically switches to French to speak to me. He can also sing all of "Le Divin Enfant"

However, I would LOVE for hom to meet up with some francophone children so he can use the language with "real" French people not just his nutty mum, it would be wonderful for him to see other kids using French. We are going to France this summer but I'd really like to find someone a bit closer to home to meet up too

Sooo...a long shot I know....is there anyone out there with French speaking children in the remont vicinity of Edinburgh, Dundee or Fife??? Would also be most interested to hear from any other non-native lunatics like me trying to teach their child a second language for the sheer, damn love of it!!

Je croise les doigts

Hi MmeMoufle, sorry, I can't help at all with your request (am in SE London) but wanted to let you know that I am in the same boat - non native using only French with my daughter. She is 10 mths and it's very encouraging to hear it's working so well for you.

Be great to stay in touch and hear more about your experience and what you've done to support her learning apart from speak to her. We use a lot of French children's DVDs, I record the kids' stuff on TV5, she likes a bit of a dance around to French 60s pop (Joe Dassin is a fave but she likes CloClo too ...) and we also attend a Francophone playgroup on Saturday mornings - surely there'd be something similar in Edinburgh (where I briefly taught French at the uni, once upon a time) if not in Fife?

Bonne continuation, en tout cas!

S

My friend teaches La Jolie Ronde and her classes are full of 3 year olds...just a thought

Never tried it but most people sound positive about it ... Only thing there is thta it's French lessons rather than learning French as a native language.

Have you read George Saunders's book about being "like us" ie non-natives with bilingual children? And do you subscribe to the Bilingual Family Newsletter? Both have helped me believe I'm not being mad and pretentious ...

Its taught by native French and Spanish speakers I believe

Hi there ManIFeel! How wondrous to hear from a Fellow Believer, I would love to share tips and progress notes with you

All I can say is PERSEVERE, it is amazing what can be achieved. Hopefully, down in cosmopolitan London, nobody bats an eyelid but I've had to develop the skin of a rhino up here, I've had so many raised eyebrows and downright rude comments about how I'm affecting my DS development.

I have no idea how things will pan out long term but at the minute his English is great and utterly undamaged it would appear and he can spontaneously declare "Maman, regarde le joli sapin de noel, que c'est beau!" or "Je suis sage, le pere noel va me donner des cadeaux"(some of my sixth formers couldn't manage that!!)However, it's only in the last 6 months he's started speaking to me properly, for what seemed like FOREVER he would always reply in English. So I had to resolutely relpy in French EVERY TIME much to my cynical friends amusement. But it certainly seems to be paying off, at around 2.5 years old, a switch just flicked on and now he speaks to me in French 95% of the time. You will be SO proud when you hear your DD do it too

I should mention I also have a DD who is now 6 months old It will be very interesting to see how she does as she will be getting less 1 to 1 with me but will be hearing me and DS talking in French which he didn't have

Have you checked out Little Linguist website, they have fab French books and games and posters etc. Have also just subscribed to Pomme D'Api, a lovely kids magazine which arrives once a month. It's for 3-7 year olds but they do another version for even tinier tots

Joyeux Noel et bon courage

Sounds brilliant - I need encouragement from time to time, too! You must be very proud.

Are you "into" Saunders, too?

Will definitely check out that site.

Feel free to contact me here

Joyeuses fetes!

"here" being, of course,

[email protected]

Not as techie as I might be ...