French for children

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

My DD1 (7) is really enjoying learning french so I thought I'd see if I could find her a french penfriend. Can anyone advise me as to where to start?

And what about hosting a french exchange student - has anyone done that before? Are there particularly reputable companies to use?

MrsWobble - I live in France and, IME, French families are crying out for English exchange families. Far, far more French children learn English than English children learn French.

Whereabouts in England are you? Would your DD be interested in an exchange to Paris?

Thanks for responding, Bonsoir. We're in Gloucester. I don't think she's ready for doing an exchange herself, but she's keen on having a penfriend at least; and I was wondering about whether it would work out to have a french child/teen stay here. We don't have much space though, and whoever came would have to share a room with DD1.

We will take them to France one day, and I expect she'd be keen on an exchange when she's older.

Actually, I just asked her and she said yes, but 'maybe when I'm 10 or 9 or 8...or next week when I know more French'

Ok, maybe it's just me not being ready to let my PFB go that far away without me!

Parisian children are used to sharing bedrooms with siblings, so that shouldn't be a problem.

If your DD wants a penfriend, I could put a notice up on the board at my DD's school when school goes back in September.

That would be great, thank you :-) Shall I CAT you? Although she is hoping to have some way of practicing her French over the summer while her French club doesn't run.

I've just found a website that finds hosts for French children - have you heard of them? (or anyone else who reads this thread?).

Belaf

I'm thinking that doing this might be a good idea too, but am wary of being involved in a scheme which doesn't come highly recommended IYSWIM!

I can ask in our village if there is anyone who would like a pen friend. I would offer my DD but her French is not perfect yet.

She sounds so keen - which is lovely, but school has broken up for the holidays here so I have no way of helping right now! CAT me in September about the penfriend so we can draft an appropriate message together.

Would you like to have a French girl to stay this summer? You never know, I might hear of someone at the last minute.

there's a website (which is French run) called Penpals of the World. Will see if I can find the link.

here

students of the world in fact

Top left you can switch to English

I'd love to, Bonsoir, but I'd be wary of doing a quickie ad hoc thing unless it's through some reputable scheme. She is loving French - she's watching a french dvd right now I loved languages as a child and did French and German at A-Level - I never kept them up though but I was good at them, and the French man who does her club says she has a natural ability .

MmeLindt - that would be great, thank you :-) Shall I CAT you my details?

ZzenAgain - going to google that website, thank you

My DD loves the Tintin DVDs - do you have those?

X-posts ZZZen

I should add that she wants to do snail mail too...well I want her to. I want her to have some reason to practice her handwriting!

No, but am going to add them to my wishlist now, Bonsoir. She's watching a BBC learning french thing called Serge which they all seem to love - even the 3yo!

my dd has a French penpal from that website (they communicate in English via email). We put an ad up but she got totally inundated with responses so after she collected a few she was keeping in touch with regularly and we used mails no longer the site mailbox, we withdrew her ad. Had no problems with it, but I screened every first mail myself first to check whether I felt it was really a dc etc

I had loads of requests from parents wanting snail mail correspondance for their dc but I didn't have the time for it, so we turned those down but I defintieyl think you will find a lot of families on there wanting to do just that

21 Tintin adventures on 7 DVDs in a box - though you can buy them in invididual DVDs of 3 adventures if you prefer.

we have that Tintin box too and dd watches them all in German and French. She likes the French better (sound of it I suppose, since she doesn't really understand it).

if MissWobble listens to them in Engl first then Frnech which is what dd does, I think she'd pick up loads.

DVDs are a great invention, aren't they?

DVDs are fabulous for language learning. Whoever says children don't learn language from watching TV is just wrong - DD learns masses. At the moment she is watching David Copperfield (BBC 1999 version) and is completely addicted - and her understanding of the story and language improves every time she watches. And we can discuss it all at length.

so much easier for dc to learn languages these days, what with the internet and music videos online, everything just a click away.

My dd watched bl* Nancy Drew all day long in German and Italian when we got that dvd. I thought I'd go totally mad with it but tbh she learnt heaps of Italian that way. Story not really adding to wisdom/knowledge in any other obvious manner like a classic would.

She can have a blast with Frnech all summer long Mrs W when you think about it. CDs with songs are nice too.

I drown my DD in improving DVDs - Secret Garden, Ballet Shoes, Jane Austen, Dickens etc etc. I want her to have that particularly English brand of uprightness. And she sure won't get it at French school

Oh I am very keen on tv and computer use. As long as children are also given opportunities to do loads of other things, then tv and computers can only be good. My DDs will watch a documentary or film about something and then want to know more and more and we'll visit a museum or something about it, and they'll play games about it until the cows come home. They certainly learn loads and loads from the evil tv and computer!

ZZZen - that website looks great! I think I'll just get DD to contact one or two of them until she's got a good exchange of letters going. There are so many french children on there wanting penpals, there seems no need for us to put an ad on for DD, especially considering what you just said about your DD!

Oh I love all those too. My dd really responds to something in them. Same with the books. Dc notice quality. Railway Children, Secret Garden etc.

I remember after we churned through those awful weather fairy rubbish books (twice English and then German- gawd), I read the Wind in the Willows and she was lying there open-mouthed at the sdjectives , good descriptive language etc instead of churned out crappy drivel.

Dc notice. They need to choose their own books of course but it is nice to be guided towards quality as well. Essential is perhaps the right word.

Oh gosh, those drivel learning to read books are imminent on our horizon . She is very reluctant to look at them - probably due to too much quality elsewhere!

they don't need easy readers for long IME, just to get a bit of reading stamina and word recognition up

Phew.

I took a look at easy readers at Smiths on rue de Rivoli last week - there's a big selection and they aren't all as dreadful as each other. I shall have to bite the bullet soon!