Make a French alphabet book with your kids

One on-going French project we do in my house which will take about a month to complete is a French alphabet book. We folded several of pieces of paper together and we stapled the middle. Then each day we take a different letter and we either draw a picture that starts with that letter or we cut something from a newspaper that starts with that letter.

Today our letter was P. We looked for pictures of 'Pommes' in some magazines, but we couldn't fine any, so my 6 year old son and my 3 year old daughter drew their own and then colored them. It's a great way to reinforce vocabulary because the whole time they were looking for apples, they kept saying "Pommes, où et tu?" (Apples, where are you?).

If you can't think of something that starts with that particular letter, you can use a dictionary or online dictionary to help you find one.

Also, you can make a themed alphabet book. Some examples are: French food words, French animal words, French outdoor words...

French word wall

I know most parents have heard about word walls for when you teach your children how to read. So, why not make a French word wall for when you teach your children how to learn/read French? Find the perfect spot in your house where you child will see it while he is studying his French. Perhaps the closet door on your food pantry right next to the kitchen table where you teach your child French? Any place you find will be just right for your family.

The next step is to add a few French words to your wall and review them every day. You can add to the wall whenever your children are ready to move onto new vocabulary.

You can attach the words onto the door or wall or you can buy a poster board to attach to the wall and then attach the words to it. Either way will work. Also, you can make a title for your word wall. For me, we used "Callum's and Mia's French Word Wall." My kids prefer a little ownership and it does show them that it is indead their wall. Do whatever you want to make the space a great space for you and your children!

How to motivate your children to learn French

My kids sometimes need a little motivation to learn French or any school subject for that matter. Here are a few approaches that I use.

French Wall: I've spoken about this previously. We have a wall in our living room where I hang a few strands of yarn and then hang their French work on the yarn with clothes pins. This is an opportunity for them to really see what they are accomplishing and to be proud of what they are doing.

Make a daily chart for every day they do their French: You can print out a simple calendar or make one yourself. Every day your child studies French you can have them color in the box for that day. This is another way for them to see their progress and to be proud of themselves.

Reward of another activity: Some days my kids really want to do something other than study French, so I simply tell them we can do that activity after French. This motivates them to concentrate very hard so they can move on to the next activity.

Reward of a treat: I rarely use this tactic, but it definately has its place for motivation. But the treat could even just be a little box of raisins or a graham cracker.

Praise: I know I'm a person who needs a lot of praise for what I've done so I think others like it as well. I really try to praise my kids as much as I can for their French learning. I don't think you can praise your child too much.

No reward, just do it: Yes, there are days when they don't want to study French where I just say, "I'm the mom and you have to do it." And of course it works because it's true. ;)

Using board games to help you teach your children French

Today we played Candy Land and we played it in French. It's great for reinforcing colors in French and for practicing some of the lower numbers.

I'm sure if you are like me you have tons of board games in your closet, so now is the time to break out a few and change the rules and play them in French. It's a great activity to do because my goal with homeschooling and teaching my children French is first and foremost to make them happy and when they play board games they have such a great time. I just sneak some French learning in there and they never realize it.

Fun at the beach!

I always look for an opportunity to teach my kids new words in French in a natural environment. They learn so much better if they see and touch the things I am teaching them. Today we went to the beach, and I had the opportunity to introduce a few new words while we built some sand castles. It was amusing to me because I don't think the kids ever realized they were learning any French, they were so involved with building sand castle.

So next time you take a little day trip, log onto the computer before, go to a French dictionary website, or break open your French dictionary and look up a few words that you could teach your kids during your trip. It will only take a few seconds for you to do and it will really help them develop their French vocabulary.

Here are a few of the words I taught them today:

la plage - the beach

l'océan - the ocean

l'eau - the water

le sable - the sand

Teaching more body parts in French to your kids

I've been really focusing on teaching my 3.5 year old her body parts lately. One fun activity that she likes to do is to trace her hand on a piece of paper. Every time she traces a finger she says "le doigt". Then after she traces her hand, she writes a number on each finger and then counts the fingers in French.

un doigt
deux doigts
trois doigts
quatre doigts
cinq doigts

You can also teach le pouce for thumb and la main for hand during this exercise.

Teachng facial vocabulary to your children

Here are some facial words that you can teach your children and at the end I have an activity you can do together.

head -la tête

face - le visage

nose - le nez

eyes - les yeux

ear - l'oreille

mouth - la bouche

Most kids like to draw, so after you teach your children the above words, you can do this drawing activity.

What you will need:
Paper
Crayons

What to do:
1. Tell your child that he/she will draw a face. As you say the words in French they can then draw them on the page. For younger kids you may need to help them with the face shape.
2. After you child completes the activity have them point to each face part and tell you the name in French.

Hint: If they can't remember a word in French, point to your face and show them what it is rather than telling them the English name for it.

Have fun with this activity and when you are done you can hang your face on your French wall so they can use it to review their facial vocabulary later on.

Teaching your children the seasons in French

Since the seasons have just changed, it's now a great time to teach your children the names of the different seasons. Here's an activity for you:

What you will need:
1 sheet of paper
crayons

What to do:
1. Fold the paper into fourths and then unfold it.
2. Have your child draw a different season in each of the folded rectangles.
3. Depending on if they can write yet or not, help your child write the name of each season and practice saying them outloud.
4. Hang it on the fridge or their French wall so they can practice throughout the next few weeks.

Vocabulary:
le printemps - spring
l'été - summer
l'automne - autumn (Fall)
l'hiver - winter

What to do on days your kids don't want to learn French...

Today my kids were pooped, just plain tired and unmotivated and weren't so interested in practicing French. I looked around in the kitchen to find something that might add a little excitement to the lesson. I found some pilsbury cresent rolls in the fridge. The kids are always up for baking no matter how tired they are, so we did a little baking French lesson. I let the kids turn the cresent rolls into whatever animals they wanted. My daughter made trois chats and my son made un chien, un lapin and a few other animals. Then before we put them in the over we put sprinkles on them and practiced our colors. All and all it was a very successful lesson!

Mission Accomplished!

Getting started with the basics...

If you are wondering what the very first thing you should teach your children in French is...well it's really up to you, but I like to start with bonjour! It's a great word that means hello, good day and just a greeting in general. You can reinforce it throughout the day and with little toddlers you can try to even teach them bonjour before you teach them Hi in English. With older kids try to stop saying hello completely and just replace it with bonjour, in no time they will be doing the same thing.

Another great word to start with is coucou (pronounced koo-koo). This word means hi or hello and is also used when playing peek-e-boo with babies. It's a less formal word, but it used very frequently especially in France.

French words of praise

Throughout the day I find myself constantly encouraging my children to do this or to that and tell them that they've done well when they show me something they've built, colored or drawn. What I've been doing lately is try to take the English out of my praising and encouragment and only say those things in French.

For example:

fantastic! - fantastique!
You will succeed. - Tu vas réussir.
incredible! - incroyable!
pefect! - parfait!
excellent! - excellent!
good job! - bon travail!
very good! - très bien!

and my personal favorite - oh là là! The cutest thing is when your own kids start saying oh là là!

When your work pays off...

In the United States we don't get a lot of opportunities to speak French with other people, but today we had one and it was so rewarding. My husband, my kids and I went to a historical state park today. There were a ton of visitors as it's a very popular tourist attraction. We went on this boat that was on the sites to see and my son heard a couple speaking French. He went up to them and said a few kind words to them in French and they were really touched. I was so proud of him for not being shy and busting out with his French. It warmed my heart to see all of my efforts so fruitful.

This summer we are taking a trip to Canada and I'm hoping we all get to practice our French a lot more there. It's fun to put it to use in the real world.

Reusing old workbooks and activity books to teach French

If you are like me you have a ton of workbooks and activity books laying around your house that you got free or bought or a friend gave you once upon a time. Your children probably did a few pages in each book and now you just have them sitting in a closet somewhere.

Well now is the time to get a few of them out and look for some activities that your children can do in French. The one that pops into my head first is a dot to dot page. As they connect the dots they can say their numbers in French. Also, coloring pages, you can tell them to use specific colors in French. Before each activity you can review the vocabulary this will enable them to remember it more quickly as they do the activity and in turn they will have more self-esteem in learning their new language.

Don't have any activity books? Print some pages off the internet. Here is a site that has free dot to dots:
http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/dot-to-dot/

And as for coloring pages you can find them all over the internet. Whatever interests your child do a google search for that plus coloring pages (ex: train coloring pages) and you are sure to find a lot.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes

One way my kids love to learn French is by singing songs in French that they already know in English, like Head, shoulders, knees and toes. There are a few different versions on the internet, the one I wrote here is an exact translation, so your kids won't get confused. If you feel you have too many syllables just take out the et (and) and it should flow better.

Make sure to point at all of the body parts when you sing it!

Tête et épaules, genoux, et orteils, genoux et orteils.
Tête et épaules, genoux et orteils, genoux et orteils.
Yeux et oreilles et bouche et nez.
Tête et épaules, genoux et orteils, genoux et orteils.

Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.
Eyes and ears and mouth and nose.
Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes.

BINGO!

My kids love playing Bingo! They love it so much that after we finish a new group of French words we usually end the unit with a few games of Bingo. They love screaming out BINGO when they win. They have so much fun that they don't even realize they are reviewing vocabulary that they have alreayd learned.

I made a bingo sheet that you can download from here: http://www.flipflopfrench.com/games.html

The way my kids like to play is first we go over the group of vocabulary words. Today we did food. So as I said each kind of food in French they drew a picture of the word in a little box. We did this until they filled up their paper. If you use this method of creating a Bingo card before you actually play, you will be reinforcing the vocabulary twice as much so it's very helpful to them in the long run. And if your kids are like mine they will love to draw their own pictures of le lait (milk), le pain (bread), l'eau (water), le biscuit (cookie), etc.

What I did for the winner of each game is they receive a little biscuit, which really made them extra excited about the game.

Enjoy!

When should I teach my kids French?

"When should I teach my kids French?" This is a question that some of my friends ask me from time to time. My answer is: whenever you think your kids are the most focused. For me, it's between about 9am and 11am. For others it's right after nap/rest time. As a homeschooling mother it is easier for me to keep a routine, so I like to do it the same time every day. But I have lots of friends who do it whenever the mood moves them. So my advice to you is to not force it, but make it part of your regular routine. If you are someone who has a rigid schedule of homeschooling, then add a 30min slot for French. If you are someone who changes their homeschooling routine on a daily basis, then don't plan on it and just do it when you want. The moral of the story is to do it, whenver you want to do it, for how long you want to do it. I think you'll receive the best results if you teach French every day, this way you can continually reinforce the things that you have already taught your children.

Teaching boys French

Now it's time for a little French for boys. What do boys like? My 6 year old boy loves cars, constuction equiptment and trains. So I try to throw some specialized lessons that are just right for him. One game I like to do is we set up all of the dining room chairs in a straight line and we pretend it's a train. He usually wants to be the conductor and I'm usually a passenger. Then we say where we are going and what we see in French. This isn't a game just for boys, my 3 year old daughter loves it too.

Je vois un oiseau. I see a bird.
Je vois un arbre. I see a tree.
Je vois une maison. I see a house.

One thing you can do with your train game, you can focus on 1 specific group of words for your train journey that day. Colors, numbers, family members, animals, whatever you have been studying that day or whatever you wish to review.

Enjoy!

Teaching girls French

I'm a firm believer of teaching your kids things that interest them. What I do some days is have gender specific activities. My daughter like princesses and ballerinas, so I try to incorporate those themes into the activity. Sometimes it might be as simple as playing together with her dolls and telling her what their names are in French. Other times it might be something like coloring a picture of a princess and reviewing the colors while she colors the picture.

Here are some possible little girl vocabulary words (this really depends on what interests her:

the doll - la poupée
the princess - la princesse
the queen - la reine
the crown - la couronne
pink - rose

Making a train to help teach French

All aboard!!!

Your little boys will love this activity like my little boy did. Well, he's not so little anymore. He turned 6 years old yesterday. What we did was we built a train using construction paper. Each car of train carried something inside. I let my son decide what he wanted to put inside the cars. So we drew and cut/pasted some of those objects on each car. Then on the outside of the car we wrote the name of what was inside it. We hung up the entire train on our French wall. My son chose to put money, flowers, candy, marshmellows, leaves and straws in his train cars.

You can even just take real objects and glue them on your train. It would've worked well for what he chose, but he really wanted to draw them so he did. With this activity the sky is the limit. You can do anything with it and since all boys love trains, they will enjoy it.

Having trouble knowing the names of things in French for this activity? Go to:
http://www.wordreference.com/

Why blog about French teaching tips for kids?

A lot of my close friends have asked me lately why I have a blog to help parents teach their kids French. My answer is because I have always loved the French language and I hope more people will teach their kids French.

My love of language occured at an early age. I remember going to the university library with my mom when she was working on her Masters Degree. I was about 12 years old and I wandered around the library. I came across some language books, at least one was French and some others were less known languages. I asked my mom to check them out and she did. I was glued to those books for weeks. Back then there were no other resources for learning a language so her University library was my only link. The local library in our town didn't even have any language books. So today, I feel very fortunate to have so many resources in our town, library and on the internet that help me teach my kids French.

Another reason is that I think some times parents have an idea in their head about what they want to teach their kids, be it Teach French or Homeschool or whatever and before they try it they might search on blogs to see who is doing it so they can be pointed in the right direction. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to? So if I can just even help 1 mother or father start in their quest to help their child learn French or any foreign language then I know that my blog was successful.

So have dive in and have fun teaching your kids French. They will appreciate it when they are older and probably even now!

Some French sites that will help you teach your kids French!

I've put together a list of some web sites that we like to visit on occasion all of which help me teach my kids French.

Games for teaching Primary School kids French
http://www.genkienglish.net/primary_school_french.htm
Most of the stuff is really geared towards teaching English but you can switch it to French.

French songs
www.songsforteaching.com/frenchsongs.htm
It has some elementary songs which would be easy to teach young learners of French.

ABC teach
www.abcteach.com/directory/languages/french/
This site has some printables which I find very useful when teaching my children French. Negative - is you have to navigate around the ads.

So you've decided to teach your kids French - now what?

So, you've decided to teach your kids French, but what is next? Depending on your own level of French and what French resources are around your area, there are many directions you can go...

1. Buy some basic French flashcards - You can find them at Barnes and Noble or on Amazon. If you go to Barnes and Noble and you can't find any, ask an employee, because the French books for kids were hidden in a very obscure place at my local Barnes and Noble.

2. Berlitz summer language camps or other language camps - I live in a fairly small city and the Berlitz here has summer language camps for kids as young as 4 years old. However, I think they are a little pricey.

3. French immersion preschool - believe it or not, there are actually quite a few around the United States and they cost the same as a regular preschool (at least the one they have here).

4. Borrow some French language books for teaching children at the library - This way you can try a few out and if you truly love on you can buy it or just keep renewing it at the library.

5. Online resources - There are tons of places on the internet that have activities geared towards teaching French to children. I will make a post tomorrow and highlight some of my favorite sites.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. You don't have to start big, the most important thing is that you start! Good luck!

How to teach sick children a bit of French...

I have a house full of sick children, so used this opportunity to teach a little sick French vocabulary to my kids. You can try it too. Obviously if they are too sick you might want to sick to popping some DVDs in and changing the language to French, but if they aren't too sick you can try to teach your kids these French phrases.


Je suis malade. I'm sick.
J'ai mal a la tête. I have a head ache.
J'ai mal au ventre. I have a stomach ache.

Teaching your kids French through food - crêpes

It's fun to make French foods with your kids to teach them about a different aspect of the French culture. One of my favorite French foods are crêpes.

Here's a recipe I've used in the past that I found here:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Basic-Crepes/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

I have to admit it took me a few tries before I made some good ones, but it's fun to try with the kids. We all laughed about it.

What you put inside your crêpes is up to you, but we like strawberry jam in ours and also Nutella. Nutella tastes good on anything! Oh and whipped cream tastes great on crêpes too.

Bon appetite!

Teaching French to kids of different ages

I have 3 children, 16 mos old, 3.5 years old and 6 years old. I want them to all learn French, but since they are different ages I use different approaches with the same activities. For my 16 month old I think just listening to us all speak and practice French is great for him. For my 3.5 year old daughter and 6 year old son I use about the same approach of doing activities together in French that I've described in other posts, but with my son I give him challenge exercises too.

Let's say I were to teach them colors one day or reinforce their colors. With both I would do about 8 basic colors, but with my 6 year old I would add about 5 more more obscure colors. So his vocabulary will expand more to his age level. My daughter is always there when I teach him the extra vocabulary, and 9 times out of 10 she usually picks it up without me actually teaching her, but this way she won't get overwhelmed with too much French. If she's open and able to learn them, she will.

One of the most important things I've learned about teaching my children French is that you should never push them so much that they stress out about it. You never want it to be a negative experience.

Changing a regular craft activity to a French learning activity

As a parent, I'm sure your kids are doing crafts everyday, either coloring, painting, drawing or my daughter's favorite cutting and pasting. One thing I do is turn these activities into a time when I teach my kids French. We learn whatever words we need to do the activities in French. And with any craft activity there are colors, so you can always reinforce those if you like.

Some good craft vocabulary for teaching your children French are:

to draw - dessiner
to cut - couper
to color - colorer
to paint - peindre
to have fun - s'amuser

You CAN teach your kids French!

I've given this pep talk to my friends so many times so I feel strongly about it. I believe that anyone can teach their kids a foreign language. With the way that books are designs today with the pronunciation guide next to the word, anyone can teach their child a foreign language and learn it themselves at the same time. Learning a language today with your kids could be such a meaningful experience and tons of fun!

So many people believe that you have to be a native speaker to give your children the proper accent, but as I have described in other posts, there are other ways to get that into your children's lessons. And the most imporant thing is to give your kids the exposure to the language, any language. Any language learning you do now will help them with language learning in school when they are required to take it.

So, get a couple of good books and dive in. Most importantly have fun teaching your kids French or another language.

How to teach kids French when it's raining outside...

Today is dreary day today; it has been raining non-stop. The first thing on the agenda is to teach my kids how to say: "Il pleut." It's raining. So all day long we've been saying Il pleut instead of It's raining. Since it's been raining for hours, it's safe to say that they know that phrase well!

Onto our craft for the day, today we bragged to their grandparents that they know some French. We are made Easter cards for them. For my younger daughter who is three, I wrote some french words on a folded piece of constuction paper. We repeated the words together and she drew pictures to represent each item. For my son, who I homeschool, we did the same thing, but he wrote the words himself. He's almost 6 so this isn't too hard for him at all. I just had to help a little with the spelling. Then we put the cards into envelopes and put them in the mail box for Grandma and Grandpa. I'm sure they will be very impressed with their grandchildren learning French. I know I'm impressed with them.

It really makes me happy when we a successful French learning activity.

French babysitters

Want your kids to get a little native French speaker influence? Why not get a French babysitter? There are many French students at the local universities and many offer babysitter or tutoring services.

We had 3 French Au Pairs and it was really great for the kids to become more immersed with the language. I asked them to only speak in French during the time they spent with them.

There are various websites to help with finding a French Aupair or Nanny such as:

http://www.aupair.com/
http://www.greataupair.com/

However if you are looking for just a babysitter, you could try your local craigslist or newspaper or even place a job ad. at the local college. Another place you might want to try is the local French alliance club.

Good Luck!