Things you say a gazillion times a day, but switch them to French!

There are so many words I find myself saying over and over all day long: Of course, no, yes, here, there, I don't know, come here, please, thank you, etc.

One easy way to almost trick your childen into learning French, is to drop these reoccuring English words and only say them in French. You just say them and say them and eventually your children will pick them up because you will say them so often in the correct context. You can start out with one or 2 words and see if it works for you (and for your kids).

Here are a few translations to get you started:

Of course - bien sûr
no - non
yes - oui
here - ici
there - là
I don't know - je ne sais pas
please - s'il vous plaît
thank you - merci

you're welcome - de rien

Learning French and eating banana boats!

It’s too cold outside to enjoy nice campfire fun; however you can still do some of the activities inside your house. When I was little and went to camp, we made banana boats. I had so much fun making and eating them that I decided to make them with my children today while teaching a little French at the same time.

Banana Boats:

What you need:
tin foil
bananas
chocolate squares (like a hersey bar that you can break into squares)
marshmellows (small ones work best)

What to do:
1. Take a banana that is still inside the peel and cut it length ways.
2. Stuff chocolate squares and marshmellows in it (you might want to scoop a little banana out if you don't have room).
3. Wrap it up in tin foil making sure to close it tightly.
4. Put the wrapped banana on an oven safe pan and put it in the oven.
(You should watch the bananas closely in the oven, you don’t want them to burn. I cooked them in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes, but all ovens vary. You can take them out of the oven and test them to see if the marshmellows and chocolate are melted.)
5. Take them out of the oven, unwrap them from the tinfoil and put on a plate for your child. They can get really hot, so be careful.

Here are some vocabulary words we used during this activity:

Banana – la banane
Chocolate – le chocolat
Marshmellow – la guimauve
Boat – le bateau
Cook – cuisinier
Eat – manger

M&Ms, French and YOU!

Have you ever wondered how many red M&Ms are in a snack size bag of M&Ms? Maybe today is your day to find out.

What you will need:

M&M snack packs
Paper
Crayon

What to do:
1. Give each of your children a small bag of M&Ms.
2. Ask them to sort the M&Ms into colors. Practice the French colors while you are grouping them.
3. You can make a chart to see how many M&Ms of each color are found in a bag.
4. Draw a row for color and a column for different amounts.
5. Ask your children to count out loud, in French, how many M&Ms they have of ‘bleu, vert, etc.’ 6. As they tell you how many they have, you can fill in the chart or for slightly older kids you can have them fill out the chart themselves.
7. Afterwards, you and your children can eat the M&Ms as a reward.

Variations – You can use skittles instead of M&Ms or any kind of colorful candy. You can even use a hand full of colored cereal like Trix or fruit loops.

Creating a Menu in French with your child!

Hardly anything sounds sweeter to me than, "Mom will you teach me more French?" That's what my daughter said to me today. She wanted to play 'restaurant with here little toy kitchen, so we came up with a great idea together. We decided to make a menu in French. We took pictures of her various foods and printed them out, then we cut them out and put them on construction paper and wrote out the French names underneath the picture and of course we put prices for all of the food as well.

Afterwards we took places ordering and being the cook. It was a lot of fun. One way to simplify this idea is to have your child draw the pictures of food. It could save you a lot of energy and ink.

Here are some of the food vocabulary that we used:

Banana - la banane

orange - l'orange

bread - le pain

milk - le lait

grapes - les raisins

cheese - le fromage

cake - le gâteau

Teach your children numbers in French!

Here is a worksheet I created to help my youngest daughter practice her numbers. Having the numbers spelled out gives her a chance to start learning how to read in French. In addition to using this worksheet for numbers 5-9, you can also have your child count their favorite toys. For my daughter it would be her dolls and for my son it would be his lego sets.

Worksheet for learning colors in French!

Attached is a little worksheet I made for my kids today. I thought some of you might like to use. It's simple, but simple often gets the point across to little learners. All they have to do is color the color words and draw a picture in the oval of something that is that color. You can help your child read the words and brainstorm things to draw in the ovals!

Have fun and have a great weekend!

Learning fruit names in French

I also have to lug my kids to the grocery store and they are usually so bored with it, but this today I took a few minutes and we learned some of the less known fruits in French. Then at the end of this quick lesson I let them each pick out one to try at home. My son chose a star fruit and my daughter a mango. It made the lesson complete when they asked for the fruit by its French name when we got home.

Here is a list of vocabulary to help you on your next trip to the grocery store:

star fruit - le fruit d'étoile

cantalope - le cantaloup

grapefruit - le pamplemousse

mango - la mangue

nectarine - la nectarine

Finger painting and making colors

Today was beautiful outside so I decided to let the kids fingerpaint outside on a big piece of paper. What we focused on in our lesson was combing 2 colors to make a new color. An example is: Bleu et Jaune fait vert. (Blue and yellow make green).

If it's still cold where you live, you can do this indoors with finger paints, water colors or acrylic paints. Kids love painting so much you'll have them speaking in no time. Here's some color words you can use:

Blue – bleu

Yellow – jaune

Orange – orange

Green – vert

Red – rouge

Pink – rose

Light blue – bleu clair

Brown – marron

Grey – gris

White – blanc

Black - noir

Conjunctions in French for your children!

Conjunctions are useful in any language because they combine 2 parts of a sentence. The two that are the most important ones to concentrate on in my opinion are: et (and) and mais (but). You might just want to start out with et because it's easier to grasp and you can teach it easily. The pronunciation is [ay].

You can introduce it by using it with all English words: "Look, there is a black et white cat in the picture." Sometimes slipping it in like that works and sometimes it doesn't. If you need another plan of attack a fun way to introduce it is by playing the classic game of memory. I'm sure you have at least one deck of some kind of memory game and if you don't, you can use a regular deck of cards or you can print out the memory game to the side. I found it on www.familyfun.com.

When you play, you can use as many pairs of cards as you feel your child can do. Turn the cards upside down and you can take the first turn (if they let you). Say "I have a heart et a bear." Then, turn them over and let your child have their turn. Prompt them to use et.

Question words in French

Question words are a good way of increasing your child's comprehension of French. You can just use these words through out the day instead of the English words and in no time your child will understand what they mean.

Qui? Who?

Quoi? What?

Pourquoi? Why?

Quand? When?

Où? Where?

Comment? How?

You can print out and put the list that is at the top of this post on your fridge. Everytime you feel that your child has grasped the concept of one of the words, you can add a sticker next to the word. In no time the list will be filled up and you and your child will feel great about the French they have learned!

I spy in French using binoculars

This is a cute and silly way to change I spy a bit. First, you take 2 empty toliet paper rolls and wrap them in black construction paper. Then you can tape the 2 together to make binoculars. You can even put strings on the back if you want.

Then, you and your children can take turns using the binoculars to play I spy in French. "I spy with my little eye quelque chose bleu." (something blue) You can do more or less in French whatever your child is comfortable with.

Puzzle time to learn body parts in French

Here's a lesson where you can teach your kids (or reinforce) the body parts in French. What you do is double click on this picture and print it out. Then cut it to be a puzzle. Cut it where you have an arm, a foot, eyes, whatever you want to teach your children. Then, you can ask your child to put the pieces together. As they pick up a piece they can say the name in French and put the puzzle together. You can do this with any picture you find on the internet. Or even a picture of your child.

Here's a list of body parts in French:

head -la tête
face - le visage
neck - le cou
eye - l'œil
eyes - les yeux
nose - le nez
ear - l'oreille
mouth - la bouche
hair - les cheveux
arm - le bras
hand - la main
fingers - les doigts
finger - le doigt
back - le dos
leg - la jambe
foot - le pied

Animal Bingo in French

My kids have been begging me to play more Bingo games. I searched high and low to find a good one I can put here. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a site where you can print that one and others as well. They have multiple bingo boards, so it will be authentic Bingo you can play with your kids.

Print out an extra copy to cut out or write the name of each picture on a paper, so you can draw them out of a hat. Simply say the name in French and then your children can use markers to cover the correct picture. Below is a helpful list of animal names in French.

Vocabulary list

le mouton - the sheep
le gorille - the gorilla
le chien - the dog
le poulet - the chicken
le chat - the cat
l'autruche - the ostrich
la girafe - the giraffe
la fourmi - the ant
la mouche - the fly
le cochon - the pig
le lion - the lion
le papillon de nuit - the moth
le poisson - the fish
la cocinelle - the lady bug
la grenouille - the frog
le papillon - the butterfly
le scorpion - the scorpion

Horses in French

My daughter loves horses and she asked me to learn some horse words in French and wanted to play some kind of horse game too.



Vocabulary:

le cheval - the horse

les chevaux - the horses

J'ai - I have

Tu as - You have



Activity:

What we did was simply gather all of her toy horses together (mostly My Little Ponies) and we grouped them and talked about how many she had and how many I had. We also spoke about them running and jumping. She also spoke about how she loved them in French. So, you can make this activity to the level of your children.

Here's a small clip of her speaking French.

St. Valentine's Day words in French

The stores had Valentine Candy out the day after Christmas and I'm a bit early too to post Valentine's Day words in French. But, I like to prepare a bit for the upcoming weeks and reinforce vocabulary.

Vocabulary words:
the heart - le cœur
St. Valentine's Day - Bonne Saint Valentin
love and isses - tendres baisers
love (noun) - l'amour
I love you - je t'aime

Activity:
What you will need:
Construction paper or white paper
scissors
crayons

What to do:
1. Cut out a heart from construction paper (a pretend candy box). Then, cut out little rectangles (pretend chocolate candies).
2. Write the numbers 1-10 (or whatever vocabulary you are focusing on.) on the pretend chocolate candies and you can have your child decorate them as well.
3. Have you child glue the pretend chocolate candies on the heart. Every time they glue one on, they can say the number in French.

Options:
You can use an empty heart shaped candy box. Also, you can write anything on the candy pieces (colors, animals, etc.).

Putting it together...a French grammar lesson for kids

A lot of my posts are about different vocabulary words that you can teach your children in French. Now it is time to teach them a little grammar. You can start with the verb to be: être. You conjugate it like this, but this is for your information, you don't need to teach your child how to conjugate.

je suis - I am
tu es - you are (familiar)
il/elle/on est - he, she, one is
nous sommes - we are
vous êtes - you are (formal)
ils/elles sont - they are (mas/fem)

You might want to start by only teaching "Je suis" and "You are." I know that some people choose to have their children speak to them using the formal tone, while others have their children speak to them using the familiar. It's up to you.

Activity:
What you will need:
construction paper
crayons
scissors

What to do:
1. First, you and your child can make masks of various animals. As you are making the masks, you can say the names of the animals in French.
2. Afterwards, you and your child can take turns saying what they are and the other person is. For example: Je suis un lion.

Need a quicker activity?
Instead of making masks, you can use halloween costumes or any costumes you have and do the same thing. Dress up and say what you are in French!

Teach your children weather in French

Brrrr...it's cold outside. Now is the time to teach some different phrases to your child in French. Here are a few weather phrases in French:


Vocabulary:
Quel temp fait-il? - How's the weather?

Il fait frais. - The weather is cool. (lit: It makes cool.)

Il fait beau. - The weather is pretty/nice.

Il fait froid. - The weather is cold.

Il fait chaud. - The weather is hot.

Il neige - It's snowing.

Il pleut - It's raining.

Il y a du vent - There is some wind.

Il y a des nuages - There are some clouds.

Activity:
Here's an activity you can do with your child to reinforce learning these few weather phrases. Double click on the picture above and print it out. Then cut out the different boxes of weather. You can use them as flash cards!

The four seasons in French!

Now is a good time to do little art projects at home since it's so cold outside. Today you can teach your child the four seasons in French. You can cut out 4 tree trunks for your child out of brown construction paper, then for 'le printemps' (spring), on one tree they can put leaves that they cut out. For 'l'été' (summer), they can put leaves and apples on one tree. For 'l'automne' (fall), they can cut out orange, yellow and red leaves to put on a tree. Then for 'l'hiver' (winter), they can either leave it blank or they can add a little snow to it.

Afterwards you can put up the 4 trees with labels on your 'French Wall' or fridge and you can practice the words.

You can use the picture below as a guide for your tree, or you can double click and print it out and let your child color it brown. And don't forget you can have your children practice their colors too while doing this activity!

Parts of the head in French!

We all like teaching our babies/toddlers their parts of the head when they are about 1 or 2 years old. Why not do it in French with your toddlers or older kids. You can ask them questions like: "Où est la tête?" Then you can show your child that "la tête" means head by pointing to your head or their head.

Here are a few more head/face words in French:

les cheveux - the hair
les yeux - the eyes
le nez - the nose
l'oreille - the ear
la bouche - the mouth
la dent - the teeth

Family words in French

You can teach your children family words by creating a family tree together. You can use pictures or just the names of people in your family. You may just want to start with the basic family vocabulary and expand from there. You can keep it simple by teaching the immediate family names like mother, father, sister brother in the beginning.

Here are some vocabulary words you can use:

father - un père
mother - une mère
brother - un frère
sister - une sœur
son - un fils
daughter - une fille
husband - un mari
wife - une femme
grandfather - un grand-père
grandmother - une grand-mère
grandson - un petit-fils
granddaughter - une petite-fille
cousin - un cousin(e)
uncle - un oncle
aunt - une tante
nephew - un neveu
niece - une nièce

French words for the parts of the house

Above is a list of words that you can print out, cut out and tape to the appropriate item in your house. You and your child can do this together and practice the word as you tape it to the item. Double click on the above image to open up the list to a new page, so you can print it! You can also have your child draw a small picture of each word next to the word!

la porte - door

la plancher - floor

le mur - wall

le plafond - ceiling

l’escalier - stairs

la cheminée - fireplace

la fenêtre - window

la chamber - room

Being polite in French!

Everyone wants to have a child who is polite. Thank you and Please are two of the first things I taught my children in French. A polite child is great, but a polite child in French is cute and great together! Here are some phrases you can teach your child:

pardon - pardon
excusez-moi - excuse me
Merci beaucoup - thank you very much
de rien - you're welcome
s'il vous plaît - please

Attached to this post is a simplied bingo game that you can play with your child. You can print out the chart and hang it on your fridge. Then, when you child uses one of the phrases correctly, they can put a sticker on it. When they get 3 in a row, they win!

(Double click the bingo image to make it bigger and to print it.)

Making snowflakes, using French!

We are getting back in the swing of homeschooling today. The first thing we did was we cut out a few snowflakes and with every snip of the scissors we counted in French. There isn't much snow here in South Carolina, so the kids really enjoyed this exercise. You can take this to different levels by using the verb to cut - "couper".

Afterwards, you can hang up all of the snowflakes on the walls or better yet, hang them from the ceiling!

If you don't know how to make paper snowflakes, visit: http://highhopes.com/snowflakes.html

Here are a few pictures from our lesson:

Happy New Year! Starting out the New Year Learning French!

Happy New Year! Now is the time to set some teaching goals for your child and you for learning French. Do you want to spend 15 mins a day teaching your son or daughter? 1 hour? Whatever you decide, try it out and see if it works out, then you can adjust it if you want more time or less. For me, the best thing is to set a goal and work towards it!

Attached to this blogpost is a calendar for January. Print it out and use it to track your child's progress. You can have your child put a sticker for each day of the week that they study French. While they are doing this, they can also learn the days of the week in French. Notice that you don't capitalize the days of the weeks or months in French. In order to print it out, double click it and it will open into a new window, then you can print it out!

Have a great French-learning New Year!