A Road Trip and Learning a Language!

Going on a big road trip? Here's an idea to get some French or Spanish learning while driving. When I was little we used to have to find things that start with a certain letter, starting at A and ending with Z. Why not do this with French or Spanish?

This is a game that even preschoolers can do because you don't need to spell. Your child only needs to know the alpabet.

You can play too. It might be easier to play if you're not the one driving though!

Action verbs in French

At the preschool age, kids are very egocentric and like to talk about themselves. What you can do instead of teaching your kids how to conjugate verbs, is to just teach them a lot of verbs using the first person singular "I/Je". Later on then you can introduce "You/Tu" and the other ones.

Here is a great list of French action verbs to get you started:
I walk - je marche
I go - je vais
I am - je suis
I do - je fais
I sleep - je dors
I want - je veux
I have - j’ai
I dance - je danse

Learning the rooms of the house in French!

This works well if you have kids who can read (even if just a little bit). Write the words in French on big pieces of paper and tape them to the outside of each room. Everytime you and your children walk into a room, you can say the room's name together in French!

Here are some names of rooms in French to get you started:

le bureau de travail -the office, study
la chambre - the bedroom
la cuisine -the kitchen
l'entrée -the hall
l'escalier - the stairs
le grenier - the attic
la salle de bains -the bathroom
la salle à manger - the dining room
le salon -the living room

Barnyard Animals in French!

Here's a fun way to play with your kids while reviewing animal names in French. Grab some of your children's picture books and sit down with your kids. Say a name of an animal in French and then have your children flip through their books until they find a picture of that animal.

Also, you can make a bingo card with the names of the animals on it. Then they can mark them as they find them in the books. There are a lot of variations to you can do with this activity.

Here are the French names for some animals:

Chicken - le poulet
Cow - la vache
Donkey - l'âne
Duck - le canard
Goat - la chèvre
Horse - le cheval
Mouse - la souris
Mule - la mule
Pig - le cochon
Sheep - le mouton

Award Certificate

A great way to award your little language learner for their hard work with studying French or Spanish is to give them an award or certificate. Sure you could go out and buy them a trophy and they’d be delighted, but they’ll probably be very happy with a simple certificate too.

Attached are 2 certificates that you can print out for your chidren (Spanish, French). You might think I used big words on the certificate, but when you read it to your child, you’ll see their eyes light up because those big words will impress them and make them feel extra special. You can also make your own if you'd prefer.

You can even print it out before hand and color it in so it looks more fancy. Then you can have a little award ceremony and have your whole family watch as you child receives their award from you!

A unique idea for teaching 1 French or Spanish word a day!

If you want your child to learn 1 word a day in a foreign language like French or Spanish here is an idea for you. Think about what you do everyday. For a good 30 mins. or more. If you are like me the answer is drive in a car. While you are busy driving your daughter or son could be busy learning.

Just write 1 word in French or Spanish and tape it to the back of the chair that is in front of your son or daughter. You can even draw a little picture of the word too. Even if they can't read, you can say the word a few times and then get them to repeat it. By looking at the word and the picture, the will remember it.

My friend did this with her kids for the alphabet, but it works well with words too! Pressed for time? Just write the numbers - 1 each day. That will take no time at all. Good luck!

Learning the Days of the week in French!

One great way to help your children learn the days of the week in French is to either make a calendar or better yet, you can put the day of the week each day on the fridge.

Make a pretty (or basic it doesn't matter) sign for each day of the week. You can do this part with your child or without. Then, every morning as part of your ritual, you can hang up the new day of the week on the fridge and say it together a few times. After a while, they will be changing it for you to the correct day. I did this right before I gave my kids breakfast so that they had something to think about while I was pouring milk in their cereal bowls. :-)


Here is a list of the days of the week:

Lundi - Monday
Mardi - Tuesday
Mercredi - Wednesday
Jeudi - Thursday
Vendredi -Friday
Samedi -Saturday
Dimanche - Sunday

Using this blog for other languages

Not into French? Never fear, just use these activities grab a Spanish dictionary if you don't know the words and away you go. Most of this blog will work for any language. Choose whatever language you learned in highschool or college or any language you want to learn now. Nothing better than learning a language with your children together.

Also, since I speak Spanish too, I'm going to try to do more activities with both the Spanish and French languages.

And as always, please let me know if there are any topics you'd like me to cover in this blog!

Have a great weekend!

Video tape your kids speaking French

This is something I had no idea would work as well as it did. It was my daughter's idea. She wanted to be videotaped. She can be a ham. And I said sure, but after our French lesson. But, then it dawned on me, why not incorporate the 2.

She ate it up. And after she was done she wanted to watch herself over and over on the computer. I was going to post it here, but she made me promise not to let anyone see it. I'm not sure why since she likes to be the center of attention.

You can do this with your kids by practicing numbers, clothing, commands, Simon says, any lesson at all. After you play it back on your computer or TV, you will see your kids' eyes sparkle because they are so proud of themselves (as they should be).

Playing dress up to learn French

I found the cutest little web site that is very basic and easy to use for kids, but engaging as well. It is where you drag clothes onto a little girl and dress her up. Just like Paper dolls, but on the computer. You gotta love technology!

Here's the link. When you use it, make sure your son or daughter practices their French while dressing up the little girl.

Here are some words that might be useful for this exercise:

un pull – sweater
un tee-shirt – T-shirt
un pantalon – pants
un jean – jeans
une jupe - skirt
une robe - dress
un chapeau - hat

O Canada lyrics in French

My kids are Canadian (as my husband is Canadian). They know O Canada in English, but we never thought to teach them the song in French. I found the lyrics on line and hopefully they'll learn it soon. Even if you aren't Canadian, it's still a great opportunity to teach your children some French Canadian culture.

Ô Canada

Ô Canada!
Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux.

Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix.

Ton histoire est une épopée,
Des plus brillants exploits.

Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Here's a instumental YouTube video with the lyrics in English and French.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBiZYZXiGsM

Using water play to learn French

It may not be warm enough where you live to do this activity, but you can keep it in your back pocket to use in the summer.

Put all of your kids in their swimsuits and go in your background. Turn on your hose and using your thumb to make a stream of water. Then, you can give them French commands that the have to do in/on/under the water.

Here are some words you can use:

jump - saute

run - cours

go - va

under - sous

crawl - rampe

kick - donne un coup-de-pied

On the bridge of Avignon / Sur le pont d'Avignon

I love singing French songs with my kids (even though I can't sing very well). Kids are so receptive to songs!

Here is On the Bridge of Avignon / Sur le pont d'Avignon.

Sur le pont d'Avignon

On y danse, on y danse

Sur le pont d'Avignon

On y danse tout en rond

1 Les beaux messieurs font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça.

Refrain

2 Les belles dames font comme ça

Et puis encore comme ça.

Refrain.

I found these lyrics on http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=155&c=22

The site has other French songs and it has the music you can sing to as well.

Spring Break

Spring Break is here and maybe it is time for you to take a little break too from teaching your children French. Take a few days to rejuvenate yourself. But, wait, you may not want to lose your momentum with your son's or daughter's progress in French.

Find some French videos on YouTube or watch a movie that you have using the French track. Disney movies usually have a French track. If you keep up this practice, you have have your kids ask to watch something in French. That's a great feeling!

Also, if you don't need a Spring break, don't take it! Think about what works for you and your family and run with it!