French Clothing Vocabulary

If your daughter has a doll or a barbie doll that has clothes is a great way to teach and reinforce clothing vocabulary. You can have your son or daughter change the clothes and practice all sorts of words. Here's a list of some clothing vocabulary:

un manteau - coat
un blouson - jacket
un pull sweater
un tee-shirt - T-shirt
un pantalon - pants
un jean - jeans
un short - shorts
des chaussettes (f) - socks
des chaussures (f) - shoes
un pyjama - pajamas

Candy Land...

The game Candy Land is a great game that you can use to teach French colors and numbers and basic commands. I think most people have some kind of version of the game or I'm sure you can pick it up at a neighborhood garage sale or wal-mart for a decent price.

Candy Land has your basic colors and the numbers don't go too high, you either have un or deux blocks of colors on the card. You can begin to put the numbers and colors together. For example deux bleu (two blue) or un jaune (one yellow). The more French your child knows, the more complex you can make it. It's a great fun way to teach your child a little French.

Visit the zoo and practice French

If there is a zoo close to you, it would be a great opportunity to teach your children the animals’ names in French. And if there are any new animals to your children, that is an opportunity to teach them only in French. So, when they see that animal they will only say the name in French.

Here are a few french animal names:

The lion - le lion
The tiger - le tigre
The bear - l’ours
The elephant - l'éléphant
The monkey - le singe

Blast off!!!!

A lot of children can say their numbers in French from 1-10, but can they say them backwards? This is a great way to ensure that your child knows their numbers forwards and backwards. It's a fun way to teach your kids numbers too!

If you have a rocket ship you can pretend it is going into space by counting down! If you don’t have one, you can make one out of an empty toliet paper roll and adding a little decoration to it!

10 - dix
9 - neuf
8 - huit
7 - sept
6 - six
5 - cinq
4 - quatre
3 - trois
2 - deux
1 - un
Blast off! Décollage!

Yule log - la bûche de Noël

If you are learning French in your house, why not add a little French culture as well. You can make a Yule Log cake (la bûche de Noël). Mmmmm…They are so yummy.

Here are a few that I found:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,186,140176-234204,00.html

http://recipeland.com/recipe/v/A-Buche-De-Noel----French-Yule-Log-Cake-24325

You can even make it a family tradition!

Vive le vent! Christmas Carols in French

What a great way to teach your kids to French – singing Christmas carols in French to the tune of English Christmas carols.

Here is one song I found on the website below. It is sung to the tune of Jingle Bells, all of the lyrics can be found at: http://bogglesworldesl.com/french/french_christmas_songs.htm

Vive le vent
Sur le long chemin
Tout blanc de neige blanche
Un vieux monsieur s'avance
Avec sa canne dans la main
Et tout là-haut le vent
Qui siffle dans les branches
Lui souffle la romance
Qu'ill chantait petit enfant.

(Refrain)
Vive le vent, vive le vent
Vive le vent d'hiver
Qui s'en va sifflant, soufflant
Dans les grands sapins verts...
Oh! Vive le vent, vive le vent
Vive le vent d'hiver
Boule de neige et jour de l'an
Et bonne année grand-mère...

Pudding Painting

Here’s a fun little activity for any child, including the child who has no time to learn French. Make some instant pudding (any flavor will do. I think Chocolate or a dark color will work better than vanilla for this activity). Put some freezer paper in front of your child on the table and let them finger paint with the pudding. The way you can sneak a little French in, is by having them make different shapes. You can say the word in French and they can paint it. Then, you can have them repeat the word in French. Their reward for a good job can be licking their fingers!

The great thing about shapes in French is that most of them are very similar to English, so you won’t have to translate to your child. They should be able to figure the words out.

Useful French Vocabulary:
the circle – le cercle
the oval – l’ovale
the triangle – le triangle
the square – le carré
the diamond – le losange
the rectangle – le rectangle

French Christmas Vocabulary!

Holidays are a great time to introduce fun new vocabulary to your children. You can use a chalk board or wipe off board and draw pictures so that they will have a mental picture of the word in their mind. Below are a few words that you could teach:

Christmas – Noël
The present – le cadeau
Santa Claus - Père Noë or Papa Noël
The snow – la neige
The snowman – le bonhomme de neige
The sleigh - un traîneau
The reindeer – un renne

Christmas Cookies!

My daughter loves making cut-out cookies. I wanted to spice it up a bit. So, now I make her speak French when we do it. We put food dye in the frosting, so she talks about the different cookies she’s making and the colors she is making them. A super easy way to do this is just to buy some refridgerated sugar cookie dough and then you don’t have to make everything from scratch. You can make the icing by simply adding a little water to powder sugar and putting food dye in it. Have fun teaching your children fun and eating the results!

Useful French Vocabulary:
Blue – bleu
Yellow – jaune
Orange – orange
Green – vert
Red – rouge
Pink – rose
Light blue – bleu clair
Brown – marron
Grey – gris
White – blanc
Black - noir

Making Snowmen and learning French with your child

Do you have some cotton balls? And some paper? Then you have a potential snowman and a little French teaching thrown in.

What you will need:
Cotton balls
Constuction paper or plain white paper
Scissors
Crayons
Glue

What to do:
1. Have your son/daughter cut a piece of paper as big as they would like their snowman to be.
2. Pour out some of the cotton balls and have your child line them up and count them in French.
3. Then, have your child glue them on the cut out snow man, counting again in French.
4. Your child can accessorize their snowman by drawing, coloring and cutting out a hat, scarf and boots. As they color them they can practice their colors and also the names of the clothing.

Useful Vocabulary:
Hat – le chapeau
Scarf – l'écharpe
Boots – les bottes
Snowman – le bonhomme de neige

Tom-Tom et Nana and other French cartoons

Youtube.com has so many great French cartoons for your little ones to watch. If you type in the search 'French cartoons', a lot of different ones pop up. Tom-Tom and Nana is a cute one my kids are watching as I type this. There are also French versions of ones we have here like Pocoyo. Just type in the search the cartoon name in English and then put French, example "Pocoyo French" and you will hopefully find some cartoons that match what you are looking for.

French cartoons are a great way to immerse your children in French. It will really help them with their pronunciation and after awhile, they should be able to pick up some words or more, depending on their level.

More Cookie Cutter Fun!

So, you have all of these plastic cookie cutters and you are tired of making cookies, now what? You can use the cookie cutters to do lots of activities in French, teaching the shapes and objects the cookie cutters represent, working on numbers, colors, or play vocabulary. Here are some ideas that my daughter likes to do with her cookie cutters that I turn into French learning activities:

Don’t have any cookie dough in your house and you don’t really want to make any from scratch? Make some pretend cookies with play-dough.
Trace the shapes on construction paper, cut them out and make a mobile. You can hang it up in their rooms so they can see all of the words their new French words they learned.
Look back to idea 1, but use clay. Add a little hole to the top of the shape before it dries, then paint them after they dry and you have just made some Christmas tree ornaments.
This one might be a little tricky, but you can trace them on the sidewalk with chalk as long as you have thin chalk and not the thick ones.
For older children, you can trace the shapes on felt and cut them out, sew them up and you have soft Christmas tree ornaments.

Any idea works as long as you remember to repeat the words in French while they are doing the activity. Repetition will really help your child learn and retain French.

Cookies!

My daughter likes to bake and so I thought I'd use her love of baking to teach her a little French. I went to Wal-Mart and I picked up one of those boxes of 100 plastic cookie cutters and some refridgerated cookie dough. Then, when we got home, we took out 10 of her favorite cookie cutters and as we made the cookies we learned the words in French. There were several groups like shapes, Halloween, Christmas, etc. She had a lot of fun and then over the next few days as we ate the cookies we practiced the French words again.

I spy something...

Today I spent about 30 minutest playing I spy with my daughter in French. She really enjoyed it. If your kids are beginners, you can simply say: "I spy, with my little eye, something vert." (green) However, if you want you can increase the difficulty you can, say: "Je vois quelque chose vert." (I see something green.) It's really a fun way to pass the time, while learning a little French.

Also, depending on where you play this game you can practice different types of vocabulary. In the kitchen, at the park, outside, in the bedroom, or even in the bathroom while they are taking a bath. Why not? Even if they don't know the word and they say the word in English, you can say, yes, it is a ____ and change their English word to French.

A French Open House

It’s that time of year where schools have Open Houses so that the teachers can meet the parents and the teachers can show off their class projects. Why not have your own little French Open House? You can take all of your activities you’ve complete in the past few weeks/months and hang them all around the room. Then, when your spouse comes home, you can proceed to have your impromptu French Open House. This is a good way to get the other parent involved and get you your much needed approval. Well, at least for me, I really like the affirmation I receive from my husband when I’ve show him the projects we’ve been working on in our French school. And this French Open House will also help your child to see everything they have accomplished over the weeks and they can get extra praise from their other parent. Single mom or dad? No problem, have grandma, grandpa or a close friend over for a snack or dinner and then you have a captive audience. You can even have a French themed snack or dinner by serving crepes or even just a cheese tray. Your options are limitless.

Painting toast in French!

Painting toast is something my kids like to do. You can throw a little French in it and then you have a French lesson.

All you have to do is melt some butter and put a tad bit of food coloring in it. After you toast the bread, you can put it on a plate and let your kids paint their toast. You can have them say the colors in French as they paint their breakfast.

Cribbage anyone?

This is such a random spur of the moment game I played with my 4 year old daughter today. She found an old cribbage board I had laying around and wanted to play. I didn't feel up to teaching her how to play cribbage, so instead I turned it into a French counting game. I was the blue peg and she was the red peg. I would tell her how many spaces she could go in French and she would count in French as she hopped into each hole. Then she did the same to me. Obviously she won because she kept giving me low numbers and I gave her high numbers because I wanted her to practice larger numbers in French, but it was really a lot of fun.

If you have never seen a cribbage board or don't know what it is, then this post will probably make no sense to you, but if you do have one laying around, it really is a fun way to pass the time on a lazy summer day.

Il court, le furet

If you want to teach your children a great and fairly easy song in French, here is one of my personal favorites: Il court, le furet. Here is a site that has the lyrics and it is also sung by a native speaker.

http://www.hello-world.com/French/song/furet.php

My kids listened to the song so much they are singing this song constantly (as am I).

Creating a French picture dictionary

One useful way to help your little French learners retain the vocabulary words they have learned is to have them create a little French picture dictionary. Any spiral notebook or something like that will do. If your kids can write, they can write the words and then draw a picture. If they can't write yet, you can write the words, but still have them draw the pictures next to it.

This exercise will help your kids gain ownership of their learning and they will be proud to show their dictionary to grandma and grandpa, I'm sure.

This is especially useful if your kids are at the reading age, but even if they aren't, it's a good way to help you remember what words in French you have taught your kids.

And then there are other things...

This is a continuation of the post from yesterday...
Then there are other things that interest my son. Currently it is plants (before it was trains and cars). He likes to plant seeds, watch them grow and harvest them. I think he could hang out at his little garden for most of the day, which is too long for me. However, if I add a little French to the gardening, then it makes everyone happy.

With plants, you can learn basic planting vocabulary, colors, planting verbs, numbers to count your flowers, fruits and vegtables. Really the ideas are limitless.

Here are some vocabulary words:

The hoe - la binette
The rake - le râteau
The shovel - le pelle
The spade - la bêche
The trowel - le transplantoir
The fork - la fourche
The pruning shears - les cisailles
The hedge shears - le sécateur
The hedgecutter - la tailleuse de haie
The grass shears - les tondeurs
The axe - la hache
The mower - la tondeuse
The wheelbarrow - la brouette

To dig - foncer
To hoe - biner
To plant - planter
To water the plants - arroser les plantes
To cultivate - cultiver
To prune - élaguer
To weed - désherber
To mow - tondre

These great lists were found on this website: http://www.brighthub.com/education/languages/articles/35788.aspx

Run with what you got

Not sure where to start this school year with French for you preschoolers or homeschooled kids? Why not just start with what they like and run with that?

My daughter is really into tea parties, so we like to practice French while having a tea party. My son is not big into tea parties, after all he "is 6 and is not a girl." But, what little 6 year old boy can resist some milk and cookies for the tea party? Not my son. Since a tea party is very prim and proper we practiced our polite French words like:

de rien - please
s'il vous plait - please
merci - thank you
excuse me - excusez-moi

We also tried to stick with French for the entire tea party, which was hard. So, if it gets too tough just stick with saying French for a few things to start with. The key is to keep the kids happy and interested.

School's back in session

School's back in session - it's time to really start teaching some French to your kids (and to yourself, if you need it). Here are a few websites that could help you brush up on your own French so you can easily answer your kids French questions. These are all free websites aimed at helping you learn French!

www.livemocha.com - I really like this site! It has different levels and you can get a French pen pal, as well, if you would like.

www.bonjour.com

www.frenchassistant.com

www.frenchspanishonline.com

Simon Says

A great way to practice commands is by playing simon says. You can say Simon dit… (Simon says…) then you can add a multitude of commands. Simon dit sautes! (Simon says jump!) Simon dit touches tes chaussures! (Simon says touch your shoes!) Arrêt! (stop!)

There are endless possibilities for this game. You can review eveything they have learned in French so far. You can practice colors by saying Simon dit touches quelque chose bleu. (Simon says touch something blue.) Or you can practice numbers, Simon dit sautes trois fois. (Simon dit sautes trois fois.)

Like other activities, keep it fun and entertaining for your kids. If you feel your commands are a bit hard for them and they are confused, feel free to whisper the translation in English. You don’t want your kids to get a bad taste in their mouth from French.

Games, Games and More Games!!!

I'm not sure about your kids, but my daughter cannot get enough of games during the day. Any game you have that is in English you can change to French. Candy Land is a great game to teach colors. Any matching card game you have can teach whatever is on the pictures. Or you can create your own. Uno can be used to teach numbers. Go Fish can be used to teach numbers. Yahtzee can be used to teach numbers or/and colors depending on the version you are using. Guess who is a family favorite of ours which you can teach a multitude of words.

You can also do simple written games for kids who are at the reading level such as hang man or a home made version of pictionary. Like I've said before a simple wipe board can do wonders for a French lesson.

Enjoy!

A game for teaching body parts...

After you have taught your children body parts, try this game as a review.

On a wipe board, draw a person with all of the body parts you have taught. Point to a body part and ask them what it is. If they are correct erase that body part. If they are wrong leave it there. Continue with all of the body parts until you have erased the entired person.

The kids will find it amusing when the person is completely gone from the wipe board and they will be very proud of themselves (as they should be!).

GOLD!!!!

Kids are motivated by money, but don't worry you don't have to give them all of your money. I know you give them enough as it is. However, they are also motivated by play money and fake gold coins. Here is a French vocabulary game that my kids adore.

First we cut out gold coins from construction paper. They can write numbers on them if they like and practice their French numbers. Then after the gold coins are finished, Mom (or Dad) gets all of them. But not for long.... Here is where the fun begins. Ask your kids what different words are in French, then for each one they get correct, they get a gold coin.

For more advanced students you can even take away coins if they miss one, but I don't do that with my kids (yet).

To make the game more authentic you can use this French phrase when asking the question:
"Comment dit-on “apple” en français? (How does one say apple in French?)

Une Voiture Bleue! A Blue Car!

In French usually the adjective comes after the noun. One way you can teach the diffent noun/adjective order in French to your child is to use a wipe board. You can draw a noun first like a une voiture (car) then afterwards you can draw a blob of the color like bleu(e) (blue). Then you can teach them une voiture bleue (blue car). Here is an example:

(As you can tell you don't have to be an artist to get the point across to your child.)

Once that clicks you can add a few more words and in no time your child will be saying sentences. You can teach them ‘J’ai” (I have), then with the part they learned above they can now say: “ J’ai une voiture bleu.”

*Please note, it is useful to teach them the article (le, la or une, un) with the noun so that they will remember the two together. This will make things easier in the future.

How much French knowledge do I need?

I know a lot of parents are a little worried about teaching their kids French that is not perfect and they decide not to teach French for that reason. I disagree. I don't think you have to speak perfect French in order to teach your kids French. In fact, I don't think you have to know any. I think you can learn side-by-side with your child. As you learn the colors in French, you can teach your kids the colors.

You can also get yourself and your kids a French tutor. Most colleges probably have some students from France or another French speaking country. You can look on craigslist or contact the international club of the local college and try to find a tutor. You can even hire a tutor for both of you. 1 hour with you and 1 hour with your children?

Every area is different, but the going rate around here for a French tutor is $20 a hour. This may or may not be the right option for you, but it is worth thinking about. Also, make sure you get references and that your French tutor has some teaching experience. A good recommendation goes a long way!

Toddler puzzles

I'm sure you have a ton of those little toddler puzzles where they have numbers, letters, shapes, animals, etc. Here's a new idea for a use for them. Use them to aid in you teaching your child French. Every week you can use a different puzzle and reinforce those words. This even works with older kids. My 6 year old doesn't mind me using 'baby puzzles' to teach him French. I even find him playing with them when I'm not looking.

The main hurdle in this exercise is to find all of the puzzle pieces. If you kids are like mine, they are probably behind the couch.

Shaving cream fun!

Here's an idea that my sister told me about that sounds very messy, but is a lot of fun! Here is what we did. We went outside and sat around our patio table, which is made of plastic for easy clean up. I sprayed the top of the entire table with shaving cream. Then I would tell them different things in French and they would have to draw or write them. We practiced numbers, animals, body parts, and all sorts of other things.

When we were finished we just hosed down the table and that was that! If you don't have a big plastic outdoor table, you can also do this activity in a metal rectangle cake pan or something like that. Just make sure to do the activity outside so it will be easy to clean up. And since it's summertime, you can also hose off your kids if they get too dirty!

Summer break from French - Yes or No???

Personally, I won't be having a break longer than 1 or 2 weeks max. from teaching my kids French. If you give your children a whole summer off from studying French, then they will likely have to relearn what they learned the previous school year. If you really feel your kids need a break from schooling, you could try to do 15-30 mins. a day and review/reinforce what they've already learned by doing some fun activities.

If mama needs a break, like I've said in the past, just pop in a disney movie and change it to French for the audio. If they complain, just say, "in French or nothing." I'm pretty sure they will choose to watch the movie in French.

Learning a language is not like riding a bike. Once you learn to ride a bike you never forget; however, with a language if you do not practice you can forget a lot of what you already learned.

Have a great summer!!! I will be posting some of our summer activities on this blog so be on the look-out!

Fruit salad

Wanna teach your kids some fruit words? Make a simple fruit salad and you have many opportunities to learn the fruit words and reinforce through the activity. You can practice as you buy the fruit at the supermarket, when you cut the fruit and when you all eat the fruit salad. A nice laid back way that you can buy fruit without the craziness of a superstore is to go to a farmer's market. This way you can take your time and learn all of the fruit. Here are some fruit vocabulary words:

une banane -----banana
une cerise ------cherry
un citron------- lemon
une fraise ------strawberry
une framboise --raspberry
une mûre -------blackberry
une myrtille ----blueberry
une orange -----orange
une pêche ------peach
une poire -------pear
une pomme -----apple
un raisin --------grape

Dot to Dots - practicing numbers in French

One great way of practicing numbers in French with your kids, especially higher numbers is by having them do dot to dots. Everytime they pass a number, make sure they say it in French. In no time they will be counting to 100.

Make sure to also spot check numbers out of order when you teach numbers because it's much easier to learn numbers in a sequence than out of order.

Here's a website with lots of free dot to dots that you can print out:

http://www.dottodots.net/

Short on time, double click on this image and print it out!

Birthday wishes in French!

Today is my birthday and it's a great time to focus on some French birthday vocabulary. I've tried to teach them some French birthday vocabulary on their own birthdays, but they are just too focused on parties and birthday presents to focus. So I thought my birthday would be a better idea.

Joyeux Anniversaire is the way you say Happy Birthday in French.

A simple song you can teach is sung to the same tune as Happy Birthday in English.

Joyeux anniversaire
Joyeux anniversaire
Joyeux anniversaire (add person's name here)
Joyeux anniversaire

Hopscotching numbers in French!

My 3 year old hasn't ever played Hopscotch before, so I decided to teach her today. Since she was new to the game I decided to just make it a French game from the start. We are only playing hopscotch in French.

As she jumps on each square I get her to say the numbers in French. My 6 year old loves this game as well. My 17 month old just tries to wipe away the chalk, but he's learning from hearing us play.

The more we play this game the more I'll introduce commands and phrases for them to learn in French.

Books in French and in English

Another good way to increase your child's vocabulary, especially school aged kids is to get some books that have the story in French and in English. Some people think that you should only get French books, but with the French/English books it may not intimidate your reader as much.

Also, you could do both. Get a few books that are only in French and some that are in both French and in English. I know Barnes and Noble has some, but you might have to ask someone where they are located because in our book store they were in a bottom corner of a shelf and I would've never found them if I didn't ask. Amazon has some as well or you could search on Ebay for some great deals from Canada.

Chalk Play

Learning French in a different environment from the kitchen table is always a good idea to me! One thing my son suggested this morning was to go outside and play with chalk on the sidewalk. Sounded like a great idea, but I also wanted to do a little French lesson, so we combined them. I wrote out some math problem and had him tell me what I wrote and what the answer was in French. Then we also goofed around and drew thing and had fun, but the whole time we made sure we used some of our French vocabulary for the colors and the names of our pictures. It was a great time and I'm sure we'll be doing this again.

Next time I think we'll do a little French hangman on the sidewalk. I think my oldest son will get a kick out if it.

French flash card games

Here's a great web site that has lots of flash card games you can play with either French flashcards you made or French flashcards you bought:

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/flashcardgamesframe.htm

My favorite flashcard game is when I pass hold 1 card at a time and I don't show the kids the picture. They have to ask questions (in French) to guess what I'm holding. For beginners in French, they could make French/English question. For example: "Is your picture vert?" The more they learn, the more their sentences will evolve.

And most importantly have fun!

Create Flash Cards

Creating your own Flash Cards is a great way to learn new vocabulary in French. With my younger daughter, who is 3 years old, I usually find pictures on line and print them out and let her color and paste them onto cards. The whole time she is coloring she is repeating the French name of the word over and over again.

For my 6 year old I have him draw the pictures sometimes. Because he is actually seeing the picture in his head as he draws it on the card, I really feel like he is focusing on it and will learn it better in the long run. This really works well for things that he likes, for example: train, car, truck.

It really doesn't matter which way you make them, but I do know one thing, if they are actively involved in making the cards then they tend to have more pride in the cards so when you use them as flashcards to review, they'll say things like "I remember when I drew that! That's a voiture!"

Making Gingerbread men to teach body parts in French

One fun way we teach the body parts in French to our kids is by making Gingerbread men (and women). You can review the body parts in French as you make them and then your kids 'test' can be eating off the body parts and telling you what they just ate after they are cooked.

It's a very fun way to teach and the rewards are plenty. My son just laughs so much when he eats off the 'tête'.

Some phrases you can learn are:
"Je vais manger..." I am going to eat...
"J'ai mangé..." I ate...
"Je mange..." I am eating...

Here's a recipe that I found for gingerbread cookies from http://www.cooks.com/:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1710,155181-252195,00.html

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. dark molasses
1/4 c. water
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour


Beat sugar, shortening, molasses and water in a large bowl on low speed until blended. Beat on medium speed 1 minute. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, 1 to 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle counter top with flour; turn dough onto surface. Roll dough with a rolling pin until 1/4 inch thick. Cut with gingerbread man cutter.

Lift cookies carefully with a large spatula onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate cookies with raisins (optional). Bake until set 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool 3 minutes, then carefully remove from cookie sheet with a spatula.

Cool and decorate with frosting if you like. Makes about 1 dozen cookies.

Flip Flop French Workbook with CD

I'm having a blog sale!

I'm selling the Flip Flop French Workbook (which I co-authored) for only $15 which includes a CD and FREE SHIPPING (in the US and Canada)!!! It sells for $25 on Amazon.

I have limited supplies, so use the buy now button on the right-hand side before I run out.

(I am trying to make room for my latest French workbook that is coming out in a few months! More details to come...)

Quebec culture - food

What to throw in some Quebec culture while you teach your kids French? If so, one way to introduce them to the culture of Quebec, is through food. A popular dish from Quebec is Poutine. Basically it is French Fries topped with gravy and melted cheese curds. Not the healtiest of dishes, but it sure tastes good.

Another dish is called Tarte au Sucre or sugar pie. Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
Mix brown sugar, cream, and flour together in a mixing bowl until smooth. Pour the filling into unbaked pie crust
Bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

I found this recipe on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tarte-au-Sucre-II/Detail.aspx.

Here's another version that has walnuts: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quebec-Sugar-Pie/Detail.aspx

Another way to learn French vocabulary...

A few days ago I wrote about having a French word wall to introduce new French words. Another way to introduce French vocabulary is to label objects in your hours. What we do is we pick a theme and label those objects for 2 weeks. We don't label too many things or the kids get overwhelmed. My daughter likes to have the things labeled in her room. So we labeled her bed as le lit. Every night before we go to sleep she points to the little note card and says 'Le lit, le lit!' It's very cute.

As for the themes, you can have colors, furniture, toys, kitchen objects, bathroom items, the options are limitless. Whatever you are studying that week you can label. I would suggest to only label about 10-15 things at a time. When you are ready to label new items, then you can removed the old labels and review them at the same time. You can even make a game out of it and tell your kids to go find the 'le lit' label, etc.

What about parents who don't know how to speak French?

Lot's of people would like to teach their child a foreign language but they don't know how to speak one themselves. Why not learn with your child? You can learn basic vocabulary together with the aid of websites and books. Don't worry about pronuncation because there are websites that have recorded pronunciation of words in case you need it.

When you feel like you've gotten to a point that you want to learn French as an adult, you can get Pimsleur French from your local library to try it out. There is also http://www.livemocha.com/ which is a free online language website where you can learn several different languages. It's a great start for adult or teen language learners.

The more you learn, the more you can teach your children.

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!

Teaching Numbers

It's important to do a various activies when you are teaching your children numbers in French. It's very easy for them to count from 1 to 10 in French, but can they count backwards? Can they randomly say which number is which without counting up first? Look for ways to throughout the day to practice numbers. Here are a few ideas that I've used in the past with my kids and students.

When walking down stairs you can count backwards in French with each step you take with your child.

Play with a rocket and count down in French to take off.

Play with chalk on your driveway and draw various numbers and have them say the numbers in French.

Counting M&Ms

One of the favorite ways to love to teach French to younger children is by using M&Ms (skittles work well too). You can buy those fun sized ones if you don't want your children eating too much candy. What we each open our little bag of M&Ms. We separate the M&Ms into different groups of colors and talk about the different colors all in French. Then we count the M&Ms in each group in French. For my older son who is 6 years old now, we also throw a little math into it by making a chart to show how many of each color each packet had. And of course at the end of the lesson, your kids get to eat the candy!

Some vocabulary to help you with this lesson:
J'ai - I have
Tu as - You have
Nous avons - We have
un(e) - one
deux - two
trois - three
quatre - four
cinq - five
six- six
sept - seven
huit - eight
neuf - nine
dix - ten

Why should I teach my child a foreign language?

Lots of people ask me "Why should I teach my child a foreign language?" I first respond with "Why not?" Then I go more into detail with my answer and explain how helpful it is to learn a foreign language at a young age. It's a proven fact that children learn languages best if they start learning the language before the age of around 7. (The exact age varies depending on which articles and research you read, but generally it's around 7 years old).

Also, studying a foreign language will help with their math skills now and when they are older. Language and math skills are highly linked, so studying 1 will help the other.

Another reason and perhaps my favorite is that through studying a language it opens the door to the world to your kids. When you teach them French or Spanish or any language you can teach some culture and geography too. This will really open their mind and help them to see the bigger picture of the world that they live in.

And if you are a homeschooling mom I think it's important to have some 'electives' in your curriculum, so why not a foreign language.

The next question I usually hear is "Which language should I teach?" You can teach a language you are familiar with or you can choose a language that interests you and learn it with your child at the same time. As long as you and your children are having fun, then it is all worth it.

As for me, even though I've studied Spanish, Japanese, French, Latin and a few other languages, I chose French to teach my children because I've always loved the sound of the French language and I've always loved French culture.

Karaoke to teach your kids French

One thing I have learned since being a Home School mom is that kids need a change of pace. You can't teach everything in the same format, especially language. I try to think out of the box and help them have fun when learning French.

There are some videos on You Tube that people have put together which have the French versions of Disney songs and the words on them. I like to watch them with my kids so they can practice their pronunciation and vocabulary.

These are all songs that I'm sure lots of kids and parents already know in English, so it's fun to sing them in French since you know the melody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWddh6Rhr6A (A whole new world - Aladdin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAx2Q9_favk&NR=1 (Can you feel the love tonight - Lion King)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heWnJdzhuAg&feature=related (Reflections - Mulan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8E1fSyACr4&feature=related (Hula Song - Lion King)

Tired Mommies

I try to teach my kids a little (or a lot of French) each day, but sometimes this mommy is just too tired or sick. As a homeschooling mother of 3 I sometimes need a break from school and teaching. So why not? Why not take a day off from learning French. You may just be surprised when your children ask YOU "Mama when is French class today?"

I think the moral of the story is it's okay to take a break from teaching your kids French especially because maybe, just maybe your kids will actually want to do it more.

Then there is another tactic that I spoke about before. If you are truly tired/sick but still want to teach your children some French, why not pop a Disney DVD in and change the track to French? We really like to watch Lion King and Aladdin in French. It's great for the kids to hear the accents of native speakers. Also, one thing that I like to do is find the lyrics of the Disney songs on the internet and we sing with the movies together. The kids love it.

Sing a song to teach body parts in French

Alouette is a great song that will help you teach your children body parts in French. When you say each body part make sure you point to it and get your child to point too so they will remember exactly which word is that particular body part.

Here are the lyrics:

Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette je te plumerai
Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette je te plumerai
Je te plumerai la tête
Je te plumerai la tête
Et la tête, et la tête
Et la tête, et la tête
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette je te plumerai

body parts you can use:
la tête - head (in the verse above)
le nez - nose
les yeux - eyes
le dos - back

Easter in France

Teaching culture and traditions is also important when you are teaching your children French. It enables them to live the French way of live without living in France or in a French speaking country. Here are a few websites that teach a little about Easter in France.

http://festivals.iloveindia.com/easter/traditions/easter-in-france.html

http://www.frenchfriends.info/culture/easter_paques_traditions

http://www.francetravelguide.com/easter-in-franc.html

I really like the part about how the French children play games with raw eggs. Sounds very fun. Roll them down a slope and the one that isn't broken is the winner!!! My kids will love that!

French Easter Egg Hunt

Since it's Easter time, the kids have been wanting to have lots of Easter egg hunts in the backyard. Today I decided to make it a French learning Easter egg hunt. I took all of their little plastic animals and put 1 into each plastic egg and then I hid the eggs. After the kids found all of the eggs we sat on our patio swing and opened each one. I had them say the animal's name in French. I think they really enjoyed the change for this Easter Egg hunt.

Here are some vocabulary words you can use for this activity with your toddlers.

J'ai... - I have...
une vache - a cow
un cochon - a pig
un mouton - a sheep
un chien - a dog
un chat - a cat
un poisson - a fish

You can do this activity with any little toys that will fit in eggs. You can put little toy cars in and practice their colors. Or what ever you can think of.

French Wall

Since I'm a homeschooling mom, we tend to do a lot of art projects at home and the kids never want to throw anything way. They want to see all of their work on display. My son Callum came up with the idea to put all of our French activities on its own wall. What we did was attach a few long pieces of yarn to the wall. Then we hang their French artwork and activities to the yarn with clothespins. This way the kids can put up their own artwork.

Once our French wall gets too crowded I take a picture of it and take all of the items down. Sometimes leaving their favorite ones.

I really like the idea of a French wall because if we ever need to review a specific topic we can quickly look at the wall to see what we've done in the past. Also, it's really a great way to have your children be proud of themselves learning French. Whenever you have guests over I'm sure your kids will point out their French work like my kids do.

Colorful Flowers

Today I did a great craft with my children to reinforce their French color vocabulary. We made huge flowers out of construction paper and each petal was cut from a different color. As they cut the petals out we said the color names and we also wrote the color's name on each petal to help them to start to learn how to read in French. We hung them up on our French wall. (I'll talk about our French wall tomorrow. )

If you're like me you'd probably like specific directions, so here they are:

What you will need:
construction paper - various colors
scissors
glue/tape
crayons

What to do:
1. Help your toddler cut out flower petals from different color construction paper. Say the different colors in French together as you cut them out. You can also write the name of each color on the petal.
2. Help your toddler cut out a stem and leaf for your flower.
3. Let your child glue all of the pieces together to make a beautiful flower and hang it on your water or fridge so you both can practice your French throughout the day.

Here are some color words you can use:
white - blanc
blue - bleu
red - rouge
yellow - jaune
green - vert
purple - violet

Spring is here!

Printemps (Spring) is here!

With Spring comes new French vocabulary for you toddlers! You can take a walk and point out items to them and teach them the word in French.

les fleurs - the flowers
l'arbre - the tree
l'herbe - the grass
Il fait beau - The weather is nice.

and when the weather isn't so nice, you can teach your child:
Il pleut - It's raining.

Happy Spring!