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I recently came across a blog by Karen Le Pillon, author of "French Kids Eat Everything", and a Canadian mother of 2. I thought this blog entry about snacking was very interesting. I have to admit that my kids snack multiple times a day and it does interfere with meals. In this blog post, Karen Le Pillon argues that kids will do a better job on their dinner if they are somewhat hungry and not full of snacks. And I would think that they would be more willing to try something new if they have a good appetite.
I'm going to see if I can implement a "one morning snack, one afternoon snack" policy in my house. Wish me luck!!
As a reward for all the great work the boys have been doing learning French, we decided to make crêpes. I also made it another opportunity to practice some French vocabulary. We followed this recipe. We already knew some of the words: les œufs (eggs), le lait (milk), le sel (salt), les fraises (strawberries), le buerre (butter), le chocolat (chocolate), les bananes (bananas), le sucre (sugar) and le bol (bowl) and learned some new ones: la farine (flour) and mélanger (mix).
The kids took turns adding ingredients and practicing saying the ingredient in French. I did my best making thin crêpes without the cool equipment they use in France. The kids loaded them up with Nutella (yum!) and fruit and then we folded them into triangles. The kids started eating them from the tip and lost some of their filling - they learned their lesson quickly and started eating from the open end! (See photos)
I highly recommend this as a fun "French" activity with the kids :)
My friend, Laura, arrived in Puyloubier, a small town in the south of France, just over a week ago to start her 2 month "séjour" with her 2 daughters. She rented a house and enrolled her two daughters in the local school. It's been so fun reading about her adventures so far. She and her daughters have already made some friends and the girls had no problem settling into the new school, having attended a French immersion school back in the U.S.
The picture included here is of "La Rue Grande", one of the larger streets in town!
When I was researching how to create a French language program for young children, there were two books that really helped guide my program. "The Bilinual Edge" by Kendall King and Alison Mackey (both Linguistics Professors at Georgetown University) and "Help Your Child with a Foreign Language" by Opal Dunn, a Bilingual Education expert. I found the following insights helpful as I started teaching my kids french and developing an effective program:
- Children can start picking up a second language with as little as an hour of practice a week, however this interaction should be with a person. DVDs, television programs, or computer games are not a substitute.
- A parent, regardless of her language ability, can start to teach her child a second language. A parent knows her child well and can tailor language learning specifically to her child. A child may be less self conscious with a parent and will get more one-one time than in a classroom setting.
- When young children learn their first language, they first listen and start to understand, then start saying single words and short phrases, and finally start to speak in full sentences. Similarly, when learning a second language, the listening and understanding stage takes some time before your child can spontaneously communicate in French.
- Games and activities are important in helping your child learn a second language.
Both of these books gave me the confidence to start teaching my boys French. If you are already or are thinking of teaching your child a second language, I highly recommend you take a look at these books - I found them both at my local library.
Help your kids learn a second language!
I've been teaching my two boys(3 and 6) French for almost a year. And since my accent and pronunciation are far from perfect, I've used the web as a way for my kids to hear French spoken by native speakers. Here are a few of my favorite web resources if you want to help your kids learn a second language.
1. Kids music videos on youtube.com
My kids really enjoy watching French song videos for kids. The images help them pick up some of the key french words and entertain them at the same time. To find appropriate videos on youtube, search for "kids songs + [language]". If you are looking for French ones specifically, check out the resource section of LanguageMom.com where I've sorted them by different topics. My kids think the "Allouette" song is hysterical and love singing along. (You can find that one in the "Body" section.)
2. Language Apps
I love the "LinguPingu" apps for the iPhone and iPad. They have a version for several languages. The app includes 9 categories, (eg. foods, animals), and within each section there are 9-10 images. Your child can touch one of the images and the image animates and the name of the image is spoken in the selected language. My 3 year old gets a kick out of playing with this on my iPhone. For more advanced language learners, look for ebook apps in that language. This French Little Red Riding french ebook app is a good one for French learners.
About.com has several language specific sections that are very robust. While I find it a bit overwhelming and more geared towards adults, I found this vocabulary section in the French area particularly useful if you want to focus on a specific topic with your child. (Scroll down to see the various lists of words and phrases by category.)
This educational site includes interactive games for several languages. I think it's a great way to reinforce specific topics of learning. If your kids can read, they may be able to practice on their own.
With all the resources now available on the web, it's easier than ever to introduce your kids to a second language or encourage them to practice. Since second languages are not a priority in elementary or middle school, this is a truly valuable skill that you can encourage your children to develop. (And as a parent, it's really rewarding.)
When my husband and I were purchasing our first home together, we didn't yet have kids. And while we were concerned with the quality of schools, it just didn't even occur to us to think about choosing a town in Massachusetts with a French immersion program. I really wish I had. I think language immersion programs make so much sense. Kids pick up languages so easily, why not have them pick up a second language while they are learning Math and Science? That is so much easier than the way I learned French! I met a 9 year old recently who attends a French immersion program and was amazed at how fluently she spoke French.
According to the Program Director for the French Immersion program in Holliston, Massachusettts, "Foreign language lessons in elementary school - and particularly immersion - are shown to improve academic performance later on and can help students learn a third language and prepare them for a more globalized economy."
There are two French immersion programs in Massachusetts, one in Holliston and the other in Milton. This article written about the Holliston program does a great job explaining how it works.
While I wish I had considered immersion programs when we were house hunting, I have to admit that I am not willing to move now that we are settled. But I am going to expose my kids to as much French as I can and instill in them an interest in learning other languages. And I am confident that they will also achieve proficiency in another language - they're just going to have to put more effort into it than if they were "immersed" in the language.
What are you thoughts about immersion programs?
(Photo courtesy of Daily News/Wicked Local by Allan Jung)
Hello Language learners! Many thanks to Kristin for inviting me as a guest blogger today! I’m so impressed that many of you are teaching your kids to speak a second langauge at home. What a gift you are giving your children! To grow up exposed to (speaking!) two languages… Wow. I sure wish I had been given that opportunity when I was little.
Like you, I’m trying to help my kids grow up to be bilingual and multi-cultural. I am lucky to live very close to a terrific, not-for-profit French immersion elementary school. My kids (who are 5 and 7) speak French better than I do. We love to travel and to learn about other cultures. And we’d like to someday move back to Europe for a few years.
Nonetheless, I often get asked, “Why French?” My standard answer used to be “Because I really want to live in Paris and each warm chocolate croissants everyday.” But people seemed to want a more serious response. So here are a few reasons I’ve come up with:
Being bilingual is good for your brain. You have probably heard that being bilingual boosts your brainpower and that being bilingual may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. But to me, the benefits of a bilingual, multi-cultural education are obvious, and making the decision to raise my kids in such an environment was a no-brainer.
Endless resources. French is the most widely taught language after English, so there are many resources available to help you learn. No matter what level you are, or where you live in the world, you can learn to speak French.
French is the language of love, cuisine, culture, art and fashion. It’s fun to learn and to imitate; and you can sound really fancy when you order food at a French restaurant!
French is an official language of the International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and The Olympics. Over 200 million people in the world speak French and it's spoken in over 40 countries.
“But wouldn’t Chinese or Spanish be more practical?”
I have nothing against any other language or culture. Would another language be more practical? I don’t know. Maybe? Maybe when my daughter is 35 she’ll tell me that her career would be more successful if only she spoke Chinese. But I’m not making a career decision for my child. I’m instilling in her a love of learning.
I love learning French. I love Paris. And I love chocolate croissants. Isn’t that reason enough?
p.s. If you are interested in spending a few months in France, please contact me! My new business venture is to help people plan a sejour - a 2-3 month stay in France.
Merci tout le monde!
Laurie Mucha
I have been teaching my two boys French for almost a year. One of the benefits that hadn't really occurred to me beforehand was that I would learn some new words. Even though I studied French from 8th grade through college, I'm amazed at how many words I didn't learn! How is it possible that I never learned the word for "hug" or "ladybug" or "shark"? Is it that since many of us don't start learning a second language until middle school, we skip some of the vocabulary that you learn as a young child? Or that we don't see or hear those words enough for them to be reinforced?
So, a big "câlin" for my boys for giving me an excuse to learn some of those French words that I missed out on!
A new book about French parenting, called “Bringing up Bebe”, by Pamela Druckerman has been getting a lot of buzz recently. Here’s an article that she wrote for the WSJ recently which summarizes her observations on how French parents successfully raise their children.
Some of the points that resonated for me were that French parents teach their kids patience and the ability to play by themselves. I think I sometimes feel guilty if I am with the kids and working on my own project or on my computer, so I like this idea that kids need to learn how to entertain themselves. And I definitely think my kids need to work on being patient and not feel that I am being selfish or mean when I ask them to wait for something.
While I wonder if all French kids are really this well behaved and whether this ultimately raises “better” adults, I think this is a good reminder that your kids shouldn’t be in charge!
What are your thoughts about this parenting style?
I am teaching my two boys, 3 and 5, how to speak French (using the LanguageMom French language program, of course!). Every week we spend 5-10 minutes 6 days a week working on our lesson for the week or reviewing previous lessons. Most of the time, my boys are happy to practice since it means that Mommy is giving them her undivided attention. But sometimes, they just aren't into it. And that is when I discovered the power of mini marshmallows.
I used our weekly study sheet that has 12 French words and accompanying pictures on it. I put a mini marshmallow on each of the pictures and told the kids that when they correctly identified the picture when I said the word in French, they could eat the marshmallow. I have never seen the kids so focused on the task at hand. I think I'll try it with cheerios or blueberries next time as the kids really enjoyed the "game" aspect of this exercise and think these healthier options will work just as well.
