Wondering how to teach your kids French at home? Or maybe learn French along with your child? Sounds like a great plan and I’m here to help!
Whether you want your child to reconnect with French roots or simply to raise him/her as bilingual, this article will help you reach that goal.
Check out these French for kids resources and learning strategies!
Before anything else, let’s talk about the reasons why your child should learn French and why it’s a good idea to share the experience with them.Before anything else, let’s talk about the reasons why your child should learn French and why it’s a good idea to share the experience with them.
I. Why should you teach your kids French?
There are a lot of benefits to being bilingual, but here are some of the specific reasons that make a good case for teaching French to your kid.
Now that we have listed some of the benefits, let’s get down to business and see how you can accomplish this project for you and your kid(s)!
II. How to Teach Your Kids French
If you're thinking how difficult it must be to teach your kids French, don't worry. The key is to make it as fun as possible not just for your child, but for you as well.
Here are some ways you can do that.
1. Start with the alphabet and numbers.
For learning the very basics, you can try some fun activities such as:
A. Sing along to the French ABC song.
B. Play ABC Bingo.
To do it, prepare a card with 16 squares. Each square would have a different letter. Pick out a letter from an envelope and the child would cross all the mentioned letters from his card.
C. Devise some fun counting games that you could play:
Count the number of items in the house (how many chairs/ pillows/ toys/ windows, etc.), play Price is Right with your child (think of a number and ask him/her to guess!)
2. Introduce simple vocabulary and make it fun!
Start with fun vocabulary that your kids would enjoy such as shapes, animals, colors, common objects, parts of the house, fruits and veggies.
You can also:
FRENCH-ENGLISH FAIRY TALES TO BOOST YOUR READING AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION
3. Use music.
Music is a great way to have fun while learning a new language. Teach your kids some French nursery rhymes and sing along with them to the tunes! Here’s a playlist you can use (+ use your device as a karaoke!)
4. Two words: MOVIE NIGHT!
Cozy up on the couch with the entire family and watch French movies that are great for children. Here is a list of recommendations:
5. Comics are a good idea!
Introduce your kids to Asterix and Obelix, Tintin, The Smurfs, and more!
6. Watch French cartoons.
There are plenty of sites that offer French cartoons such as Bandgee.com and Tou.tv Jeunesse.
7. Try out some games from good online sites.
Websites like Duolingo and Hello-World French Children’s Activities are really great for your kids, too!
8. Use different types of learning materials that the kids would enjoy.
Here at Talk in French, I have prepared a bunch of materials that would be great for your kids. The following e-books with audio would surely help:
This bilingual picture storybook is great for young children. Full of visuals that your kids would love, the story, “Where’s My Ball?” features vocabulary to help kids learn basic words like shapes, sizes, colors, as well as how to introduce themselves---in both English and French.
Each e-book in this 3-volume comes with 10 short stories that are great for children and are written in parallel text in both French and English. Perfect not just for bedtime but for any time of the day.The best part? It comes with audio recorded in both French and English. You and your child can listen to this together at bedtime!
bilingual French-English Stories with Audio
Read and listen to 10 fairy tales you know and love--written and recorded in both French and English!
FRENCH-ENGLISH FAIRY TALES TO BOOST YOUR READING AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION
III. Conclusion
There are a lot of benefits that your child could get from learning French. Aside from begin a good bonding activity with your children, learning French will promote their cognitive development, boost their emotional and relational skills, among many others.
Talk in French can help you teach your children French at home. With the number of available contents in the website as well as some good e-books with audio, you will soon be on the way to having bilingual kids. Good luck and enjoy!
I really like this structure
Thank you so much for share this information. I am going to learn also with the songs for children.