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French for kindergarten/early elementary?


Jackie
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  • 2 months later...

Disclaimer: We have not yet done a lot of French.  Everything here has been experienced through Russian, Spanish, or Chinese.

If you are teaching a young child a foreign language,
--you will want to limit the amount of writing.  Workbooks may or may not be a good choice, depending upon whether you want to be the one filling it in.
--play many, many games.
 

Resources (all of these have a French choice):
--DinoLingo (for Russian):  We've mostly used only the videos at this stage.  It's expensive, but my kids liked it.  It will not teach sentences, but it will teach a lot of vocabulary.  Dd4 enjoys them, too.
--PetraLingua (for Chinese): Effective, and I got a great deal last May through one of the buyer's coops.  I'll be watching for it again.  There are videos online for the kids to watch, and online quizzes for my older dd (just turned 8yo).  The quizzes may or may not be more than what a 5yo can do.  Dd4 enjoys the videos, too.
--FlipFlopSpanish (workbook): A very basic beginner workbook.  Very low key.

Games:
I have posted games on this forum before.  Whatever your language, nearly all curriculum cover the same material in the first year: numbers, colors, family members, animals, greetings, etc.  The games listed are for Spanish, but you can easily change them for French.

Games from Duckens.  It's Entry #8.
 

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Though I only know Skoldo from a sample, we've used Alex et Zoe through levels 1 & 2 and are 1/3 of the way through level 3.

 

From what I just saw in Skoldo, it looks very kid-friendly. At first, my gut reaction was that it might be more appropriate for a really little kid. But the further I went, the more it *seemed* that workbook work was very integral to the learning. Here's a summary of the things I like about Alex et Zoe.

 

• Alex et Zoe is focused on language acquisition through a natural language avenue

 

• Alex et Zoe can be used without the workbook easily for the first year, and probably most of the second year. 

 

• Alex et Zoe is written and published in France, and their CDs feature multiple representative accents (e.g. Croquetout, the ogre, speaks with a Northern accent, I'm reasonably sure), which has really worked my daughter's ability to understand the language from more than just my accent (non-native, but pretty good).

 

• It's a French as a second language curriculum, so it also has a *LOT* of side lessons about what it is to be French. For example, it is the reason we now celebrate the French Epiphany, with a Galette Des Rois with fêve inside. The tradition was explained thoroughly and not really for vocabulary's sake, and my daughter really took it on as something we should do, for the sake of learning Frenchness. 

 

Do note, though, that you will need to be reasonably fluent to use A&Z, as the Guide Pedagogique is necessary to get the most out of the materials and it's entirely French. 

We've liked it so well that we'll continue with the next series after this one - Amis et Compagnie.

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Thanks for the review. I keep going back and forth between Alex et Zoe and L'Art de Lire. My husband is French-Canadian, so my son gets plenty of spoken French at home, but, since my son is now able to read fluently in English, I would like to get him started on French reading/writing.

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