Joan in Geneva

[yvonne]

Hi Joan,

 

Could you post the titles/authors/isbns of the Hachette & Nathan grammar & reading books your daughter is using at her French school? I'm always looking for good options for working on our French. I have twin 8 year olds, also in 3rd, but only just starting reading & writing in French.

 

I have them doing a verb conjugation a day, also, but only in the present tense at the moment. Hadn't thought to have them keep a dedicated conjugation notebook. I think we'll start that on Monday. Thanks for mentioning it!

 

My dh is French. I spent a year at the Université de Genève studying child development & French, oh so long ago. I loved Geneva. It is such an international city. You meet so many people from different countries (at least as a footloose, fancy-free student...) and you have such access to the rest of Europe! I hope we'll be able to live in France for a few years at some point. My dh is a s/w engineer so, theoretically, we could live there and he could telecommute for a year.

 

What are you doing in Geneva, if you don't mind my asking? Or you could pm me, if that's easier.

 

Thanks so much for any tips on books being used in French schools!

yvonne

 

 

 

>>My daughter is starting her conjugation notebook at a younger age so she doesn't have as much later on. She is also starting a French grammar, etc 3rd grade (in France public school) Hachette book and reading (3rd grade also in France) Nathan book to get her started at an earlier age.<<

[Joan in GE]

First, you should know that the Swiss do not produce enough engineers for their needs. They are constantly importing them. Has your dh looked for a job here? At the bottom I've put a post from "Selma" in a Swiss forum about this lack...

 

Yes, there are many, many interesting aspects of life here in Geneva and in Europe. I feel quite spoiled. Besides my family, the only thing I miss is a good library in English (so I've brought over hundreds of books, and keep finding them used at the local international school). I could also say I miss hs support but now I get lots of ideas from this forum.

 

My daughter is not in school. I was just saying that I use some books from the Swiss and French school systems (at about 2 grades below her level in the US right now, but hope to catch up).

 

About French materials, there is also the CNED which Cleo uses and they use other French grammar books for the primary level - I think she said by BELIN. Maybe she can compare the different publishers for primary level? For 3rd grade I have A portee de mots Francais CE2 (cycle 3/niveau 1) by Hachette but it is from 2000. It covers grammar, vocab, spelling, conj, and writing.

here

teacher's book

here

I am not saying these are the best but I haven't been able to find others in the bookstore to peruse. But if you search amazon.fr for "francais CE2" there are others that come up as well.

 

(Note: Nan said she was having trouble getting some books shipped to the US - Nan- what happened?)

 

About the other reading book I have, I am sure there are better ones, so I won't bother with those links. When I find them, I'll tell you.

 

About the conjugation notebook, I got that idea from watching the older children go through public school. There they did one verb a week.

 

There is a big difference in how French grammar is taught in France and in Switzerland. I say that just in case you move here.:)

 

My husband was working for WHO until this past September when he retired (mandatory at 62 in the UN organizations) in food safety (chemicals). He is looking for another job but nothing has come up yet, so there is no point in moving and getting rid of half our stuff when we might have to turn around and move again. Plus with one son in university here, it is nice to be able to support him. And my oldest is doing an internship with the UNHCR....that kind of thing is hard to find in a little US town where we would probably end up moving if dh doesn't find work elsewhere.

 

Did you meet your husband here? Where is he from in France?

 

Post below is excerpted...

"In the working environment, we have noticed that most higher

positions in bigger companies are NOT filled in by Swiss. I said MOST

positions. That's our experience in the 8 years living here.

 

We do see a problem in the educational system for the elite jobs,

then. The thousands of medical doctors that Switzerland has to import

shows that in the medical field, there's a BIG lack of professionals

going out from Swiss universities. The numbers speak for themselves,

I have seen a few articles on that and talked to foreign medical

doctors.

 

Another gap is on the engineering side, for example. It is clear

there Switzerland doesn't produce enough engineers of high

qualification and that there's need to import that working force from

abroad. Husband is one. When he came, his post was not filled for

about a year, they were DESPERATELY looking for engineers. He left

later on, and he called an Irish engineer to fill his post, or it

would have taken months or even years to fill his position again.

 

There are high qualified engineers leaving Swiss universities, it's

just a problem on the numbers, too few.

 

Then go to the managerial side, it always amazes me to see the posts

being filled by Germans or other nationalities. We have the overall

impression that the 'little-stress mode' that many Swiss aim at

school go to the company level too, and the Swiss are more willing to

do their jobs, go home, and get to do their hobbies in peace. Nothing

against that, but the higher posts of bigger stress then seem to be

filled mostly by other ones willing to take the stress...

 

Excerpted from a post by Selma in a Swiss-schooling group"

 

Best,

Joan

[yvonne]

Thank you so much for your help, Joan!

 

I'm looking up the books now. Last time we were in France, I spent a whole day at fnac going through _every shelf_ of children's books. Then I discovered the pédagogie section and started on that, but only had an hour left by then! I did pick up some CP & CE1 BLED and Tout Savoir Au.... books that summarize what's covered in CP & CE1. I've been using those to structure what we do at home.

 

Haven't had any problems getting books from amazon.fr sent here, but mostly I have them sent to my fil & mil and they bring them over when they come. They're coming in April, so I'm looking for French books for them to bring! My husband asks them to bring cheese. I ask them to bring books! :)

 

I love great children's lit & it was such a disappointment not to find very much that was truly appealing in the way of good French children's lit. I was talking to a librarian while we were there & they just don't seem to have the same, rich tradition of children's lit that America & England have. I especially can't muster up much appreciation for the French children's book illustrators! Do you find the same thing? Do you have any favorite French children's book authors/illustrators?

 

I met my husband in the States. I'm in Silicon Valley. He'd come over in the 90's with a few friends from his university to do a s/w product. His whole family is in France, but his parents come over twice a year for three weeks at a time to visit. Wish we could get to France more often, but we've only been twice since we had kids. In fact, last time we were there, we visited Geneva! :) My bil & sil live in the Jura, about an hour from Geneva.

 

If you have time sometime, I'd love to hear more about the difference in the way grammar is taught in France vs. Switzerland.

 

Thank you for fwd'ing the post about engineers in Switzerland! I sent it to my husband. :)

 

yvonne

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

We're using Tout pour le français

http://www.magnard.fr/collection11043.html

(they don't list everything, but it covers CE1, CE2, CM1, and CM2)

 

I know someone who uses Littéo

http://www.magnard.fr/collection11036.html

and she's very happy with it.

[Joan in GE]

Last time we were in France, I spent a whole day at fnac going through every shelf of children's books.

 

I ask them to bring books! :)

 

I especially can't muster up much appreciation for the French children's book illustrators! Do you find the same thing? Do you have any favorite French children's book authors/illustrators?

 

If you have time sometime, I'd love to hear more about the difference in the way grammar is taught in France vs. Switzerland.

 

I can completely relate about books and bookstores. I'm buying up French books for when we move back. I'm still trying to understand the relationship with books here - I find the Geneva city library small for the size of the city. (This is a whole other discussion really. Even in universities, they don't always use books, but tend to rely on photocopies. There are various reasons which would make for a long discussion). :001_smile:

 

There is an older picture book series by various authors which I do like. They are quite thin and maybe 15 years ago they reprinted them in a smaller format. I'll have to dig them out. I think I've put them away for the time when I might teach grandchildren :001_smile: I agree about illustrations too.

 

Re Grammar, I am not an expert. Probably my third son would know best since his tutor (French) is always complaining to him about the way the Swiss French teach grammar and has to teach him the two systems since the better books are French but his tests will be Swiss. He's writing a paper now (which has given me time) so I'll try to remember to get it out of him in the future.

 

There is an educational series for older children

 

Decouvertes Gallimard

 

which is really interesting. They have lots of historical pictures mixed with text.

 

an example

 

I have to get to bed, so good night.