In France, everyone who wants to get married has to have a civil marriage: you go to city hall, you get married. If you want to, afterwards you can go have a religious marriage. I think it is the ideal solution. Separation of church and state. Everyone is happy.

Mindware has some great logic games, Lab Mice comes to mind. And Codebreakers and Coin Clues don't require much reading... There are also great games from Thinkfun (Tip Over, Rush Hour, Chocolate Fix, Solitaire Chess) that are wonderful for developing logical thinking.

I like the look of wallpaper, but not the hassle, so I compromise by using fabric: it can be attached with liquid starch and removed very easily when I grow tired of it by simply stripping it off the wall. There is also no waste as the fabric can be repurposed afterwards. :)

An old restaurant trick that might help with this: don't fully engage the beater attachment and the beater will scrape the bottom of the bowl, thus eliminating or at least minimizing the stuff-stuck-on-the-bottom-of-the-bowl problem. :)

We don't subscribe to it because DS can get it through our Alliance Francaise. They have a few stories, a couple activities, and a comic usually. DS prefers the magazine Astrapi because it has more articles and activities. The stories in J'aime Lire are fine for beginning readers/language learners and if they don't have much exposure to the language the CD is helpful. IIRC only the main story is on the CD. You can often find older copies on ebay (though without the CD, I think) if you want to take a look at one to make sure you like it. Or is there an Alliance Francaise near you? We find that belonging to the AF is worthwhile because we can access so many books and magazines.

If you have the counter (or floor, depending on the model) space, why not look into a used professional mixer from a restaurant supply store? Those old professional mixers take a beating and last forever.

A professional stove and if not that, at least a stove that is vented outside so I can actually cook without setting off smoke alarms; a convection oven; a sunken sink so water/crumbs/whatever can be wiped directly into it; good lighting; a marble countertop for pastry making. What I would not want is a lot of cabinets - I prefer using furniture to store things rather than having tons of cabinets.

We love watercolor pencils. Sometimes if we don't want to get bogged down taking pencils or paints with us we will make little squares of color with watercolor pencils on a card and take along a waterbrush to activate the swatches - another reason we love these things! Not all watercolor pencils have good lightfastness, however, so be careful in your selection. It is disappointing to spend time on a drawing or painting and then have it fade. This site should have some brand reviews and lightfast tests.

I don't know of any good textbooks, but if he wants to get started now there are things he can listen to/watch. I think listening to repeating news is a great way to learn a language as you might not get it the first time, but you are pretty sure to get it by the 22nd time. ;) France Info (click on "le player" to hear live news streaming). And here is access to French television programs. I think it is great that your dad wants to brush up on his French. Why not look for a French speaker or group of speakers locally who can converse with him? Much nicer than just learning from a textbook.

I found these two books very helpful for teaching reading in French: http://www.amazon.fr/LImagerie-lecture-niveau-Lucienne-Mestres/dp/2215066245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382824988&sr=8-1&keywords=imagerie+de+la+lecture http://www.amazon.fr/Phono-Grande-section-maternelle-d%C3%A9but/dp/2218750961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382825022&sr=8-1&keywords=phono

I would just teach him to read in one language. We picked French because it was DS's stronger language and his reading knowledge in that easily transferred to English. No need to bother doing it twice.

Yes, definitely find opportunities to speak their home language with other people. My son went on a language strike for several months when he was quite small, refusing to speak to me in anything but English. One day he ran across some other children speaking "our" language, realized that it was useful to speak this language, and has never spoken to me in English again. He also stopped speaking English with his dad and has since only communicated with him in "their" language. Reading books, watching movies, cartoons, anything in their home language(s) is also a great idea. I find that food, too, is a great way to connect to a home language/culture. ETA as for reading and writing, I make a point of finding books and materials in the minority languages. DS was taught first to read and write in our home languages, and for read-alouds DH and I read in our home languages rather than English whenever possible.

Castor sugar is cane (or beet) sugar, just with a smaller crystal. You can buzz some regular sugar in the food processor to make it.

We've been very happy with our Eagle Creek luggage. It has seen some rough travel and come out just fine.

Beast Academy is great for mathy kids. It is both challenging and fun.

I taught my self Spanish one summer by watching telenovelas with subtitles (in Spanish) and reading Harry Potter. For the HP, I tried not to use a dictionary but to just keep reading until I figured it out. My vocabulary was perhaps not the most practical, but I got comfortable with the language very quickly. :)

I could have sworn it was available to anyone living a minimum of 30 miles from the physical library, but on looking just now I see that it says residents of New England. :( I wonder if they have added that since I first posted it. :confused: I apologize. I'll ask the librarian next time I go in. I don't understand why it would be restricted to New England residents. Maybe because they want people to buy a membership to the library itself...? (no geographic restrictions for regular library members.)

The French Cultural Center/Alliance Française of Boston is now offering “the first French e-Library in the US." Maybe it will come in handy for those of you who to not have ready access to French language books. Right now it appears that there are about seventy children's titles. http://www.numilog.com/bibliotheque/fccafb/default.asp

This has links to free downloadable math books as well as other links, including some games.

Why not start with mealtimes? Maybe you can even plan some meals around French food at first to have some fun with it.

It's always the way. If you'd studied French she would have wanted German. ;)

It's a very good program anyway.

Have you checked your library? Most have copies of this. :)

You can find Spanish language books on Amazon and in most bookstores as well as the library in most places in the US. DS enjoys Clifford, Dora, Backyardigans, etc. They are just as reasonably priced here as English language books. We've also had luck buying used lots of Spanish language books on ebay. HTH

I don't have any copies to lend out because we borrow ours form the local Alliance Francaise. Have you checked your library for them? If you are wondering what they are like, I can tell you that the main story is found on the accompanying CD and there is one other easier story in the magazine. Also some games and a couple comic strips. There are about 50 pages. It is a nice little magazine, but not one I would necessarily subscribe to. Although I did hear that you can get decent rates here if you are in the US. Also, you might contact Milan Presse and ask for sample issues of magazines. I have done this before and received them. ETA incidentally, it comes with an audio CD, not a CD ROM.