Prepping for trip to France

[GoVanGogh]

It looks like we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in Paris. (I don't know when or how I got to be old enough to be married 25 years...)

 

We will be taking our child (almost 10 by this fall) with us. I want to make the trip as educational - yet fun - as possible. We will be traveling in October (probably) and be there for ~7 days.

 

Currently, I am thinking I will alter our school plans for September so we can study French history. I would love any suggestions for topics to study and/or books to read.

(We follow LCC and are on Year 4 with Ancient Rome, so child is familiar with the region.)

 

Also...

We have studied many artists over the past few years, so I haven't decided if I will add in a new artist study before our trip. Are there any 'unusual' artist we should study if we are planning on going to the Louvre and Orsay? (Beyond DaVinci, VanGogh, Monet, Seurat, etc.)

 

Last but not least...

DH studied French in high school and college, but that was eons ago. He is planning on brushing up on his French before our trip. But child loves languages and is eager to study French. I am considering putting aside Latin and Greek from now until then and let child study French. Any suggestions for a beginner conversational program?

 

Thank you very much for any and all input.

[In The Great White North]

For beginner conversational program, check your library's kid DVDs and see if any have a French language option.

[JenniferLynn]

Check out these song cd's - Songs in French for Children by Les Quatres Barbus and Simple Songs that Teach French.

[GoVanGogh]

For beginner conversational program, check your library's kid DVDs and see if any have a French language option.

Sadly, we have a poor library.

They have a number of items on cassette (we don't have a cassette player), one CD (due back in March, so doubt it will be returned now) and one DVD (can only be checked out for one week, with no renewal).

 

Check out these song cd's - Songs in French for Children by Les Quatres Barbus and Simple Songs that Teach French.

Thanks.

 

 

 

I am in the process of writing an architecture study for my child and just realized that our main book uses a number of structures in Paris as examples. Love it when things work out like that.

 

 

Would love to hear more ideas. Thanks!

[Shifra]

Berlitz puts out a set called Basic French that is available on CD and has good reviews. They also have French for Your Trip. If you can get a copy of Take Your Kids to Europe, it is a good introduction to traveling with children to Europe, and it has suggestions for books for your children to read as an introduction. Innocents Abroad, published in 1991 (ISBN: 0452265851), also had a great list of books (specific to each country in Europe) for children to read and get acquainted with the culture of the country he/she was traveling to.

 

This is Paris is a historic book (first published in the 1960s); it has been reprinted with updated information and is very informative. I also have read Usborne First Book of France, but it was published in 1989, so it may be out of date. However, it is a complete overview of the history of France for children. If pronuciation of French is not a problem, Getting to Know France and French is also very good and published more recently. I also saw in the book store Find Out About France: Learn French Words and Phrases and About Life in France which looked really good.