So, although we have been dabbling in French for years. Recently, we have decided to take the plunge and get more serious about helping the kids truly learn and understand another language. We are using the Little Reader French with both kids and they enjoy it, but I would like to broaden their education.
I would really like to start reading and watching French daily. Not videos like Little Pim or Muzzy (both of which we have), but videos and books meant for French speaking children. Specifically, we would like a range from videos available on You Tube (or something similar) for babies (the kind where they are labeling and teaching babies what things are) to cartoons for children.
So far my kids have enjoyed the “Tom-tom et Nana” shows, but I would like even more shows for variety. We have also tried watching our Disney movies in French, but they are kind of long for where they are right now.
‘Dabbling’ would be too strong a word for what we are doing :biggrin: but my 3 year old loves watching Maisy in French (or more recently Sweedish). Some Maisy cartoons are available on youtube but you can also pick them up pretty cheap secondhand and most (not all so check the back cover for available languages first) can be played in English, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, French, Danish and Norweigian. These are very simple story lines to follow.
Also reading a-z http://www.readinga-z.com/ has simple readers that can be printed. Many of these are also available in Spanish and French. You can sign up for a free trial with limited download but enough to give you an idea. I was disappointed that their other site (razkids) only has the animated versions of the books in English though.
We are advancing nicely in french , my daughter can read fluently chapter books now , which gave me the courage to start a third language : spanish , i don’t have much yet but I am working on that . Anyway this is a video of my daughter reading in french ;
i second reading a-z recommendation , you can print out the books . i like the mots frequents folder , it teaches lots of vocabulary on various subjects , my kids love to color those small books while learning french . then you can progress into leveled readers and htose you can have them in both english and french , same stories that my kids read in english as toddlers . i still use a dictionary myself , i am lookin now for a good one from the apple store , easier to look up words than physical dictionary .
xxx
viv
For reading A to Z do you have to buy the one year classroom subscription for 89$? Or is there and individual subscription?
When you refer to the mot frequents folder where is that?
I’d love even more detailed information about what you did to advance her reading and comprehension skills, Viv.