A few days ago, I ran our first French Play Group according to Lesson Plan Numéro 1.
We had five children ranging from one to ten, two girls and three boys. One family traveled 45 minutes to attend and said they would be back.
Everybody behaved well. All the kids showed great interest in learning French. They made an effort to sing and pronounce the words when I asked them to. Continue reading
About two months ago, I had a burning desire to start a French Group. All the details have been worked out and, in a few days, we will have our first meeting. So, so exciting.
This is a post for all the parents bringing their children, but I thought it might inspire others, too.
Here’s the lesson plan for the first French Play Group:
1. Start with Bonjour, bonjour les amis, a song from the CD Whistlefritz, Allons Danser. I will have the kids sitting on the floor, girls on one side and boys on the other side. That’s to demonstrate the difference between masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives in French. Also, to be able to point at the girls when we say “copines” and to point at the boys when we say “copains.”
I will bring the CD and we will sing along twice. I am making up some hand motions.
You can listen to bits of the song on the Amazon link above, to get an idea. I have not found a youtube video for it. – 5 minutes
2. Read several books to them: Continue reading
God is in the business of answering our prayers – even those we don’t have enough faith to pray. As I hosted the latest Raising Multilingual Children blog carnival, I felt pricked in my heart about French like never before. In our homeschool, I do read to my children in French and talk to them in French now and then, but it’s not enough.
They need conversation, preferably with small people like them. Immersion. I started dreaming about a French play group. If only there were francophone children in East Tennessee…
Wait a minute! What if? What if I could bring together a small group of homeschoolers and I taught them French as they played?
I went from “if only…” to “what if?” in a matter of days.
“If this is from You, Lord, please lead me to start a French play group. I don’t know how, where, when or with whom. I feel this calling. I will take it one step at a time and watch for Your guidance.”
I did not exactly say those words, but that was the spirit of my unspoken request.
I felt called and I took the first step. I made an announcement on our homeschool support group’s page on Facebook, asking if there was any interest in a French play group.
The first reply came from a French lady who lived 30 minutes away and had a son about my son’s age… We even had five mutual Facebook friends and had lived in this area for about the same time (nine years). What are the odds?
She was thrilled to have a French play group getting started. I was thrilled to find her.
Had I not asked, I would have never known. As I told my husband, he said, “Ask and ye shall receive…” Continue reading