French for the native speaking child

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Hello,
I am new to the forums and new to HSing with my K'er. We are a bilingual family- I speak only English to the kids, my husband speaks only French. My son prefers English, but speaks French fluently.

I have purchased Leo et Lea for French phonics, but am wondering if anyone has additional suggestions for encorporating more French language acquisition into our day. I am fluent in French, but prefer he learns a better accent from dad!

Any tips from other francophones much appreciated!

Monica

[mooooom]

is that you just pick a subject or two and do them in French. That way you don't need to duplicate a lot of work.

[CleoQc]

is that you just pick a subject or two and do them in French. That way you don't need to duplicate a lot of work.

I agree...
it's easier that way. Pick a topic and study in French. We're the opposite family, we're French speakers. The kids do history in English, and through the years we've added math, and sciences.

if you want some long distance material, France has a lot of long distance schools. The national one is called CNED (http://www.cned.fr) You can choose just a few courses, and will have access to teacher supervision. French has few homeschooling material. There is Carpe Diem, which is a great resource

http://www.carpediem.asso.fr/

[mom2bee]

I would suggest you make sure he becomes biliterate and study certain subjects in French. By now, he's got the proper accent from Dad, so you could probably afford to speak French with him as much as you mutually would like.

You can do things like Social Studies and History 2x without it being repetitive. Do French history in French and French Social Studies in French and do the same subjects for your English speaking countries in English.

You might do 20 minutes of English history at the beginning of the day and 20 minutes of French history at the end of the school day and switch out History and Social science every day or every week or something.

Read as much in French as you possibly can, write a few sentences in French everyday and then move on to paragraphs in French as he grows. Have him narrate in French books no matter what language the story was in. When doing Lang Arts through out elementary school, try and keep his language balanced. Watch DVD's in French and listen to French radio and go to French websites for children.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thank you everyone! I will think about what subjects I could switch to French.

[loesje22000]

Hello Monica,

We use the educative magazine Bonjour/Dauphin/Tremplin for that.
It comes once in 2 weeks, and they do send to other countries in Europe.
www.averbode.be (http://www.averbode.be) is the publisher, but they do have own sites with teacher supplements:
www.bonjour.be (http://www.bonjour.be) is for age 6,7,8
www.dauphin.be (http://www.dauphin.be) for age 8,9,10
www.tremplin.be (http://www.tremplin.be) for 10, 11,12

We're doing Bonjour 2me annee now, nest year we'll try Dauphin.
It's a Belgian magazine.

Averbode does also have materials for history, but I thought in Switzerland french books would also available?

If you have girls at a younger age the serie: 'Martine' from casterman publishers could be a nice fit for read alouds. They are available at www.amazon.fr (http://www.amazon.fr). or www.azur.be (http://www.azur.be)

[jld]

Are you not living in the French-speaking area of Switzerland? I would think a kid growing up in Switzerland with a French-speaking father would be fluent already and not need language acquisition help. Or maybe you're just worried about literacy? Even if you didn't do anything special in terms of instruction, I bet he would eventually learn to read and write French.

Our kids are bilingual, English/French, with an American mother and French father. They learned to read in French about 6 months after learning in English. Their writing isn't quite as good in French, but we only lived in France for a year and a half before moving to India, and were in America before we lived in France, so we didn't have much time for them to be immersed.

I'm sure your son will be fine. Everyone is nervous at the beginning of the homeschooling journey!:)

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thank you for all the replies. Yes, we do live in the French speaking part of Switzerland, and I know if ds were in school, he could be completely fluent, but since he's HSed, he still gets more English than French.

I just want to make sure I am promoting both languages sufficiently. :-)

[Joan in Geneva]

Hi Monica,

I have found quite a few of the WTM titles in history and science (especially the Eyewitness guides, Usborne history, but others as well) that have been translated into French - so that is useful if you are following the WTM ideas.

I'm sure you've been to the Vivishop in Lausanne - that is where I saw some of the others.

I've never been to the library in Lausanne, but in Geneva at the main library, they have quite a good history selection, including the type of books showing crafts from ancient times.

You'll have to come to the meeting I'll be hosting in March - then you can look at some of the titles. I also do the basket style organization you mentioned on a recent ch thread but it is color coded for subject.

HTH,
Joan

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Hi Joan,
Funny meeting you here! I'd love to come, let me know the date.

Monica

[ElizabethB]

I speak Spanish, not French, but I got a free pdf copy of the Manuel de lecture and Manuel d'ecriture about a year ago to see how they taught with syllables.

They may still be free and they also have many other French materials available. (I'm sure you'll have better luck figuring it out than I would, although my Spanish knowledge did enable me to get a free pdf version a while ago, but I think you had to start clicking on things to get the free options.)

http://www.lalibrairiedesecoles.com/librairie/lecture,1

You can teach English with syllables, as well, I think it is good to compare the syllables in two languages. I taught the Spanish pronunciation basics to my children with syllables and am teaching my son to read with syllables with Webster's Speller (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208407).

Switzerland was our favorite place to visit when we lived in Germany!

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

This site looks amazing! Thank you.

[CleoQc]

At la Librairie des Écoles, you can also get Singapore Math in French...