So I have recently launched a concerted (if somewhat overdue) effort to bring French into the lives of my children.
A little background for those who may not be in the know: I’m a passionate francophile who spent 2+ years in Paris and worked for the French government in the US for five. I used to speak French like, well, a French person, and I can still rock it pretty well although my vocabulary now has some holes in it (as we all know, if you don’t use it, you lose it). I’ve been asked why I didn’t just start speaking French with my kids all the time. I guess I don’t really have a good answer for that other than it just didn’t feel natural. I’ve always thrown in words and phrases, though, and done some reading when I could get my hands on a kids’ book in French.
Anyway, I recently discovered the Little Pim series (language dvds for toddlers and preschoolers) through my overachieving sister whose kids are learning Spanish. The best thing is that they have them at our local bibliothèque (little library, have I told you lately that I love you?). Pim is an animated panda who introduces basic vocabulary and useful phrases. The kids responded pretty well to those, and then I got the idea of using the French language option on some the other shows they watch. Coco (who has only been watching videos for a couple of months) is totally down with watching Bob the Builder en français. Hank…not so much.
I’m kicking himself for not starting this stuff earlier for him. I think I was overwhelmed by parenthood, and the brilliant ideas were just not forthcoming. When he started watching videos at like 3.5 (man, I was sooo proud of myself for holding out so long on screen time), I was still adjusting to having a second kid and felt like I was in a constant fog. I’m seeing things a little more clearly now, and I’m fairly sure it’s not too late for the boy. He’s into it as long as I don’t push too hard. Plus, being around Pim has encouraged me to use French with them a little more.
It seems to be working: they occasionally surprise me with random French phrases. Coco likes to go around saying “une pomme-c’est ca!” and “fais dodo”. Henry, out of the blue, came up with “il joue avec une cube” the other day.
The ever lovin’ and I had big plans to scoot down to Richmond for their world-famous (seriously) French Film Festival this weekend. But car troubles and the usual budgetary constraints are keeping us here. So I’ll be missing out on Le Hérisson, the screen version of Muriel Barbery’s Elegance of the Hedgehog, and the other cool stuff on the program. Might have to sign up for Netflix again to check some of it out. We did get to watch Jules and Jim on dvd again last night. That’ll have to do for now.
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