Activités anglais/français pour des enfants
How do you say "seal" in French? (un phoque - which sounds a lot like the F bomb). Yes, I'm raising bilingual kids and they love messing around with vocabulary in English and in French. Want to incorporate some French activities into your day? Je vais te dire un secret...
Make French fun!
We make language zones. English in the house. French outside. It's our "secret language" which comes in handy for times when you need to talk about taking fingers out of one's nose, or going pee or any bodily function that is best discussed in a whisper...or a 2nd language.
As an anglophone Mom who is functional in French I do sometimes crack out the Larousse English/French dictionary to help make my bilingual activities.
Going shopping? Make a English/French grocery list for the kids to read and check off.
Going to a farm? Make an English/French animal bingo card - when they see an animal that is on their card - they check it off.
Staying home? Make an English/French book - print out pictures of kids' own things and write the names of them in English/French (for example: my bed/mon lit).
Then their are online destinations which are tons of Franco fun...
www.tfou.fr (French site) has FREE activities for kids 3-6 years and a separate section for kids 7+. They also have colouring pages with all your kids' favourite characters.
Uptoten.com (bilingual English/French site) has stories & songs for kids aged 0- 6 years and games & colouring for kids aged 6+.
Minitfo (proudly Canadian!) is the website of TFO (French Public Television). Younger kids will enjoy games, mini videos and more. Mégallô is TFO's site for tweens with videos, games and more.
And what we've found about introducing a 2nd language is to be consistent. Get the 2nd language into your daily (or weekly) routine.
Sign up for a French story time at the library.
Find a French babysitter (there are tons of immersion schools around - put up Babysitter wanted flyers!).
Play French cds in the minivan.
Anything you do in one language...you can do in two! (but watch out for those phoques)
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