I have got Paris on the brain especially since we are going on our honeymoon in April!! I cannot explain my love for Paris. I think it is the mystery, the beautiful language, the Sex and the City aspect… everything about Paris intrigues me. I took French in High school … Mademoiselle Tiennes. She cracked me up with her 1950’s dress, Aqua Net perma spray hair ~ more like a larger, unprovocative Betty Boop. Her favorite sayings Zut alore (shucks) and Vite Vite (quickly) which I still use today. My French name was Brigitte and my sister Gigi. That is so funny too bc Gigi was supposed to be the Betty Boop name in the French class and that was not my sister!
MrM and I went up to Canada for American Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving is in October – which we celebrated in America). He took me around all his stomping grounds as a young child and we met his sister and grandparents etc. I will have to post on this separately. Well, MrM and his sister were brought up in French Immersion school. What is French Immersion you ask??? It is a form of bilingual education in which a child who does not speak French as his or her first language receives instruction in school in French. In most French-immersion schools, children will learn to speak French and learn subjects such as history, geography and science in French.
Now MrM went to this school all through High School. Wow!! And Thank Goodness too. I love when he speaks to me in French and reads to little man too. This also makes me feel inadequate that I only took 4 years of high school French and only remember petite quantite (very little).
SO…. What does an All American mom do??? Google how to teach baby French with English speaking parents. And Voila…. Lots and Lots of options….
First, there is a blogger Sarah, who started learning French in high school, went to a couple of French Camps and studied abroad to become employed as a French teacher at a university. She blogs about raising her children in a bilingual home as a Non-Native French speaker. Her post on parents who don’t speak French but want to was very exciting to me. She mentions camps for children, books, songs etc. Just a general “How to” start to bring a second language into your home.
I am on over load right now. I want it all!!
Posts
Bonjour Kelley! I'm so glad to hear that my blog, Bringing up Baby Bilingual, has been helpful to you. Your best resource, of course, is your bilingual husband!
ReplyDeleteYou didn't ask for advice, but I have a few suggestions that could encourage your hubby to share his French with the family in a way that you can (re)learn it along with your children:
--Figure out a way to create a consistent time and place for French, like when hubby's driving (listen only to French music), during breakfast, or on a certain piece of furniture.
--Find a native French speaker who can come spend time at your home once a week. Pay her as you would a tutor, but rather than ask her to give you formal lessons, have her play with the kids, cook with you, and just do normal everyday activities--but all in French. That way you're all learning through doing rather than memorizing vocab lists, declensions, and conjugations.
--Hire a native speaker, perhaps a college student, to babysit.
--Find (or create, like via meetup.com or flyers in the foreign language dept of a nearby university) a French playgroup to take the kids to.
--Use index cards to label objects around the house in French so that you see them on a regular basis.
--Listen to lots of French music and watch favorite DVDs with the French soundtrack instead of the English. Also check out YouTube....sometime soon I hope to gather a list of my favorite kids' music clips in French.
--See other ideas and resources here: http://babybilingual.blogspot.com/p/french-teaching-at-home.html (a list in progress)
Bonne chance et bon courage! Let me know how it goes.