Adventure French for Kids

P.S. M abc is what I chose for my 5&12 yos. They are now 6&13. But, after speaking with the author, she suggested just starting at the beginning even with my older one as he could play with the language first and has plenty of time to finish all the levels in a Homeschool situation. He likes it, even though it’s geared to much younger. He’s not into coloring, but lives the conversation we can have based on simple lessons and the pronunciation CD is very clear making it easy to speak correctly.

He’s using it in a CM fashion by listening and speaking prior to reading and writing. I had been considering EF before I found this program. I’m thankful I found it. It’s a perfect fit for our family.

Becca<><

Becca,

Is My ABC easy to use when you have little to no experience with the language?  I have been looking at The Easy French for next year, but it is more expensive.  Still, each level lasts 2-3 years.  It might be less expensive in the long run for thar reason.  We really need to do something with French this year, though.  I’m just not sure what.

Karen, I looked at the link you provided but didn’t see a sample video with the puppets, just the picture.  Did you see a sample of the video?  The Regular videos samples looked good to me and I had to read through the articles.  It looks good, but a little too expensive for my budget this year.  My younger ds might enjoy the puppets, and he is going into 4th, but if older ds decides they are too babyish, then my younger ds won’t like them either.  I would be interested in knowing if anyone has used either version.  I see they have a Spanish course, also.  

Becca,

Can you tell me how the structure of the lessons for Mission ABC are set up? Daily, weekly, etc. I’ve looked at the samples, but can’t get a clear picture of how often these lessons wouldneed to be.

Thanks,

Christie

Nerakr,

I apologize for side tracking your request. 

About justifying cost of Adventure… If you follow through with other fine arts/extras in a diligent way, and if this program fits well with the learning styles in your home, I’d say that’s enough to justify the cost. 

I went through the back and forth concerns over EF, searched for reviews and requested input here. The only reviews I found outside the website were “why it didn’t work for us” type comments on blogs that had originally posted they’d been thrilled with it when it came in the mail. That doesn’t speak to the curriculum as much as it tells me it’s probably a follow through issue. But, it was enough to keep me looking. At the time, I had serious follow through troubles and realized if that many weren’t able to follow through with it, it was too complicated at the time for me to implement. 

I found MM and no reviews. After my discussions with the author and her opinions as to how it could fit into our type of home education (with admitted times of distraction and need to lay curriculum down), I felt the cost justified being a guinea pig for the curriculum (so to speak.). No regrets!!!!

My suggestion:  if you are seeing that it appeals to your children in a way that would enable follow through, take the risk and become it’s loudest promoter!  🙂 It’s worth it in the long run. Sometimes it comes down to being the one to risk something new. 

Christie,

Abc is targeted to k-2. It comes with four little booklets (books). 

The whole program is broken into 80 Lessons. There are 2 “tests” during each book. Doing it slowly makes it easily accomplished in a year’s time. With more breaks, it takes longer, but we like to play with the language and have times when the 3 Rs and our farm life means setting French, etc., aside in terms of formal lessons. We keep the songs and vocabulary going throughout our daily life activities. 

Ex. For L1 I gathered a globe, pics of France, and used book 1 to introduce France and French language. We practiced bonjour and au revoir, looked at the globe and found out how far France is away from us in TX, and we listens to the cd and practiced introductions and stating age. 

Throughout the day, we giggle trying the new things we learn together. For instance, when learning the alphabet and song, I stressed the difference between the way we say h, i, j, k, w, & y. We went over the top in acting tres chic when saying these at breaks, outside, at teeth brushing time, etc. Same with counting, age, colors, foods, shapes, etc. 

The lessons are super short…ideal for cm scheduling. The activities require almost no prep. Just gather things from the house, or observe items in real life and identify them in French instead of using English. 

The songs are fun!  

My God is so Big-Mon Dieu est si grand

Jesus loves me-Jésus m’aime

Are you sleeping?-Frère Jacques

Simple games include: 

When you say “Bonjour!” they shake hands.

“Bonne nuit!” lean head on hands. 

“Au revoir!” wave

They are similar to what I’d do naturally with new info. 

They learn the story of creation in French. There are bingo games for vocabulary checks: Body parts, colors, and food. Little picture cards for vocabulary are included in the back as black line masters. Ideally, you print these on card stock. I’ve been cheap and just use my pointer finger. 🙂

All I can really say is that I like it and it fits easily into our cm routine. I have it tentatively scheduled 4x/week, T-F. I’d say a lesson takes 10 minutes, or less. But, since we include it throughout the day in fun ways, we actually spend more unscheduled time on it. We’ve had more time off from the lessons recently. But, we’ve not forgotten what we’ve learned. It’s going to be easy to pick it back up next week from where we stopped the formal book work. If you use CMO or the paper TOC version if CM planning, it’s a cinch to track. 

Blessings,

Becca<><