Youtube. 🙂 Seriously. I speak French fluently, but in the early years circumstances constrained me to prioritize other things over French. I’m working on it now with my two children, who are 8 and 10. As it happens, I can read books to them and I do so regularly. But youtube is great if you know where to look. You can find playlists of “comptines” – nursery songs and just play them as an audio resource without letting the children watch the screen. There are fairy tales, too, you just have to know the titles in French and search them. “Petit chaperon rouge” is “Little Red Riding Hood”, for example. Some of Charlotte Diamond’s songs are good, too. Silly, but great for retaining the sound of French and anyway it’s ok to be silly! “Je suis une pizza” is one of my kids’ favorites. That’s a silly one. Really helpful vocabulary building songs by Charlotte Diamond are “J’ai des souliers; je peux marcher” and “Y’a un chat”. The videos that go with these two songs are actually really helpful. You watch and do the actions along with the shoes song – marcher/walk, courir/run, sauter/jump, etc. We make a game out of the cat song by hiding in the places the song mentions or adding our own verses with other places. “Y’a un chat SOUS LA TABLE” and we all squeeze under the table. “Y’a un chat DANS LA CUISINE” and we all rush to the kitchen.
“Head shoulders knees and toes” can easily be sung in French, although it actually says feet, not toes.
Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds (Genoux et pieds)
Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds (Genoux et pieds)
J’ai deux yeux, deux oreilles, une bouche et un nez
Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds
Once you know some of the body parts yourself, you can lead your children in playing “Simon Says” or, “Jacques dit”, as it is called in French.
I play Noah’s Ark go fish with my kids to practice the animal names. You can play any type of go fish (as long as it is not just different types of fish!! Not very useful, that!). “Maman, as-tu le lion?” “Mommy, do you have the lion?” Response is “oui” and you hand it over or “non, vas a la peche” and the person fishes.
Any old children’s memory game set will do if you know the words yourself. Train your kids to say the word as they turn each card over. Our set has, among others, the following matches: doll, ball, keys, train, sun, cat, dog, rabbit, duckling, present, cake, apple, banana, and other every day objects. Great words to know and you can just incorporate vocabulary practice into your game.
We also have a good local library that has dvds available with French language tracks- any Disney animation (obviously, we prefer the classic ones) will have this, as will short kids’ shows like Mighty Machines. This is one area where I don’t mind videos, because having grown up overseas, I have known people who learned their English from American movies. I’m thinking of one lady in particular, from Norway, who had no foreign accent when she spoke English and she learned entirely from watching American movies on tv as a child.
If you really want a good book resource, my sister (who also speaks French) has been using this with her kids and loves it. https://www.amazon.com/Play-Learn-French-Audio-2nd/dp/0071759247/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504745626&sr=8-1&keywords=play+and+learn+french It’s dialogue and other audio pertaining to daily life around the house, etc., and includes some songs.
Hope that helps some although it is not about a specific curriculum set.
