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The Easy French Junior … # lessons?
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We are considering using The Easy French next year with our 7yo (rising 2nd grade) and two 5yo (Kindergarten). I cannot figure out how many lessons are in The Easy French, Junior. Is this a one-year program? If so, how many lessons would you recommend per week? (I will also be learning along with my kids so I foresee us going quite slow at first.) Could it be spread over two years? Or, would that make it lose its umph and maybe be a detriment to the children retaining the new language?
Thank you so much for your thoughts!
Erin Kate
I really like The Easy French Junior. I think there are 32 lessons. I don’t have it near me, or I’d look at it, to tell you for sure. We used it this year in a very, very relaxed way. It is designed so that you can finish it in one year, or two, or even three. If you do it in 2 or 3 years, it means that you will finish it each year…therefore you will go through ALL the lessons EACH year. Does that make sense? This year we simply listened to the 2 minute lesson and did the 1 min vocabulary review. We did one lesson all week. So in week one, we did lesson one, 5 times…Monday – Friday. There are activities you can add in to help you really get it. We didn’t do that, as it was our first “real” year of school and I wanted to keep things simple. This next year we’re going to go through the Junior level again, only making a real effort to do the activities to aid in learning. There are enough activities that you can choose to do a few the first year, and a few different ones the second year, and then more for the third you go through it. I may do it for a total of 3 years, depending on how much the kids really get this next year. Oh, and my kids were a 6 1/2yo first grader and 5yo kindergardener when we started. I am doing both kids together, so we may stay with it the full 3 years so it doesn’t move too quickly for the younger one. Hope that helped you some!
Thank you, Alice! I think it sounds perfect for us. I do think that I am going to hold off one more year, sigh, and start it next year when my oldest is in 3rd grade, my two middles are in 1st grade (one of these two is adopted and will need this year to learn to speak English), and my youngest will be almost 4. I can then start them all together.
Or, I can start my oldest this year, alone, then cycle back through with all four kids for a second year, then again a third time and they will all have experienced a good chunk of the Junior program.
Thanks for helping me think it through and for explaining how we can make it work for 2 or 3 years, which will be best for our family.
Take care!
They also have a Spanish program. After my kids get a few solid years of French, I plan on starting Spanish as well. Oh, and I am learning right along with my kids.
I am trying to decide on EF Jr or the EF for older kids and adults. My concern is whether, or not our almost 6yo would be engaged in the one for olders as part of a family study. Would we need to get both levels in order for 12+ yo kids through adults and our 6yo to learn? Is there enough for the young ones in EF?
Also, have any of you had 12yo-adults complete this program as it is designed?
Thanks,
Becca<><
I haven’t seen the older kids version, so I don’t know how the compare, but we tried out the jr level for awhile with my 6 and 3 year old and frankly, I didn’t like it. There wasn’t very much to it at all and the suggested activities were all kind of lame. I didn’t feel like they were really learning anything from it. I did just kind of let them listen to the CD for fun for awhile, but the $80 price tag is pretty hefty if all you are going to do is listen to the CD.
FWIW,
Jen
Jen, Did you pursue French another way? I noticed someone early in the thread actually like EF Jr.
I’m drawn to the claims, I must confess. CM style (EF). Missions focus.
Becca<><
Yes, we are. Keep in mind my children are all quite young (6, 3.5, and 2) AND we are living in France this year, and will be moving to French-speaking West Africa next year…so we are getting and will continue to get a lot of natural exposure as well. Additionally, Dh and I are attending formal French langauge classes, and I have a background of 4 years in high school. So what is working for us may not work for someone else living in the US and/or without previous French training. For exposure and vocabulary developement we are using The Learnables and the free videos from here http://www.knowitall.org/instantreplay/content/program.cfm?SeriesIDpassed=45 . (I wouldn’t say I love either of these or that either or even both of them would work as a stand alone curriculum, but they are meeting our need for purposeful expsoure and the kids enjoy them.) This is primarily with the 6 year old, but the little ones are extremely curious and listen in a lot. We also listen to other French books and audio resources which we are able to easily get from our library here, and the kids attend Sunday School in French at our church here. Our speaking level isn’t as good as it could be (but getting better everyday that we are here! I actually had a lady in the elevator of our apartment building tell me that my French wasn’t bad for an American yesterday!) and I am actively seeking someone who can help us (kids included) with conversational practice. Our main goal for French study at this point is for the kids to enjoy it, be able to hear and understand it, and as they feel comfortable try to speak it. We will be living in a French speaking part of the world for the rest of their growing up years, so they will have lots of time to continue to refine it, learn to read and write in it, and study the grammar more formally as they get older. I would absolutely agree with what Bookworm said on another thread related to this: NO program is going to be complete without regular conversational practice. That is what we are finding in our experience here living in France – nothing we’ve learned in class is REALLY cemented until we’ve used in conversation.
HTH some,
Jen
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