Making Snowmen and learning French with your child

Do you have some cotton balls? And some paper? Then you have a potential snowman and a little French teaching thrown in.

What you will need:
Cotton balls
Constuction paper or plain white paper
Scissors
Crayons
Glue

What to do:
1. Have your son/daughter cut a piece of paper as big as they would like their snowman to be.
2. Pour out some of the cotton balls and have your child line them up and count them in French.
3. Then, have your child glue them on the cut out snow man, counting again in French.
4. Your child can accessorize their snowman by drawing, coloring and cutting out a hat, scarf and boots. As they color them they can practice their colors and also the names of the clothing.

Useful Vocabulary:
Hat – le chapeau
Scarf – l'écharpe
Boots – les bottes
Snowman – le bonhomme de neige

Tom-Tom et Nana and other French cartoons

Youtube.com has so many great French cartoons for your little ones to watch. If you type in the search 'French cartoons', a lot of different ones pop up. Tom-Tom and Nana is a cute one my kids are watching as I type this. There are also French versions of ones we have here like Pocoyo. Just type in the search the cartoon name in English and then put French, example "Pocoyo French" and you will hopefully find some cartoons that match what you are looking for.

French cartoons are a great way to immerse your children in French. It will really help them with their pronunciation and after awhile, they should be able to pick up some words or more, depending on their level.

More Cookie Cutter Fun!

So, you have all of these plastic cookie cutters and you are tired of making cookies, now what? You can use the cookie cutters to do lots of activities in French, teaching the shapes and objects the cookie cutters represent, working on numbers, colors, or play vocabulary. Here are some ideas that my daughter likes to do with her cookie cutters that I turn into French learning activities:

Don’t have any cookie dough in your house and you don’t really want to make any from scratch? Make some pretend cookies with play-dough.
Trace the shapes on construction paper, cut them out and make a mobile. You can hang it up in their rooms so they can see all of the words their new French words they learned.
Look back to idea 1, but use clay. Add a little hole to the top of the shape before it dries, then paint them after they dry and you have just made some Christmas tree ornaments.
This one might be a little tricky, but you can trace them on the sidewalk with chalk as long as you have thin chalk and not the thick ones.
For older children, you can trace the shapes on felt and cut them out, sew them up and you have soft Christmas tree ornaments.

Any idea works as long as you remember to repeat the words in French while they are doing the activity. Repetition will really help your child learn and retain French.

Cookies!

My daughter likes to bake and so I thought I'd use her love of baking to teach her a little French. I went to Wal-Mart and I picked up one of those boxes of 100 plastic cookie cutters and some refridgerated cookie dough. Then, when we got home, we took out 10 of her favorite cookie cutters and as we made the cookies we learned the words in French. There were several groups like shapes, Halloween, Christmas, etc. She had a lot of fun and then over the next few days as we ate the cookies we practiced the French words again.

I spy something...

Today I spent about 30 minutest playing I spy with my daughter in French. She really enjoyed it. If your kids are beginners, you can simply say: "I spy, with my little eye, something vert." (green) However, if you want you can increase the difficulty you can, say: "Je vois quelque chose vert." (I see something green.) It's really a fun way to pass the time, while learning a little French.

Also, depending on where you play this game you can practice different types of vocabulary. In the kitchen, at the park, outside, in the bedroom, or even in the bathroom while they are taking a bath. Why not? Even if they don't know the word and they say the word in English, you can say, yes, it is a ____ and change their English word to French.

A French Open House

It’s that time of year where schools have Open Houses so that the teachers can meet the parents and the teachers can show off their class projects. Why not have your own little French Open House? You can take all of your activities you’ve complete in the past few weeks/months and hang them all around the room. Then, when your spouse comes home, you can proceed to have your impromptu French Open House. This is a good way to get the other parent involved and get you your much needed approval. Well, at least for me, I really like the affirmation I receive from my husband when I’ve show him the projects we’ve been working on in our French school. And this French Open House will also help your child to see everything they have accomplished over the weeks and they can get extra praise from their other parent. Single mom or dad? No problem, have grandma, grandpa or a close friend over for a snack or dinner and then you have a captive audience. You can even have a French themed snack or dinner by serving crepes or even just a cheese tray. Your options are limitless.

Painting toast in French!

Painting toast is something my kids like to do. You can throw a little French in it and then you have a French lesson.

All you have to do is melt some butter and put a tad bit of food coloring in it. After you toast the bread, you can put it on a plate and let your kids paint their toast. You can have them say the colors in French as they paint their breakfast.