Teach your kids French and make it fun! Discover enjoyable activities and resources for children of all ages as well as some useful tips on how to learn French

"When someone asks me what’s the best way to learn French I always suggest they try to learn just a few French words each day.  It’s amazing how quickly that learning 4 - 8 words at a time soon mounts up.  And when you have learnt some words for a particular topic it is good to progress to how to make some simple sentences. "

- Joanne Leyland  

Les numéros 1 - 10

Another fun way of practising numbers 1 to 10 is to pretend to play table tennis as you count, with you saying the odd numbers and your child / children saying the even numbers.

Once your child has had a go at learning the French numbers cover up the French words and see if they can remember them. You could ask your child to write down on a piece of paper as many numbers as they can remember, then you could check how many they got right.

Learning French is a process, so tell your child not to worry if they don't get all the French words right and to have another go at learning the French words they didn't remember.

Let's make learning French fun!

Nouns

Once you know how to greet someone, say please and thank you and the number 1-10 in French it's good to move onto learning some nouns.  It's nice to group the words you are learning into topics.  Try to learn just a few new words at a time, and remember to look back regulary at the words you have learnt so you pass what you can remember from the short time memory to the long term memory. 

One nice easy topic to start with is the fruit topic:

une pomme = an apple          une banane = a banana              une poire = a pear

une orange = an orange        une fraise = a strawberry

To introduce the fruit topic to your child: 

1.  Put any 3 fruit down in front of your child as you say the French words.  Encourage your child to repeat the words.

(You could use either real fruit or toy fruit or printed pictures taken from clipart).

2. Next ask your child children to close their eyes and take one fruit away (hiding it behind your back or in a lunchbox) and ask which one is missing.  If your child doesn't answer straight away you could ask questions like "Is it une pomme?" / "Do we have une poire?" 

3. Swap roles, and ask your child to take one fruit away.  This time you have to say which one is missing.   

4. Introduce 2 more fruit.  Create labels for all 5 fruit with your child.

5. Take it in turns to choose one of the fruit. The other person has to guess in French which fruit has been chosen.

6. Ask your child to create a poster with all five fruit written in French and drawings for the fruit.   

Sometimes make French a way of communicating with your child

Once you have introduced the French words for some fruit to your child, try to use these French words whenever you offer fruit to your child so that French becomes a natural way to communicate.   

1. Begin by offering a choice of fruit:   For example you could say: Une pomme, une orange ou une banane?  

2. At first just encourage your child to say the French word for the fruit they would like.

3. After a few days move on to say a longer sentence when you offer your child some fruit.

For example: Tu veux une pomme, une orange ou une banane?

4. After a few more days introduce s'il vous plaît. Encourage your child to say the fruit they would like, then please in French.  For example: une pomme s'il vous plaît.

5. Eventually you could teach your child to say a full sentence, starting with Je voudrais. 

For example: Je voudrais une pomme s'il vous plaît.

When your child is familiar with hearing these additional French words you could explain how we would say the words in English:

ou = or

Tu veux ... =  Do you want ....?

Je voudrais ...  =  I would like ....

s'il vous plaît  = please 

French lessons often only introduce at first the formal way of saying please in French as that phrase is particularly useful if you go to a French restaurant, shop etc.    S'il te plaît (the informal way of saying please) can be introduced later when your child knows some more French.