Teach your kids French and make it fun
Discover enjoyable activities and great resources as well as some useful tips on how to teach kids French. The information you will find on this website has been written by Joanne Leyland, a qualified teacher and author, with 20 years experience in teaching languages to children.
What is the best way to teach your Kids French?
1. Group new words into topics
It would feel more rewarding and purposeful for a language learner to know they have learnt some words for various animals, drinks, clothes etc rather than just some random words, so it is beneficial to group new words into topics when you teach kids French. It can also be easier for your child to recall new French words if you group new words into topics. Start with some numbers and the topics you know they will enjoy.
Activity books which offer a mixture of fun activities are a good starting point for children learning French. The following great books by Joanne Leyland have a nice variety of topics in each book.
Young Cool Kids Learn French (ideal for ages 5-7)
Cool Kids Speak French Books 1, 2 & 3 (ideal for ages 7-11 )
Make learning new French words fun! You may find that your child has toys you could use to teach the French vocabulary for the following topics: colours, pet animals, farm animals, zoo animals, transport, food and drinks. And the clothes your child has in their wardrobe would be perfect for using to teach the clothes topic!
2. Practise new French words with actions
When you teach kids French vocabulary, have actions for the new words you are introducing. Although it would be hard for a teacher to think of an action for every word in the French language, children can be great at thinking of their own actions to represent many words if you, as their French teacher, need any help!
Another good reason to have actions for the new words is that once you have actions for the words you can also play Jacques a dit (the French equivalent to Simon says) or do mimes to practise these words. While the French vocabulary is still fairly new it would be useful for your child to copy your actions as you play Jacques a dit. However, once they are confident with the French words and the actions you can choose whether or not you join in with the actions. You could play Jacques a dit / do mimes to teach new topics or review words from various topics.
Another good reason to have actions when you teach kids French is that when you quiz them about what French words they can remember you can do some actions to help them recall what the French words mean in English, if they need any help. Your child could even quiz you on the French words, by doing an action for you for one of the words, and then you have to remember which French word the action went with!
3. Offer creative opportunities
Many children enjoy being creative, so when you teach kids French, try to include some fun opportunities which encourage creativity. You could, for example, ask them to design a poster, a menu, a house or castle, some clothes.... Whatever they design, it is important they copy carefully the French words for the pictures they draw. Before your child starts their design, choose a topic and give them some French words to include. If the words are fairly new to your child you may need to write both the French and English words down next to each other. Display their work when it is finished, and from time to time, look at the French words with your child. Once your child is familiar with the words you could see how many of the words your child can remember. If your child designs various things over a period of time you could save the older designs you have already displayed in a folder so that you make room to display the newer things your child creates and yet still have the older designs to look back at sometimes. Language learners need to develop four skills: Speaking, listening, reading and writing. For this reason, when you teach kids French, if they have already learnt to read, it is important to include the written word so they can get used to what the written words look like.
Creating a poster or menu on the computer: If your child doesn't like drawing you could always help your child arrange some black and white clip art in a Word document, then print the page and ask your child to colour in the images and write the words in French.
How to add clip art in Microsoft Word.
How to add clip art in Google docs.
4. Play games
Games are often very popular with children, and so it is worth noting that you can teach kids French vocabulary or sentence structures using games. You can design your own board game with your child and ask them to draw in the spaces some pictures for the French words you are teaching them. To play, you will need a dice and one counter per player. The counters could be anything from cubes to small toys to rubbers - they just have to fit in the spaces in the game! Remember to encourage your child to say the French words they are practising as you play the games. French Word Games - Cool Kids Speak French and Photocopiable Games For Teaching French are two books which contain a good variety of games, many of which are in the style of a board game. Both books are useful resources for either home schooling or classroom teaching. You could either have a complete French lesson using a few games, or play just one game each time you teach your kids French.
5. Keep revisiting French vocabulary
To help your child remember French vocabulary in the long run, it is important to keep revisiting these words. When you teach kids French don't forget they need to be able to recognise as well as say the French words they are learning, so quiz them on how to say in French what some English words are, and vice versa. If your child can't remember what the answer is you could give your child some options to help them recall the correct words. Another quick and easy activity to do is to quiz your child by asking them to say 3 or more animals, drinks, fruit, vegetables etc. Or you could show them something, maybe one of their toys, and ask them what the French word is. To review numbers you could play counting games and count various toys or other items you see.
As your child gets more competent in French, it will become important for your child to be able to read and recognise French words as well as be able to write them, so familiarising them with the written word at an early age can be beneficial. You could add labels to some things you have around the home. Activity books can give your child the opportunity to both read and have a go at writing French, and once completed, your child could review their learning every now and then by having a look back through the contents of these books. To practise the spelling of a new word your child could copy one word several times using some pretty coloured pencils or pens, then they could see if they can write the word from memory.
6. Model simple sentences
Once you have taught some nouns, gradually teach your kids simple sentence structures in French.
Colours - You could introduce sentences which describe the colours of some of your child's toys or clothes. For example, "Le chien est noir." (The dog is black.); "Le pull est gris." (The jumper is grey.) Choose singular masculin nouns as they won't require any adjectival agreement. After a few examples, ask your child to help you finish the sentences you say by eliciting the colour the object is, then get your child to repeat the whole sentence. You could also show an object and ask your child to identify the correct sentence to say from a choice of two options.
Asking for things - You could also encourage your child to ask for some things in French. In French there are two ways of saying please. In informal situations, for example a French child speaking to a parent at home, the French child would use s'il te plaît. In a formal situation, for example, a French child asking for something in a restaurant, the French child would use s'il vous plaît. If you teach your child both ways of saying please, they will familiarize themselves with both. Once your child is familiar with both phrases you could introduce Je voudrais (I would like) and ask them to make a long sentence, for example "Je voudrais un jus d'orange, s'il te plaît."(I would like an orange juice, please.)
Giving opinions - Three useful phrases to teach your child: J'aime (I like); Je n'aime pas (I don't like); Tu aimes ....? (Do you like...?). Once your child is familiar with these phrases you can build lots of different dialogues. Some nouns need to be in the plural when they follow these phrases, so for example with animals, teach the plural of animals before you talk about which animals you both like.
Many children love puppets and soft toys so use the ones you have at home to teach your kids French. The puppets and soft toys could either have a little conversation with your child, yourself or both of you!
7. Read stories together
Children enjoy stories, and short stories in French can help to teach kids French vocabulary and phrases within a fun context. It's useful to read a story in a foreign language several times. First of all, when you read a story with your child, just aim for your child to have a general idea about what the story is about. Then move on to look for useful words or phrases that you may want to teach your child. At the end of the story books by Joanne Leyland, to help teach kids French, there is a French vocabulary page with pictures for the words that are incorporated in the story. After your child is familiar with some words they will see in the story, it would be beneficial to read the story another time. And there is a French-English translation at the end of the stories in French by Joanne Leyland, so readers can refer to this if they want to check what something means. To teach kids French, as a follow on activity you could try singing a song or creating a rap using some of the words from the story you have just read. The stories by Joanne Leyland all have lyrics at the back of the book that can be sung or made into a rap. You could even try singing these words with different tunes or saying the words in different styles.
8. When you teach kids French, make it fun!
Using a mixture of learning activities will help make French words and phrases more memorable and the French lessons fun! From activity books, colouring books, games and stories there are certainly lots of excellent books available to help you teach your child French. And if you incorporate choices into your French lessons your child has the opportunity to choose what happens next and this encourages engagement. Remember to praise your child regularly and encourage them so they feel they are making progress.