Customer Reviews

French for Children (French Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I teach preschool children French in my home and have not seen an easier method for children who do not yet read. Though designed for beginning readers it is easily adapted to non-readers. Parents who do not speak the language can learn along with their child. The program comes with an activity book children can draw, color and cut in, along with 3 cassettes. Two cassettes are the lesson plans (1-10), and the third is an instructional guide for parents.

My only disappointment is that there is not another level after the child completes the book.

We also have the German for Children(it comes in several languages). We spend time in the evening doing the program with our 4 year old son. I soon realised that my 2 year old knew all of the songs and was responding to questions directed at his older brother in German. They love the Super Cat cartoon.

Note: A young child can not do the lessons without help from an adult.

This program is a wonderful balance between written and spoken French, with cute songs and games which entertain children as they learn. Most notable is that the program is presented by a native French speaker, not a speaker of French as a second language. I highly recommend this program, especially for (but not limited to) children who can read.

Our family has a small library of French materials for children and this is the one my children enjoy using the most. The songs are catchy and understandable (many we have are hard for me to understand what they are singing and I have had 6 years of French language). There is a good mix of activities and games that reinforce what they are learning.

This set is an excellent place for a child who has already been exposed to the French language to begin. However, if your child has never been exposed to French (and you do not speak it yourself), the pace of instruction might be a bit overwhelming because some pretty difficult vocabulary is introduced very early in the program.

That having been said, I vastly prefer this program to the others I have purchased and it nicely integrates lessons/activities with songs which the children remember and enjoy singing.

One of many advantages of this program is that it blends listening/speaking skills with reading/writing skills. For the very youngest child that might be an issue, but I think it's an advantage for kids at the "early reader" level in English (probably age 5-7 and up). It will appeal to older kids, too, although at a certain age they might be better off working at a more rigorous pace than is offered here.

As for the reading part -- sure, words like "monsieur" can be confusing to see in print, since they do not sound the way they look. But that's something you have to get used to sooner or later, if you're going to use the language at all, so why put off learning it? Anyway, for most words that's not an issue. So it is great that the child is getting both parts of the language experience simultaneously.

Some folks believe that it's more important just to get the child accustomed to the spoken language. Whether or not that's really true, it's going to be very hard for most parents unless they are fluent in the new language. This program does not require the parent/teacher to know any more than the child -- and you can learn together for that matter!

For the record, I speak French well enough to know that the text is accurate and that the speakers are mostly native French -- and in fact, speak with a more "natural" cadence than the way we used to learn in school.

I was pleased to see that the "course" is in fact carefully planned to progress logically, and that it is broken down to reasonable 8-12 minute lessons. Working through one unit gives the child a feeling of accomplishment without having to struggle for a long time. It also allows the parent/teacher to replay specific segments for review, without making an individual lesson overly long.

The audio program works interactively with the workbook -- but it is not always clear when the book has material that can read along with the narration, as opposed to those segments that are being done purely by ear. Thankfully, from time to time the narrator refers to specific pages, so you find your place eventually. It's not that big a deal, and the book is generally quite wortwhile as an adjunct to the main lesson content.

A very cute component that some children may like (ours does!) is that there is a silly little cartoon storyline that progresses, three frames at a time, at the end of each unit in the book. Each new episode uses a few new vocabulary words from the latest lesson. We have not completed the course yet, so I don't know whether the story will be all that great, but that's not the point. I can see that after each lesson, our child is enjoying the experience of being able to read a bit of this comic strip, out loud, in French! It's a great confidence builder and adds fun to cap off each lesson.

The program comes with a separate CD with instructions for parents/teachers. It's a bit long to listen to (one could just read a manual!) but the disk also contains songs and other items that are compiled from the lesson disks, into one convenient place.

For parents whose school districts do not offer world languages in the early elementary years, this course is a reasonable way to introduce a younger child to French language (and to some extent, French culture) so that they get at least a little foundation while their minds are still growing. It won't be enough all by itself to replace a year's worth of school-based study, but it provides an easy-to-follow, well-planned lesson structure that can get you started.

It's not Rosetta Stone or the like, but since it has a much more modest price, it's probably worth 5 stars in comparitive terms of bang-for-buck.

The songs have catchy melodies so it's easy to learn them and join in. I like the fact that the delivery is fast, imitating native French speakers. Also a plus is that children's voices are used in the conversations which is more fun. Drawbacks are that the songs are imbedded in the middle of the instructional tracks on the CD. It would be better if they had their own designated tracks - because already my kids want to hear the songs but don't want to hear the narrator's explanation and translation.

I have been looking for something like this for a long time and tried different product. This is by far the best so far. I'm also learning it with the children. Loved the parent's guide - gave me idea for teaching children in other learning process. Very good and highly recommend to others

our kids aged 5 and 9 are doing very well with this book and CD.
The older one can read and is getting familiar with the reading part, but both of them love to sing out the songs. The songs and conversations full of humor are what makes this CD tick - the CD can even be played in car just like any other music CD.

The CD is very high quality and real fun - (not boring like most language courses that assume that you are going on a vacation and need to say passport, customs, hotel etc. English is good enough for that anywhere in the world :)

This book/CD is good for the adults in the family also. I am finally able to sound out the French rrr sound!
You cannot go wrong with this one...

I purchased this product for my son, age 7. He was tired of the "Muzzy" immersion method as that is dated and he felt the story was geared towards younger children. This is well thought-out for children. There are games that can be played over and over in them. Cutting out pictures and pasting them elsewhere keeps him involved, and he enjoys the songs. We have incorporated many of the words and phrases into his everyday conversation. I strongly recommend this product to anyone considering it, especially grade school children.

I was surprised to find out that this book doesn't really come with a cassette for the kids to listen to. I talked with some customer service people and found that there may be quite a few different versions of this book, and unfortunatly not all of these versions are currently available. But other than that this book is still a pretty good french instructor for young children.