So let’s play and have fun while learning and doing things to protect our planet! Get ready to re-use cardboard and plastic to make fun craft activities and to play educative games all in French.

From 1 to 4 years old

Don’t throw away your yoghurt pots! Follow these easy DIY instructions to create and decorate your own maracas – shake shake shake!! Then make some noise and sing along in French with our French songs CD to celebrate Springtime! Babies and toddlers will love their homemade instruments!

Link to website

Purchase our CD or MP3

From 2 to 5 years old

Watch “Petit Ours Brun” gardening with his Dad and create your own garden with Spring vegetables, fruit and flowers!

Video link

Colouring and vocabulary activite-le-potager-1-1Download

From 4 to 6 years old

Le lapin , le poussin et le mouton ! Who wants to role play with these cute Easter animal finger puppets? So let’s create them, by recycling tissue-boxes and toilet-rolls! A good way to re-use some of your cardboard waste!

Instructions in French tuto-marionnette-de-doigts-1-1Download

Link video

From 6 to 8 years old

Let’s move about and burn off some energy during these holidays! What’s more fun than skipping with a rope while enjoying some healthy active time outside? You don’t have a skipping-rope? Don’t worry! Did you know that you can create your own one out of plastic bags? Follow these easy DIY instructions in French and get ready to skip with a “plastic recycled” rope! You see, recycling can be fun too!!

Link to website

Instructions in French tuto-corde-a-sauter-en-sacs-plastique-1Download

From 5 to 10 years old (for advanced levels of French)

It’s not always easy to know how to separate your waste for recycling…! This is a little online game to learn more about it and be more confident when recycling at home! So, which bin should you select?

Link to play

From 8 to 12 years old (for advanced levels of French)

How many different types of waste can you find in your classroom? A lot! Can you identify them all and choose a good way to get rid of them? This is a great game to practise French while learning more about recycling!

Link to play

And last but not least! Why not do a big “wardrobe spring cleaning” with your kids to give all the clothes they don’t wear anymore and all the toys they don’t play with a second life? How? Thanks to Kids O’Clock, a second-hand marketplace promoting circular economy.

Sell all the clothes, accessories, toys and books you don’t use anymore, by uploading them directly onto the platform. You can also request the Golden membership and Kids O’Clock will take care of everything!

Don’t forget our giveaway prize in partnership with Kids O’Clock on our Instagram and try to win a second-hand child’s outfit selected by their team from French children fashion brands, with a Club Petit Pierrot voucher for French lessons and French songs!

Fun French Lessons

Immersion programme www.clubpetitpierrot.co.uk

The post C’est le printemps first appeared on Club Petit Pierrot.

Cognitive scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that parents think using educational toys, apps and flashcards is the best way to teach their children, when all they really need to do is engage them in chat.   Back and forth conversation, they found, changes a child’s brain. It boosts brain development and language skills.   The conclusion: parents shouldn’t just talk, they should also listen.

I read this research on language development with interest as although it’s new, the philosophy behind it is something we’ve been doing at Club Petit Pierrot from the very beginning.

When I started out, twenty five years ago now, flashcards and repetition were all the rage. If your children knew all the words to Sur Le Pont D’Avignon then, as a teacher, you were doing well. But this just wasn’t for me. Instead, I believed (and still do) that young children learn a second language by absorbing it like their native tongue and I devised an immersion programme to encourage children to communicate in French from the moment they come into the class.

Those of you who are familiar with our concept or our classes will know that conversation plays a huge part in what we do. Parents often think they’ll be able to sit and spectate, they sometimes get quite a shock when they realise how important it is for them to join in.

For me, building relationships with children and communicating with them in any way we can is absolutely crucial. And not just for first or second language development, but for a whole host of other things too.

When you really engage with children and make it fun as we do, they are happy and want to communicate back. You can’t fool children, if you’re not genuinely interested in them and what they’re doing, you won’t keep their attention for very long – or even capture it in the first place. It’s also important for us that adults have fun too – we sing, play games, do arts and crafts and don’t allow the distraction of mobile phones!

Of course, it’s all well and good engaging with your children for 45 minutes in a class. The real key to success is to do this all the time, to talk with your child, not to your child. Have conversations with them about their favourite TV show, toy or even what you’ve been doing all day – anything that’ll interest them. I used to love it when my son asked “how was your day mummy?” I was always quite touched by this and it was a great conversation starter between us both.

“It’s almost magical how parental conversation appears to influence the biological growth of the brain,” says John Gabrieli, the senior author of the MIT study. “Having a conversation requires children to practice understanding what the other person is trying to say, and how to respond appropriately. This is obviously a very different skill from just listening.”

So there you go, surely there can’t be a better reason to make yourself a cup of tea, grab a comfy chair and sit down with your child for a good old chat!

www.clubpetitpierrot.co.uk

The post Talk Less and Listen More! Boost your child’s language development first appeared on Club Petit Pierrot.