After this post, I am taking a bit of a blogging break for the month of July.  I’ll be back in August with some more ideas for the fall.

Looking for some quick, fun, and easy ideas to practice French over the summer?  Here are some of my favourites.

#1 – Board games

Kids love games and summer is a great time to play.  Our favourites to play in French are Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and Agricola.  Read how we adapt those to French learning here.

#2 – Outdoor games

When my kids were younger, I borrowed one from their swimming instructor’s book.  At swimming lessons, the kids would stand on the side of the pool and the instructor would say:  “Jump in the water if you like pizza” (or some other food or game).  Then the kids would jump in if they liked the food/game in question, or stay on the side if they didn’t.  This is such a simple thing, but my kids absolutely loved it.  I would stand in the pool and say “Saute dans l’eau si tu aimes les biscuits” and then would giggle and jump in.

No pool?  Adapt it to jump on land instead.  “Saute si tu aimes…” or “Touche ton nez si tu aimes” (Touch your nose if you like…”

#3 – Obstacle courses

This works for older and younger children.  Set up a simple obstacle course in the yard and give the instructions in French.  Have the kids repeat it back and then do it.  For beginners, do one step at a time and demonstrate it.  Have the kids repeat the words and action multiple times until they get it before adding a second action to your course.

#4 – Recipes

When the weather is cool enough to use the oven, make something together (or choose a no-bake recipe).  Read how I adapt cooking & baking to French learning here.

#5 – Apps

When you need to get your kids out of the sun for an hour or so, letting them loose on a French app can give them a bit of a break from the heat.  Some of our favourites (each link is to my review of the app):

• Cricket kids – opposites (younger elementary, beginner level)
• Stella et Sam (elementary-age – immersion style)
• Ma grammaire en couleur (elementary age – intermediate level)
• Passeport apps (all ages and levels – immersion style)
• Think Bilingual (all ages and levels – immersion style)
• iTooch (all ages and levels – quizzing style)
• Takaverbe (all ages – kids who have been introduced to verb conjugation)
• Révise ta conjugaison (elementary-age – kids who have been introduced to verb conjugation)
• Duolingo (kids who know how to spell reasonably well – beginner to intermediate level)

Resource ideas for the fall

If you like unit studies or learning by theme, here are a few sites you might want to check out for your fall planning (or for summer if you school year round):

Canada Agriculture and Food Museum – they have 14 free educational activity kits available on various themes in both English and French.  We are using the one about bees right now and it’s quite good.  I supplement it with books from the library.

International Fund for Animal Welfare – they have teacher packages on various animals in English and French.  We’ve got the one about cats and dogs lined up for later this fall, and I’m thinking about using a few others.

Carpe Diem – this site has lapbooks in French on a wide variety of topics.  I bought Moi le chat to go with our cats & dog unit from the animal welfare site.  It looks pretty good overall, but I haven’t used it yet.  If you/your kids really like lapbooks, you’ll love this site.

Have a great summer!

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