Pierre is a hit!

Wow! I've already been gratified to hear the words, "French is fun," from my children, but yesterday French became the best part of the day. They LOVED it, and they couldn't wait for more. Pierre went back to his "home" in the closet because he ran out of things to say in French, but my kids begged for more, so I pulled out a game, and Pierre helped teach the game, and became a player.

It was so funny to hear them say, "It's Pierre's turn now," but even funnier to hear my son say, "He needs to learn some English!" Of course, they wanted to play with him and make him talk themselves, but I'm going to reserve him for French class so he maintains his popularity.

I've got some other ideas for puppetry they can do themselves. More to come...

Speaking more french

Since I didn't speak French with my children since birth, probably the most difficult thing about introducing a second language has been making it seem natural--and then of course, there's remembering to speak it! This weekend, I bought a puppet. My kids are 5 (turning six), 4, and 19 months. The two youngest are completely taken with puppets, and interact with them as though I'm not even there.

I'm going to introduce Pierre to the kids tomorrow. He speaks only French, of course, so they must speak only French to him. I'd been considering it, because I figured it would be a great tool. I found this video, and it was all the encouragement I needed.