Monday, March 4, 2013

The Week Ahead (En Français!) March 4-10


Ideas to help us all promote French language learning this week, including Washington, D.C. area language and cultural events for kids and families.

In my experience, nothing is as effective as getting out with other French speakers and making friends, so I am starting off with a list of some of the organized story-times and group activities this week in the DC area. This includes Bonjour Mama’s first proposed meetup: Wednesday, March 6th at 4pm: Gouter and French Bingo at La Madeleine in Bethesda.  I hope to see you there!

Also, I am including a few ideas for both online and offline French activities to do at home. These are things Zach has loved in the past (but unless I have a list handy I often struggle to think of what to do!)

Please share any other ideas or happenings you know of by commenting below or posting to the Bonjour Mama facebook page. Or join or suggest an event yourself on Bonjour Mama Le Petit Groupe Français, or Les Mamans Autour de DC!

Merci et bonne semaine! 

P.S. The DC Grande Fête de la Francophonie 2013 is officially underway! (March 1-April 13). Check out the web site for tons of upcoming French cultural events and activities throughout the Washington, D.C. area for all ages.


La Semaine en Français (Out and About in or near DC)

($) indicates there is a cost for the event. 

Tuesday, March 5 

Wednesday, March 6

Thursday, March 7

Saturday March 9: 


La Semaine en Français (at Home):


·   ReadC’est un livre by Lane Smith– a hysterical book and Zach’s first choice for any storytime.  The link takes you to the gently animated video version of the book (we love both the book and video version).

·    Play “La Bataille en Francais” : this is Zach’s own invention and favorite physical activity in French and it’s pretty basic: you pile up some sofa cushions and as your child runs toward you, bombard him/her with them, yelling things like: “A l’attaque! Attention! Ha! Je t’ai touché la jambe, la tête, le dos, etc.”

·    Watch  a gently animated youtube video of “La Chenille qui fait des trous” (the very hungry caterpillar). As the caterpillar eats his way through each page, you can both chime with all the kids for: “Crunch, crunch crunch crunch….”

·    Play Hide and Seek (cache-cache). This is great for counting practice (un, deux, trois….) as well as vocabulary building (Ou es-tu? Est-ce que tu es sous le lit ? Derrière le canapé? dans la cuisine?). "Ready or not here I come!": Caché ou pas, j’arrive !

·    Watch Disney Cars 2 (Les Bagnoles 2) on TagTele.   Because it's just so much fun, and sometimes you have to kick back and let screen time happen (and if you're like me the weight of guilt is so much lighter when you are watching together, and en français!)

·    Plan a playdate with other French-speaking parents and kids!  If you are in the DC Metro area, join or suggest an event on Bonjour Mama’s facebook page, Le Petit Groupe Français, or Les Mamans Autour de DC!



2 comments :

  1. What a great line-up! We'll be trying 'La Bataille en Français'. It sounds a bit like our crocodile game, where I stand in the 'river' (the rug) while the kids jump from one sofa to the other across the river trying not to get snapped. They love it so much, it would be easy to make this a French-only game.

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  2. Tallulah - thank you for this great idea! we were just playing and i was singing (oh les cro co-co les cro-co-co...) and saing "j'ai faim, j'ai envie de croquer les petits garcos....le croco va te croquet..." he LOVED it - merci!!!

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