Tom Sawyer Speaks French!

Week of April 29 - May 5:  Ideas to help us all promote French language learning this week, including Washington, D.C. area French-language and cultural events for kids and families.  Please share any other ideas by commenting below or posting to Bonjour Mama's Facebook page!  Bonne semaine! 

In our house most weekend nights are "family movie night" where we all camp out on the sofa bed in the living room and watch something together.  This is fun in principle, but I have had such bad luck choosing movies that are truly family-friendly that often we wind up defaulting to Zach’s choice of TV shows (involving a superhero). Then the grown-ups lose interest fast and end up on a laptop or asleep in bed.

So last night I enlisted my husband’s help in finding something we could all enjoy. He grew up in Morocco where most kids TV shows were in French (bingo! family movie night en français!)  He nostalgically browsed on youtube for the videos of his childhood in the 70s and 80s which included many American shows like Inspector Gadget, Little House on the Prairie, and Tom Sawyer.  

Wait a second. Tom Sawyer? I don’t ever remember seeing that. All those years of the Smurfs and I could have been watching an American classic? (in addition to Little House, of course). I decided to watch the credits at the end of the video and saw that the production company was Nippon Entertainment.

So there you have it. My Moroccan husband has introduced his American wife and American-Moroccan son to Tom Sawyer in French created in Japan.  Vive YouTube!

As for events, I am getting a bit stumped for kids' activities beyond the weekly storytimes. I promise to organize something soon (or if you are so inclined, please feel free to organize one and share to the Bonjour Mama FB page!!). In the meantime, I am thinking of adding some French cultural events for the grown-ups, which between the French embassy and the Alliance Française are more plentiful than for les petits. And après tout, we deserve to play, too!  So this week consider Saturday's "Alors on dance?" dance party at the Maison Française for date night!


Out and About
Please confirm dates and times directly with event host. ($) indicates there is a cost for the event.  

Tuesday 4/30

4pm: Storytime at the Alliance Française

Wednesday, 5/1
10:30am: French Storytime at PB& Jack (included in admission fee)

Thursday 5/2
4pm – French Storytime at the Cleveland Park Library

5pm – Multilingual Party at Language Stars in Gaithersburg

Saturday 5/4
10:30am – French Circle Time / Petites Chansons at the Takoma Park Library

10:50am - Storytime at the Alliance Française

POUR MAMAN/PAPA:
7:30pm - 1:00am - "Alors on danse?" party at the Maison Francaise($)

At Home

Watch Tom Sawyer in French on youtube. The dialogue is simple and easy to understand, no violence (unless you are offended at the 19th century schoolteacher's threatening to use the switch!).

Read (at bedtime) Petites Histoires pour s'Endormir. This is one of the sweetest little bedtime storybooks we've read. Very short (takes less than 2 minutes to read) stories with animal characters doing cute things to fall asleep. Zach's favorite is the one about the elephant and the monkey. Monkey is having trouble sleeping and his good friend Elephant suggests (je connais une façon!) first, flapping his ears (rabattre les oreilles). No luck; next, rolling up his trunk and counting to ten (enrouler la trompe en comptant jusqu'à dix); again, not an option. Finally, cuddle up to a friend: ça y est!   Bonne Nuit!

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!