Bonjour Bébé!

Week of May 27-June 2:  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! (Scroll down to FRENCH THIS WEEK for the list )

I usually try to get posts out by Sunday night or latest Monday morning--- Désolée pour le retard!  

By way of explanation, I am in the middle of a move and still surrounded by unpacked boxes. In fact, for this week's post I had planned to do a little mini-glossary on homeowner terminology (asphalt slate, reverse polarity, drywall installation...). Riveting stuff;-)

But last night there was a comment on the Bonjour Mama Facebook page from a new mother requesting newborn terminology like "swaddle" and "burp".  So I was inspired to produce a little glossary of terms related to the nouveau-nés.

To come up with words, I reflected on my early days of motherhood and some of the first words I learned when Zach was a baby. 

I had decided to speak to Zach in French and began seeking out as much time as possible with French speakers.  I started attending an English-French conversation group when he was about two months old and distinctly remember learning the words for diaper (couche) and wipes (lingettes) and breastfeed (allaiter), my only really essential vocabulary then!

It's been more than five years since Zach was a newborn, so to jog my memory of the essentials I went on BabyCenter.Fr and Babiesrus.fr.  I wish I had done this back then as I would have known how to say so much more. Just by looking through the photos and descriptions of items you recognize you can acquire French vocabulary to describe everything in your nursery!

Actually, this exercise comes at a fitting time as I leave the place where I first became a mother, choosing at the last second to not part with way too many things from that amazing first year. Thank you to Sylvia for prompting this post and giving me reason to relive all the exciting moments you are going through now. Felicitations pour votre petit bout de chou!!!!

This list is limited so anyone please feel free to add more in the comments section! As always, if anyone notices errors or has alternative translations, please share!    

   

English	French
Nursing / Breastfeeding	Allaitement Allaiter, as in “est=ce que tu allaites?”
Breast pump	Tire-lait (m)
Nursing pillow	Coussin de maternité (m)
Nursing bra	Soutien gorge d’allaitment (m)
Formula (baby)	Lait maternisé (k)
To burp	Aider bebe a faire son rot
Bottle	Biberon (m)
At room temperature	À temperature ambiante
No-spill cup / Sippy cup (like Nuby brand)	Tasse anti-goutte / tasse à bec (f)
Bib -drool	Bavoir (m) -baver
Diaper -change the diaper	couche f) -changer la couche
Wipe	Lingette (f)
Diaper Rash	Érythème fessier / fesses rouges
Diaper bag	Sac à  langer (m)
Changing table	Table à langer (f)
Changing pad	Matelas à langer (m)
Onesie	Un body (m)
Baby carrier / Baby Bjorn	Porte-bebe  (m)
Baby Bath	Baignoire pour bebe (f)
Pacifier	Sucette / tétine (f)
Stroller	Poussette (f)
Carseat	Siege auto (m)
Pram	Landau (m)
Bassinet	Couffin (m)
Crib	Lit pour bébé (m)
Sleep sack	Gigoteuse/turbulette (f)
Swaddle	Emmailloter
Baby bouncer	Sauteur pour bébé (m)
Walker	Trotteur (m)
Baby swing	Balançoire bébé (m)
Rattle	Hochet (m)
Playpen	Parc (m)
Playmat & Activity Gym	Tapis d’eveil avec portique  d’actvité (m)

FRENCH THIS WEEK

At Home

Read: J'aime Dormir and J'aime Manger. They are trilingual (English-French-Spanish) touchy-feely books for tiny fingers and extremely cute (available on the Bookstore!). To this day, Zach likes to "read" his old baby books. Depending on the difficulty of the words, they can actually work quite well as early readers since there is so little text and the images and textures are so engaging. 

Play "This little piggy" in French. Lots of versions exist-- I found this one on word reference: 

Un petit cochon est allé au marché 
This little piggy went to market [A little piggy went to market]

Ce petit cochon est allé au marché,
This little piggy went to market [same as English]

Ce petit cochon à la maison est resté,
This little piggy stayed home [same as English]

Ce petit cochon a eu du rôti,
This little piggy had roast beef [roast meat]

Ce petit cochon n'en a pas eu mie,
This little piggy had none [at all]

Et ce petit cochon n'eut plus, pete-petit,
And this little piggy went wee-wee-wee [had nothing more to do "pete-petit"]

Qu'à s'en retourner chez lui.
All the way home [Except to go back home]

Really, you can make up anything with little fingers and toes. I remember Zach loving "This little piggy said 'Bonjour'! This little piggy said "Hola!"...(Guten Tag!, Hello!, Ni Hao!). I can't remember how I used to finish it but I just thought of a way: the last little piggy could say "Au Revoir!" and run all the way home!"

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!

Out and About

Saturday, June 1 

1:30pm - 3pm: Meet a French Astronaut at the Alliance Francaise!  Ages 10+ ($)

11am -4pm - Language Stars and Bonjour Mama will be at the Imagination Bethesda festival - stop by and say "Salut!"

11am-5pm - Fete du Lycée at the Lycée Rochambeau 

See the calendar for full view of events this week, including regularly scheduled events and storytimes. Looking for adult events en francais? Check the following calendars: 

Alliance Francaise DC

Maison de France

French American Chamber of Commerce

DC French Meetup Group

CP1, CE2, C3P0, R2D2...What grade is that?!

Week of May 20-26:  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! (Scroll down to FRENCH THIS WEEK for the list )

I am still waiting to hear back from Montgomery County PS to know if we will have a spot in the French immersion program, which I am even more anxious to get into after this past weekend: 

On Saturday at the Gaithersburg Book Festival I met several families with kids in local immersion schools and I was astounded at the level of French I heard. I met two kids in second grade who spoke so effortlessly and fluently it gave me pause; for all my exertion over the past five years speaking and exposing Zach to French, it seems like my results pale in comparison. Although he is very competent in his French, he is by no means at the level of these kids, most of whom I'm sure had much less, if any, French before they entered Kindergarten!

If we don't get into the immersion program, I'm going to have to seriously think about how I can get his French to the next level without exhausting myself in the process. Whether this happens through immersion summer camps, the Alliance Française, or at least a weekly intensive immersion class like Language Stars, what's clear to me is that it can't be all up to me anymore (and my husband who often happily pitches in to speak/play en français). We need to be institutionalized! (in a good way)

As I mention "institution" and think of schools it occurs to me that for pretty much my entire French-speaking life I have never really understood the French equivalents of the U.S. grade levels. Since Zach was born, I have met many French Moms whose kids attend the Lycée Rochambeau. In the first few minutes of any conversation we ask the ages of our kids, where they go to school, and what "grade" they are in. If the child is at least three or four years old the French Moms' answers usually begin with Ecole Maternelle then petite/moyenne/grande section or if they are older, it's a CE or CP followed by a number. At this point in the conversation I tend to just tune out because I don't know what it means and haven't ever taken the time to figure it out. I make sure I know the age of the child and then think of what grade it equates to but I'm never sure.

Finally, I just googled "French equivalent of first grade" and pulled the below list together based on what I found in various places. I finally have the tools to understand and relate!  

Age	France	USA
3-4	Maternelle - Petite Section	Nursery
4-5	Maternelle – Moyenne Section	Pre-K
5-6	Maternelle Grande Section	Kindergarten (U.S. kids begin Elementary school this year)

Age	Ecole Primaire	Elementary School
6-7	Cours Preparatoire (C.P.)	1st Grade
7-8	Cours Elementaire (C.E). 1	2nd Grade
8-9	C.E. 2	3rd Grade
9-10	C.M. 1	4th Grade
10-11	C.M. 2	5th Grade

Age	Collège	Middle School
11-12	6ème	6th Grade
12-13	5ème	7th Grade
13-14	4ème	8th Grade
14-15	3ème	9th Grade (U.S. kids begin high school this year)

Age	Lycée	High School
15-16	2nde	10th Grade
16-17	1ère	11th Grade
17-18	Terminale	12th Grade

Cher Google, within a few seconds of typing you tell me the hourly weather forecast, how to unclog my "In-sinkerator" disposal, and now have ended my longstanding ignorance of U.S.-French educational equivalents. Je t'aime:-)

FRENCH THIS WEEK

Out and About

As there are so few new- at least on a weekly basis -- French-themed events for families (unless I am missing something!) I have decided unless there are at least a few  new and unique items to include here to stop including a daily schedule and instead, provide a link to the calendar and highlight anything else that is unique here.

The main attraction I see this week is the book sale at the Alliance Française which goes through June 15th. The last time I went (before I began selling books myself!) I found a very nice selection from Gallimard Montréal and bought one of my favorites to this day: C'est un Livre by Lane Smith (which as of next week I will have for sale on the bookstore!)

At Home

Play Le jeu des dinosaures with your sofa cushions (or anything that can be piled or layered on the ground). After I vetoed the 100th session of "la bataille en français" (see previous post for details) I told Zach he needed to come up with another game. He said: "on va chercher des os de dinosaures."  Each layer of pillows had to be dug through "creuse, creuse creuse!" in search of buried fossils. "J'ai trouvé un fossile"! Ça c'est la tete du tyrannosaure. Ça c'est son pied!". Très fun.

Watch (and play along!) Boowa et Kwala playing the school version of Jean Dit (Simon Says): La Maitresse a dit.

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!