Operation "Joyful French in the USA with soon to be 3 kids"

Welcome back Elise!

Lovely to read your happy news and congratulations on you little prince's upcoming arrival.

I love the Track Your Progress thread. It really helps you to see where you're going, evolutions, and for us keepers to get to know your family and give tips when need be.

My tips (if you don't do it already):
- be persistent with your ml use - no slacking as you are their only ml source,
- rephrase whatever your kids say in ML in the ml - tedious but in the veeeeeery long run it works,
- create a LOT of exposure through ml audio background (music, telly, radio...) because kids hear EVERYTHING! lol
- try to get an ml-speaking babysitter or nanny.  The influence of hearing the ml from another speaker is ever so important!

The French holidays will turn C2's language situation upside-down: when she'll return I have no doubt it will have drastically improved. The key will be to build on it by nudging her to keep using it and you not using any ML with her. Instill a "need" in her to use the ml with you now that she speaks it better.

Please keep us posted!  I really look forward to finding out how your daughters will be doing upon returning from France.

A+! (slang for see you in French )

I can highly recommend item 1... My daughter would only respond to me in ML (Spanish) when she first started talking. To say I freaked out would be putting it lightly. I read Adam's book and decided to go extreme and no longer speak Spanish in front of her (my husband and step daughter speak no English). Sometimes it is frustrating for them, but let me tell you, that was a game changer and sooo worth a bit of frustration. My daughter immediately starting speaking to me in English. I still stress about getting in enough one on one time with her, using synonyms, if I am reading to her enough, if she is watching too much TV, that I am filling every moment with ml (sometimes talking so much is exhausting), etc.

After doing this for the last 8 months or so, I am a bit more relaxed and am able to do quite a lot of what Adam calls low talking without any problems.

I think it is a lot easier to be joyful once you are seeing changes and improvements. Nowdays, I am sooooo happy and much more joyful when my girl talks to me in English whereas before it was definitely not joyful.

Good luck to you mama!

Hi Elise,

I agree with everyone that you should teach her cursive, both for the cultural aspect as well as so that she can read letters. Also, some books have cursive writing, at least in part.

I wanted to speak to the cursive in the US question. I think the move to not teach cursive might be limited to the public schools. I learned to write in cursive myself in the US, but not until the 3rd grade. I don't use it very often, but I can and I can read it easily. I am homeschooling my children, and I started teaching my daughter cursive last year, in 2nd grade. All of the homeschool moms that I know are also teaching their children cursive. One of my friends even taught cursive before script, which is unusual here but not unheard of. So don't feel like you are alone, there are many other moms in the US who teach cursive also!

Mayken,

By "script" I mean the letters in green in this picture:


When you have a script handwriting, you write each letter separately according to the green letters above. We do not link them the way you would when using cursive letters (in red).

Here is an example of my (script) handwriting:

http://instagr.am/p/BxE7ZQygWSQ

Does that answer your question?

Joining the 'debate' (although everyone agrees!). Australian here who went to English-French bilingual schools and now lives in France.

Here's my opinion: definitely teach her cursive. For three reasons.

First, it is a fundamental part of being French, something that anglophones LOVE about France and that immediately marks a person out as being French (or immediately marks them out as NOT being French when in France!). For info: most anglophones do learn to write in cursive, but not until after they are good at script (around grade 3). BUT...it's actually not exactly the same cursive as what is taught in France. It is such a fundamental part of being French, that when we were living outside of France with my daughter, I wanted to have certain objects that had French cursive on them around the apartment so that, even if she was far too young to even be learning letters, my daughter would at least be surrounded by the aesthetic of France. Being bicultural is not just about learning the grammar and vocabulary of a language - it's also about imbibing its aesthetic and way of life. So for me, learning (French) cursive is critical for your daughter.

Second: I firmly believe that the very gesture of writing cursive helps with learning. There is a lot of research around this, some of which you probably came across when you googled.

Third: she will very likely end up getting pleasure out of it, especially as it is not the 'norm' for where she lives so will always feel a bit special. Even at my advanced age haha, I continue to get a lot of pleasure out of writing in cursive - even though my handwriting is far from beautiful. It makes boring meetings and filling in forms a lot more enjoyable when you are doing it in beautiful cursive!

My daughter is finishing up Moyenne Section. She learnt all the upper case letters in script last year and this year they first learnt the script letters, and now they have started learning the lower case letters in cursive (so far they have done about 7 letters - the rest they will do next year in Grande Section). I realised that she had a tendency to do what your daughter does (trace the letter in the 'wrong' way), so I bought her a set of Montessori "lettres rugueuses" (I think these are called 'sandpaper letters' in English). Then each week at school when she learns a new letter, I have been having her trace it out a few times with me so that she gets the direction right. For info, if you do this, be sure to be the "French cursive" (sometimes called "international cursive") version of the letters rather than the American version, because the letters will not all be the same.

I think you will probably find that as your daughter gets older, you will have to devote a lot of time to formal learning of written French - grammar, verbs and so on. As you know, without this very solid basis it is simply not possible to write well in French. So I would advise that you perhaps consider learning cursive as the first step in this process. Spending time teaching her cursive now will create good habits for later, when you have to teach her the more boring things like conjugation and indirect objects!

Hello,

Back to report on my efforts so far. Well, I am not super pleased with the progress, but I have an excuse (don't we all...). I had some pregnancy induced pain the whole past week, which made walking, standing and sitting almost impossible. The only acceptable position was laying down on my side. Thankfully, nothing endangering either the baby or myself, so my doctor categorized it as "those little inconveniences of pregnancy" and just left me to deal with it. It had some impacts on my grand vision and my action plan.

Action 1: speak ml with husband
I was really good at it when husband came back from France. Then the pain hit and I just reverted to speaking ML. Now that I'm feeling much better, I am starting over but I have lost momentum. On the bright side, my husband is very much on board and actually starts reminding me when I revert to ML. And he even speaks short sentences in ml!
I also made my little graph with the chances of success depending on the languages spoken at home. It is on the fridge and gets a lot of attention from the people visiting the house. This is a great way to explain to people why I speak ml in front of them with my kids (they all speak ML only). That's a perk I did not think about initially: a good way to inform people on how difficult it is to successfully raise bilingual children.

Action 2: put labels everywhere
In good progress! I've done 27 so far. I wrote them both in cursive and script. C1 noticed one on skype and was interested. She was able to read it.

Action 3: collect ml resources
Done! I placed a very significant order. My husband just needs to go pick everything up at the store when he goes back to France to get the girls. It's mostly books and some games. I ordered a few chapter books to start a new reading routine with something a little more complex than picture books. My goal would be to read to C1 one chapter a day while I am nursing baby brother. We'll see if C2 is interested.

Action 4: Finish re-reading Adam's book
DONE!!! That's the good part of having to lay on your side for hours: there is not much more to do than read. Still working on ways to implement captive reading at home. Also started listening to the Bilingual Avenue podcast (starting from the beginning) and got some good tips, in particular a French book rental service in the US that I am really excited about!!!

Update on C1 and C2's ml while in ml country:
This one is a mixed bag. C1 is chatting away in ml. If she answers a question asked in ML by her dad on skype, she'll start in ML and quickly switch to ml. Everything is good on that front. My mom started working on cursive, and C1 was very proud to show that she can write full words!!!! My mom also said that she can typically read the questions on her workbook in ml, which is pretty amazing because she just started reading in ML. Although, she pretty much learned ML reading by herself, so I should not be surprised that she does the same with ml. I'm not saying she is a fluent reader, but she is showing a clear interest and that's all I could dream of.

Now, what about C2? Well, I will not lie and admit that I am a little disappointed. I had pictured some kind of breakthrough in her speaking abilities. It did not happen, but maybe I should say it has not happened yet. There is some improvement: when it comes to asking for food, she always asks in ml. Anything that she really wants is asked for in ml. However, for anything else, it's mostly ML with a few ml words. I try hard to tell myself that it is better than it was, but the disappointment is underlying. I am just facing two very different little girls. It was quite obvious from a video my parents took of them doing some crafts. The entire video is filled with the voice of C1 telling some kind of story mixed with a description of what she is doing: it is a continuous flow of words. Meanwhile, C2 is totally silent and only focused on her task. On the video, she is asked to show what she has done. She looks up, shows her paper, says nothing and gets back to working on it. She is a quiet one! I'll have to really work with her consistently.
Their ml cousins just arrived to spend two weeks with them before they go back to the US. That will definitely help. Nothing better than kids interactions.

Up next: work on implementing reading routine, homework routine and captive reading before baby bro arrives and school starts.

Elise