Ideas for older children?

I have the same question! My kids are just about at that same level of French (understanding "brush your teeth," animals, colors, numbers, songs...) but they don't actually speak in French at all unless I prompt them to, and tell them what to say.

I've been so curious as to how immersion schools work. I don't plan on home-schooling, but for now I am home with them all the time. If they are getting mostly French input from me, why aren't they picking up more of it? Granted, we've only been at this for about 2 months so far, but I feel like maybe there is some key methodology I am missing. I almost feel like I have better luck with my teenage students and traditional verb conjugations... it seems they speak more after 4 lessons with me than my own kids do!

How do teachers of immersion schools get the kids not only understanding, but speaking? I'll be watching this thread for more input!

This is some great insight, and some great suggestions in that article.
It makes total sense that since they know I speak English, they aren't motivated to speak French with me. I think we will have to work on creating the "need" for French. If only we could move to a French-speaking country for a few years! (Although I'm sure all of you living in countries that you're not native to will tell me it's not that simple!)

Just a few comments on the above posts.

Adam: your "exposure and need" is the sentence I wrote in bold letters in my diary where I write down infos, ideas and things to do regarding my bilingual project. Thank you so much!!!

Tatyana L: my daughter for example gets a bit demotivated if she doesn't understand all she is reading. So I usually get a book of a level where she can understand almost all. This way I believe she gets more confident. I bought her a nice small notebook where she can write down all the new words; in the following days I look at the book and try to use as much as possible the words she wrote down. This way she learns them. Once in a while we get her book together and I test her...she gets very proud when she finds out she has learned them in the meantime.

Jana: I love when you write "they are not motivated to speak with me"...you couldn't say it better. This is my problem!!! I find that children learn much more from a "third party teacher" than from us parents, even if we are, in some cases, teachers ourselves. It took me a long time...but now I am fully aware of this. My daughter refused English for a long time. Last year I enrolled her in an English class in the afternoon...everybody was laughing saying "why do you do that? Why don't you teach her?" My thinking was "yeah...sure why don't you try it??" She took the class once a week with her good friends. I don't think she learned English because the other girls had a much lower level, but she started showing interest in the language, because it was not more "only her mom". The teacher gave her some extra work to do and she was very willing to do it.

Creating the need is very difficult for me, as I do not have many chances and I work full time so during weekdays I only see her a couple of hours...so this puts me down regarding exposure as well...also because by daughter has an age that makes it difficult to match her level of English with her interest.

Our progress is very slow...and sometimes I do get a bit demotivated.

I agree that finding goods ideas for older children is difficult.

Hello Melissa,

I see that your bigger boys have a more mechanical bent, so would suggest that you make use of this? I would try to squeeze out all the French I could by setting them up for a project to build something that can move (or not).  This could be done via...

- material that touches on the subject (for example, Leonardo Da Vinci is a monument in France, having lived and worked there, and I am sure there is a lot of material on him and his works for children in French),

- mechanical toys like "Meccano" which have instructions in French,

- subscriptions to "Sciences et Vie Junior" via Bayard which has a scientific bent, and is written for children.

If the boys build something, you can be there for them to guide them, and discuss what you are doing in French. Amazon.fr or fnac.com would be good sites to get material, your neighborhood hardware store for the others. 

When my son was younger, he was into Space. So I had him build a hanging structure (mobile) of the solar system using hangers, string, paper and coloring pencils. Then, he had to present it using the target language. When he wanted to know more about volcanoes, we used Plaster of Paris and paint to build a volcano and we looked into different types of volcanos, lava flows etc in the target language. Because each project was visual and hands-on, his focus more on it, and was so intense, that I could introduce phrases, vocabulary, issue instructions to him, and have him give me instructions on how to proceed etc. Also, I was there to guide him in his research at the start of each project, and during the project, so he learnt the basics of how to research. You will need tons of research material using books, the net, maybe equipment and building materials. 

Oh, and even simple blocks like Kapla (which I find much much better than Lego) are fantastic; my son used them to build a mini Arch de Triomphe so we learnt about architecture, support beams, keystones etc, all in the target language, and then went on about all the arches around the world (so extra research there). The idea is not the technical vocabulary, but all the discussions in the target language that were key in building up confidence and language structure. He has used his imagination to build boats as well with it, and so we had major discussions about types of boats etc...

As they get older, friends become more important. So I came up with stuff that involved his friends too. My focus was primarily my son, but if I could have his friends benefit from the experience, no skin off my nose! So, for example, as we were in Asia then, my son and his friends, all older than him, built skim boards (physics + maths + art to decorate them) and we tried them out at the beach, and discussed how they were different from surf boards in sensation.

The biggest and most ambitious project was when my son was 11: he and the same friends (4 of them aged 12 to 15 at the time) had to transpose a huge chunk of American History (1620 through to 1963, when Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech) into a drama piece that lasted 90 minutes. It took nearly 9 months, with lots of research, consolidation, script writing, then building, choreography, music... Of course, they liked theater so the interest level could be maintained. And they, working together, didn't even realize there was major adult intervention behind the scenes for the flow, the setup, and of course, the language police, because they were so wrapped up in it. All research and writing was done in the target language, and my son, being the most advanced, had the task of first reading and editing before it passed into "expert" hands.  

I was, and still am, amazed by the amount of language development that can happen when the project is around a subject that interests the child. Of course, my son had workbooks and such for the grammar, spelling tests etc. But discussions, defending your position, presenting your work...they make you focus on the language, and the need to convince the audience about something that interests you pushes you to improve your language. 

Hope this can provide you with some ideas.

Best, Serina