French Bilingual School off to a great start!

I'm happy to hear your good news, Marie! I have no doubt that you'll be able to continue sharing positive developments at this thread. Just keep up your productive efforts at home to fortify the French input she's now receiving at school. Best wishes to you both (and to your budding bilingual boy, too)!

Just another update...

My daughter has been telling me lately that I chose her school well. That makes me so happy to hear. She says I did a great job at picking her school, that I did well and that she is learning French because all the kids speak French and she is understanding them. It makes me so happy to hear, especially as I was a little nervous pulling her out of the English-only school that she was doing well and happy at. Thank goodness she loves the new school. She also says she understands what the French nanny says as well. So it's really starting to stick now. When the kids watch French cartoons, she will repeat certain French words and explain to me and her brother (age 3) what they mean in English. He repeats the words in French and is learning a little as well. He starts the French/English school in September and we get a French au pair this summer to live with us. I will keep writing the progress down here. It is nice to be able to go back and read it. My daughter is not speaking fluently just yet, but is able to say the words perfectly and seems to understand a lot.

Just another update - My son is now starting to surprise me with his French knowledge. He will randomly tell me French words, sing songs in French he has heard his sister sing. I realised he can count to 10 in French. When I asked my daughter how to say "Let's go to the park" in French, my son replied correctly saying it in French! This he is learning all from being a bystander. My daughter is also speaking a lot more. I keep telling her we must practice because the au pair won't speak a word of English. I said we can play restaurant when it's meal time and practice speaking in French to the au pair so she can get the food. Obviously, I will take turns with the au pair fetching the food, but I want the kids to feel the need, so will explain to the au pair it's so they get practice asking for the food by pretending to look at a menu and "ordering" the food. Kids learn best through play (at least when they are only 3 and 5!). My daughter is already excited about this restaurant game idea, so has been practicing on her own saying things in French. She has told me in French she wants cereal and bread with butter and honey. I was amazed she knew how to say it. She is also singing in French the songs she learns more often. It is amazing to see the progress she is making. And even more so, the progress my son is making without me trying. I always told myself, I will focus on my daughter first because she is older and when my son turns 4, I will start focusing on teaching him more formally, with flash cards and lessons etc. But he seems to be absorbing on his own. Obviously it will speed up a lot once the au pair starts and when he begins his bilingual education in September. I am super excited. My husband is still nervous. But he was nervous about my daughter going to bilingual school and she has done just fine.

Thanks Adam. I am sure my kids would also LOVE to play pet shop, as they love animals and quite often play at being animals in English! I will suggest a pet shop game in French when the au pair starts. I am still always amazed as my daughter tells me what words or phrases mean when she says them in French. She had a play date with the one friend in her class who only understands French. She joined recently and comes from two French parents so she is catching up learning English, as they just moved to the country. So my daughter finally had the need to use her French. I was impressed at how she was able to speak to the girl in French. This was the first time I heard her speak in French, without me encouraging or asking her what things mean or how to say it. She still has a lot to learn, but she was able to play and communicate! I should probably set up another play date soon before her friend quickly learns English!

My daughter is in what they call MS class, for age 4/5 years old. It's the youngest class in the school. She joined late, after the first term, but is doing well. They teach one week English and one week French. They start the week Thursday and end it Wednesday. So at school she gets probably 6.5 hours a day taught in French during the French week. Plus we used to get a French nanny to help with homework for 3 hours Saturday and Sunday. But now we have an au pair. She only started yesterday, but we are super happy with her and I am amazed with my daughter's progress. She believes the au pair does not speak or understand English, so she actually speaks to her in French. She is speaking sentences now and I am amazed. They have simple conversations about what animals they are and play games in French. The au pair will tell my daughter in French something and say to tell your mother, and my daughter does. So she understands a lot more then I realised and can speak more as well. Before the au pair, she would never really speak French. She chose to always respond in English to her teachers and nanny. So at the moment, because she thinks the au pair speaks no French, she speaks French. It's the only way for a child to start speaking I think, when they have a need or think they have a need.

What is the language you are trying to teach your child? The main one, as I see you listed French and English as minority. I think it would help if you explain to your child that Grandma only speaks XX language, so she will need to speak it to Grandma. Make it an exciting thing, like "Grandma is going to be so much fun, she will play games with you, bake with you or take you to the park and she speaks XX language only, so you must speak to her in XX." That is basically what I told my daughter a couple months before the au pair arrived. She is older though, so understood a bit more. But I would say it to your daughter anyway as she might understand this.

My daughter was excited about it and told everyone that the au pair was coming and she only speaks French. I said the au pair would be like a friend to play with, but she must speak French, as the au pair is worried about not being able to speak English. So my daughter straight away spoke French to her and I was amazed. I only speak English, and my husband does not speak French either. So my daughter learns from school and the nanny we got a few hours during the weekend. She seemed to understand a lot of French, but ALWAYS responded in English. I knew this was normal, as I have done research and seen other kids who do the same. They only start speaking when they have a NEED. For example, if my daughter was in the fully French section, she would have a need to speak it at school. But she is in the bilingual section and almost ALL the French kids speak English fluently, because they were in English nursery for a year or two before going to the bilingual school (it starts age 4) and they are fluent in French, as they learned from their parent/s. So they speak French with each other, and then English to my daughter. It is the teachers that speak only French to my daughter and she constantly hears the others kids speaking French to each other. There are at least 6 other kids in her class that do not have French parents. So for example, one child is German/American, fully British, Spanish, Russian. It's quite interesting to see and a lot of the kids are trilingual! But you have to have the right opportunities to be trilingual I think. For example, it seems to work best when each parent speaks one language to the child and the child learns the majority language at school.

Her best friend, who moved to France a few months ago, did not speak a word of French until age 4. The father spoke to her only in French and she understood, but only responded to him in English until he sent her to France to stay with the grandparents for 6 weeks! She went to a summer camp with French children and was forced to use her language because no one understood English, then from then on she spoke French to her dad when she returned because I guess she got used to it. So it might be helpful to let your mom spend a few hours a day alone with your daughter. For example, if you pop out to do errands they can play at home together or do baking etc. Or she can take her to the park. But make sure to let your mom know you would like her to speak to her as much as she can in the hopes for your daughter to start speaking. It will definitely help when the grandparent speaks only one language. When we were trying to teach the kids Norwegian, the grandparents could speak English and Norwegian, and kept going back to English! It was not helpful at all, when my husband only speak English to the kids as well, which is why we had to drop the Norwegian. But thankfully, we have the opportunity to teach them French with the school.

Another update, my son had his stay and play at the bilingual school today. He was super happy, ran right in and very confident. I am glad, as I think he will be fine to settle right in. It helps that he has been to the school before with his sister attending. Met a lot of nice parents as well and excited for him to start at the school! I am hoping he will be okay with the French, as his sister seems to learn languages a little easier. But we will see, as he is younger, so I never really tried to teach him. What he knows now, he has just learned by listening to what I have been teaching his sister. I always said I would wait for him to turn 4 when I start actively doing flash cards with him. Until then, I let him absorb second hand, which seems to be working as he already says a few words and phrases in French.

I think once your daughter starts the bilingual school it will be a big help. You have the extra benefit of having family speak the language and starting her so young. I see from your profile she is only two. So the fact that she is getting all of the second language from a young age is great.

My daughter was not exposed to much French until she was 4! No one in my family speaks French. My sister knows quite a lot from living there for two years, and everyone studied a bit of French so we know the very basics, but that's it. So she never heard much French until she was 4. She had a few months of me trying to teach her French, French clubs, music etc until she started at the bilingual school. Now she has been at the school 6 months and is 5 and I noticed such a difference with her language abilities. It really helps her.

I think your daughter will start speaking once she attends the school and sees/hears other kids speaking English. She will be a lot more comfortable with it as she has more of a background. I look forward to hearing about when your daughter starts at her school. Do you know how they teach? Is it one week English one week the other language? I'm curious how schools decide what method to use.  

Marie - it's so good to read about the progress your daughter is making!

My daughter's new school will be half the day in English and half in French for the first two years, then it moves to 40/60 for Grande Section (age 5).

At the school I went to, in primary we had half the day in English and half in French, then in secondary it moved to certain subjects being in French (French, maths, science and history-geography) and the other four subjects (English, sport, foreign language and optional subject) being in English. On the other hand, lots of bilingual schools in France only have one hour or so of English per day - mostly due to how heavy the school programme is, I think. And Montessori schools tend to have both an English ans a French teacher in the classroom at all times. So there are definitely lots of ways of doing it!