Liberte! Linguistic Get Out of Jail Free Card

Chers Amis,

This school year, I have given myself a "get out of jail free" card and it feels SOOOO good! No, I am not in trouble with the law. I have escaped from the bonds of trying (and failing) to teach myself and the kids Spanish. YEAH! I know I should hablo espagnol, that it is the second language of this country and the first of Cervantes (as well as most of the Americas,) but I don't speak Spanish and it was making me crazy. It was like wearing a left shoe on the right foot and trying to run a marathon. I have held off teaching the kids French until now for a myrid of reasons, but no longer, cette annee, on apprend le francais (et le latin). Liberte! How sweet it is.

I am really enjoying it too! Not only is French a lyric language, a language of diplomats, a language entwined with English thanks to William and his Norman crew, but I actually speak French (more or less), so teaching it is a joy. Making flash cards has never been so much fun. So, to parody Dr. Seuss, I will speak it with a mouse, I will speak it in the house (all the time) and in the rain, and on a train (preferably le TGV), and in a box and with a fox, and on a boat and with a goat (cheese), I will speak it here or there, I will speak it anywhere. :-) Can you tell I am excited? It is just so much easier to teach a language you know and mes enfants are learning so quickly - really important phrases like, "Clear off the table. " " Put your plate in the dishwasher, please." "Sit down, now." And the all important, "Where are your shoes?"

Adding to the enjoyment, mon mari promised that if I can actually teach the children to speak French, we can go to France! No timeline or skill level specified. Of course that little problem of budget will come to play too - but un de ces jours! I haven't been to France since before Caddie was born and I would love to take the kids - mostly to visit with a dear, dear friend and her family. Our youngest boys are only one day apart and I can almost see them giggling together plotting unknown adventures while the three older children explore, where? Maybe, Cirque de Garvarnie? Sigh. Some day.

Until then, we will hit the books. As a text I purchased Skoldo I as a simple workbook. Caddie and Scarlett like it because the vocabulary lists aren't very long and they have to "colorier les dessins" quite often. Coloring is like recess :-) We are also in a bi-weekly French Club this year and that helps provide a bit more structure, gives them a chance to talk with other kids and hear another (better) accent - native. For each meeting they choose a letter from the alphabet and learn to write, pronounce, and use words that begin with that letter. They also make an illustrated page for their French notebooks. Even Pippin loves to do this. He picked "S" as his first letter so he could draw a beetle - un scarabee, skeleton - le squelette and a snake - un serpent. I am always surprised at the words they choose and how well they know them once they have been embroidered on their memories ( and pages) in Crayola magic markers. Like her Gramma Juli, Scarlett is a little artist. She reminds me of a little monk on Iona, hunched over her work as if working on an illustrated manuscript. This Wednesday is French Club again so I will be putting together more activities and will write more later with some useful links. Ca me fait du bien!

A bientot,

-- Marjorie