How can I help my child at home?

Things you can do to help develop your child’s first language and culture:

• read stories aloud at bedtime

• tell your own stories and share your childhood experiences with your child

• sing songs, nursery rhymes and poems with your child, putting the emphasis on similarities and differences in sounds

• help your child to print his or her name

• be a reader and a writer, in order to provide a role model for your child

• use good speech, as a model for your child’s language skills

• celebrate and encourage your child’s early attempts to communicate through writing and reading

• listen to your child and encourage him to talk about everyday activities

• expose your child to your own traditions, folklore and stories.

Things you can do at home to support your child’s French language learning

• include some French in your everyday home life, for example, watching a French program on television, a video, attending a cultural event in French or listening to a CD of French songs. (You’ll learn some French too, and the whole family will have fun!)

• review the French vocabulary of the week or month with your child

• listen to, repeat, recite, sing along with your child as he shares his latest French song, rhyme or story.