Kate O'Connor (October 3, 2011)

This was the last class of the summer session before a break. The kids started the class by coloring with markers, singing the 'Bonjour Les Amis' song in a microphone, and then each child was greeted by name. For this class, there were five kids including Jacques. They reviewed greetings ('how are you?'), names with the beach ball, and some body parts.

This was the first class I've ever heard Miss Clementine speak English (during class). It was during the choo choo train (the kids get up and follow her going fast or slow) when the train began to derail and she had to remind some of the young children what the rules of the class were.

I've noticed that the three-year-olds seem to have an incessant need to wiggle more so than the older kids, but all of the kids have to 'shake their sillies out' at some point or another! There are plenty of opportunities to do so, but when they do take a moment to sit down, sometimes the younger kids are all over the place (my son included!) It seems that children do better in class in the morning when they're fresh after a hearty breakfast as opposed to the afternoon after a full day. We had a make-up class in the afternoon and my son wasn't able to pay attention and focus as well as he had in the morning classes.

A poster full of children and their cookies was studied closely. Each child had a different number of cookies on his/her plate and they were demonstrating the fairness, or lack thereof, of cookie allocation. (It's a good thing a handful of goldfish during snack time looks like the same amount!) After snack time they sang the good-bye song to each child.

Class was pretty standard and well done. One the way home, from class, Jacques blurted out (WITHOUT any prompting!), "Je m'apple Jacques!" (again, not his real name). I was so excited to hear him say that! I thought that was pretty good progress in my humble opinion! To me, it's a big step going from repeating phrases to saying one by himself. I referred to the Language Stars 'Learning Ladder'. He's progressing just as it says! My forte is not childhood development so it's very interesting to me to watch these stages of development.

Another sign of progress was that he started singing some French songs. I'd taught him 'Frère Jacques' and then there's the song from class 'Bonjour Les Ami' which is also on the Language Stars CD. 'Frère Jacques' can also be found on YouTube so I let him watch the animated version a few times so he'd learn it. There are several good short videos for kids which might help them learn colors, numbers, etc. (Type 'song for kids in French' in the search box on the web site or click here.)

I remember when I was a child, listening to that song (and others) on a record player! I think this is what we had click here

Those songs take up a special quadrant in his brain too because he sang nothing but those two songs for days on end (I lost track). Of course, those songs got stuck in an endless loop in my brain too. Yes, there can be too much of a good thing, especially when it won't leave your brain.

I tried replacing the songs by listing to other songs, singing other songs, etc. It would subside for a bit. Inevitably he would start singing it again or it would creep back into the forethought of my consciousness. There was a break between the summer and academic semesters and not hearing those songs in class for a bit, I think, gave our brains a little respite from the songs. He stopped singing them (thankfully!) for awhile (but I know they're lurking in there!)

My blog: Il Etait Une Fois... I'd love to read any comments you may have on this or previous posts!

--Kate