Kate O'Connor (September 2, 2011) - Why French? It is internationally recognized, a beautiful romance-based language, it takes a young ear and tongue to master it well, and I feel it's a good introduction to learning a language.

Should Jacques decide to switch gears and learn another romance-based language, he'll have the foundation on which to build. Why learn early? As a kid in junior high, I took French after school. I studied French for two years and Spanish for two years in high school.

I never mastered either. Studies show children who are exposed to language early find it easier to learn languages later in life. Had I continued to learn Polish perhaps that might have held true for me. I struggled with learning languages and can only butcher languages when I attempt them.

I have what I dub 'tourist tongue' – I try to speak French, Italian, or Spanish when traveling (or whatever the native language might be wherever I am), but locals smile (it's probably more of a grimace) politely and respond to me in English. I try to order at restaurants - just the basics, a drink, an appetizer, and maybe a little pasta.

I check and recheck my pocket tourist dictionary before I order, desperately hoping that I've got the pronunciation right so I don't end up with something that I couldn't eat - I admit, I'm quite picky - or is raw (yup, I accidentally got steak tartar in Paris and I'm not sure how that happened)! Something was obviously lost in translation! I thought it was medium well, but it was mostly bright pink and I think quite bloody!

I ate it and prayed I wouldn't get Mad Cow Disease! My husband refused to eat what I couldn't finish. I will make an effort to have our son continue to learn French and hopefully he'll embrace this opportunity to become bilingual. Maybe he'll travel the world and locals will respond to him in their native language. I would be so proud!

Jacques's fourth class had a few new twists to the introduction and review. The children were asked, "how are you?" and they practiced responding in French to a hand puppet crocodile. Kids love hand puppets! The theme of the day was ocean life and the props were giant, inflatable animals such as dolphins and fish. The kids really enjoyed playing with those giant inflatables!

With the fifth class, the intro twist was clapping, dancing, and throwing a stuffed ball during the greetings. I really love how they mix up the methods of introductions but keep the conversation consistent.

Consistency is the key which I think helps keep the kids entertained with the new activity and also reinforces the greeting so that they can recall what they learned during the previous session. They had a variety of fun and creative activities, including making lemonade, planned for the day. The major theme of the day was colors.

The children watched with rapt attention as Miss Clementine mixed colored dye in cups to create new ones. They each chose a cup of colored water to drink which seemed to amuse them. They each created a butterfly painting.

They helped squeeze different paints, by color in French, onto half of a sheet of construction paper. When they were done, they folded it in half and ta-da - their butterfly! Magician Clementine entertained the children with her magic sack with different colored handkerchiefs.

The children also played the International Playthings Honey Bee Tree game where the goal is to have the fewest bees at the end of the game. Counting was the name of this game in which they all had a lot of fun playing!

Class was very entertaining and kept their attention during the two-hour session. Sometimes it seems like a long class, but the children are constantly moving, playing, and learning! I think the children enjoyed participating in the class as much as I enjoyed observing it!