Sacre Coeur Street Performer

Sacre Coeur Street Performer

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Learning Resources

It's taken a long time, but I think we're finally into a groove with our french-studies and general learning. Sure, there is learning in everything we do but I really wanted to use this trip to spend some time doing focused work with the kids in a rich environment. We were doing so much traveling at first, however, that having finding the time to sit down and talk, study and research, was difficult.

Now we are doing Rosetta Stone Online pretty much everyday. We've tried RS in the past and haven't been fans but for some reason the online version is really working for us. Soleil is developing a very nice accent, while Kaizen's vocabulary is excellent and surprisingly extensive considering how little french he has studied. Years of voracious reading apparently translates into second language acquisition.

Kaizen has lots of time to prepare his homework for the two Online G3 classes he is taking this semester, both of which, he is enjoying. I've always wanted to explore The Heroes Journey with Kaizen but I'm relieved that Jaime (aka Headmistress Guinevere) has taken on the task with her class Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings. (Note: Kaizen adds that THJ exploration hasn't begun yet; rather the class has explored Tolkien history as well as comparison's to Beowulf including that Tolkien took the name Middle Earth from the Old English translation of mid-earth.)

This week Kaizen is getting ready to play his role in the mock trial which is part of the G3 Critical Thinking class. It's only thanks to the time change that we were able to add these to our schedule. Otherwise, the 8am start time would be pretty much impossible for us. Hmmm, wondering what we're going to do about that in December...

We're also doing Free Rice vocabulary daily, where Kaizen is accumulating rice for the World Food Programme by building his french vocabulary and Soleil is working on her english word knowledge.

Soleil and I just finished reading Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine, France 1136 from the Royal Diaries series and now the kids and I are watching the series of 14 snippets of The Lion in Winter (1968) with Katherine Hepbourne playing Eleanor.

Kaizen and I are working our way through the translation of Tin-Tin "L'affaire Tournesol" (or The Calculus Affair) which is slow, however the combination of his Tin-Tin knowledge and my eight years of french grammar help to some degree.

Other language resources we are using:

First Well (Read-a-long) French video
Intended for kids but perfect for my level

Video instruction in half-hour video programs
(only works in North America)

a pedagogical reference grammar that combines explanations with surreal dialogues and cartoon images.

Look at the video section for listening and comprehension opportunites

Interactive Website

From Alisa K.

French through humorous situations

Not sure this will be useful

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