Beginner French Course
A self-paced, living French course for beginners. Students in grades 4+ learn to talk about everyday life -- family, the outdoors, hobbies, household chores, and so much more -- through beautiful art, rhymes and poetry, Gouin series, geography and culture of Francophone countries around the world, and guided practice. If you would like to add live practice sessions, you can enroll in those once you purchase the course.
Beginner French Course
$350 per family
10 Live Practice Sessions
$150 per family
I've developed this course from my teaching experience and from Charlotte Mason's writings, François Gouin's language-learning work, and current research by Dr. Stephen Krashen and Dr. Liam Printer, among others.
During my time teaching French immersion, French classes online, and French to my own children, as well as my experience trying to learn German on my own, I noticed that students (myself included) found it easier to start with learning sentences that they could recombine or mix and match to articulate the thoughts that they wanted to express.
All my research and teaching experiences come together in this Beginner Course, where students are invited to interact with French and shape it into their own thoughts. As Mason writes, "in fact, the new French words should be but another form of expression for the ideas that for the time fill the children's mind." (Home Education, p. 81)
They will look at art and gain confidence and fluency through describing the paintings using the vocabulary from within the poems, series, and stories. Students will develop their conversational skills through guided questions and responses.
Note: While the course is set to be in the pattern of lesson–review–lesson–review–review for the week—you need not finish all five in one week. However, it is important to watch and do every video.
What this course includes
- Poems
- Series
- Stories
- Art: describing paintings with vocabulary from the poems, series, and stories
- Conversational skills through guided questions and responses
Student expectations
You will probably want a French notebook for notes. I recommend using the series as copywork so you become familiar with French spelling early. The 30-week course follows the weekly pattern above; pace it to fit your home, but watch and complete every video.
