Getting Started with French {Review}
As you probably know, we recently started our new school year. As we were preparing what I would teach this year, we decided that it would be nice to have a gentle foreign language curriculum to incorporate into our schoolwork this year. When I found out that Armfield Academic Press was going to send my family Getting Started with French for review, I was thrilled. This totally met my expectations of a gentle language to introduce my whole family to. I even planned it out so that I could even do it as part of our morning basket routine, around the big kitchen table. I can’t wait to share with you why I love this curriculum so much. To find out, read below.
I have to admit I was so curious when I first received the book Getting Started with French. The cover states that it is beginning French for Homeschoolers and Self-Taught Students of Any Age. I was intrigued. My children haven’t had much exposure to foreign languages. My 9-year-old took a beginning Spanish class last year through our local homeschool co-op, but my sons (ages 11 and 5) haven’t had any language study up to this point. I wondered how easy it would be to implement this book. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this book is to use.
What I love about Getting Started with French:
- Short Lessons
The lessons are very short. Most less than a page long. Many only take 10 minutes to teach during our morning basket time. I love how concise these lessons are – they are very Charlotte Mason-esque and they are perfect for our family so that they are learning small bits of information on this subject instead of being overwhelmed with tons of new words.
- Easy Format
The format of this book is beautiful. All the French words are in bold print and all of the definitions are in italics. This helps so much if you are also new to the language. There is no guessing what is what.
- Pronunciation Guide
I didn’t realize this at first, but the book comes with a free pronunciation guide online . The recordings are in a MP3 format on their website. Each word is read by a native speaker from Paris. These are super easy to pull up and download on your computer.
- Flexible
I love this book because it is flexible. There are no set dates where anything needs to get done by. There is no timeline. This is a move at your own pace type of curriculum. You can choose to do extra review, implement quizzes, ask for more conversational practice (have the students translate from the book or to another student). The lessons build on each other but no more than 30 minutes is required each day to learn this language.
I also love that the very first lesson was only on pronunciation. I hadn’t really considered this, but it is very important because French words are written and read so much differently than English word. It is imperative that the student understands this key point. Most lessons thereafter contain 1-2 new French words and as time goes on some built-in review is included.
Some of the first words taught are the articles a/an and the. We also learned the French words for girl, boy, brother and sister. Every few lessons there is another lesson teaching a bit more of the French pronunciation rules. They also sprinkle in French Expressions (words that we use in our language that really comes from French – like Mardi Gras).
The book contains 172 lessons and ends with the phrase for “What is this?” or “What is it?” along with some helpful reminders. The back of the book contains an extensive answer key to each of the lesson’s review questions. It also includes a pronunciation guide (what each letter or accented letter sounds like), a glossary of the words learned and their meaning, and an index.
There are other languages you can choose to study from the same company: Getting Started with Latin, Getting Started with Spanish, and coming soon is Getting Started with Russian! Find Getting Started with French on Amazon – available in both Kindle ($9.99) and book format ($21.95).
To reach Armfield Academic Press on Facebook, visit their facebook page here.
