les histoires qui font peur (mais pas trop)

Delphine and Jenny led our 12th French storytime at the end of April, with the titillating theme of les histoires qui font peur (mais pas trop) [stories that scare you (but not too much)].  Along with a couple of fairy tales like Le petit chaperon rouge [Little Red Riding Hood], they shared a book about a child who was apprehensive about going down a big slide at the playgroup.

The story spinners even found a cute song about something a little scary: "Les squelettes" [skeletons], from Ana Lomba and Marcela Summerville's Play and Learn French.  All of the songs in this book accompanied by CD are originals designed for anglophones learning French, but they are sung in French with English translations and explanations in the book.

And for a craft after the formal storytime, Delphine had prepared an activity from Tête à modeler, a French website about arts and crafts for kids: we made simple cone-shaped finger puppets shaped like the animals who had appeared in the stories, like le loup [the wolf]!

Another great immersion experience for the francophones in our community!

lots to read!

It's carnival time! Coco over at Multilingual Mama has published the next edition of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, always one of my favorite things to visit online, and as always full of inspirational posts from amazing parents. Learn more about the Carnival here. Next, you might enjoy the fifth article in my "Family, Friends, and Francais" series for Multilingual Living. This one concerns literacy activities like simple games (le pendu, word finds), easy everyday writing tasks, and creating your own simple books, all in the target language (doesn't necessarily have to be French), all about the people your children love. And finally, I'm also participating in this month's French Obsession Party at Chateau des Fleurs. She's offering a collection of links to posts about all things France (and is also doing a giveaway of a sassy black-and-white ring).

French linking party

Over at Le Chateau des Fleurs, Frenchy (above) is hosting her monthly link party--click here to see dozens of links to posts about France and French! They tend to be about arts and crafts and home decor and cooking, plus travel and a few other topics, but visiting her link party makes for a nice change from reading and writing about linguistics and my own kid!

(It also usually makes me homesick for France.)

You can add your own link to a recent blog post about France or the French language.

I like garlic, garlic likes me!

I have just learned that Keith Eckstein over at A Taste of Garlic (subtitle: Because We All Like Reading Blogs about Life in France) has featured Bringing up Baby Bilingual as a blog worth checking out. He usually reviews exclusively blogs written in English about living in France, so I'm flattered that he shared Bringing up Baby Bilingual anyway! If you're curious about la vie in l'Hexagone, do take a look at his impressive blogroll divided by region.

look who else is blogging about France!

Over at Chateau des Fleurs, Frenchy (above) is hosting a linking party called "French Obsession of the Month. Anyone with a recent post about France can share their link with her readers. A thumbnail image and a short title will be displayed for people to click on. What a fun idea! Browse away and let yourself be transported....