new resources to share!

Although it still is (and no doubt will always be) a work-in-progress, I have been updating my "French Teaching at Home" page with more books, games, songs, resources, and more.  Please take a look and tell me if I'm missing any of your favorites!

TV5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

Daddy and Griffin in front of the television

For the first time since 1998, I am living in a home with cable television.  We watch so little television that it didn't make sense to pay for dozens of channels that would never be seen; what with Netflix' streaming service (so I can finally see why my friends have adored "United States of Tara" and "The Big Bang Theory" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and downloading "Top Chef" from iTunes (totally worth it, even at ~$30 per season) and borrowing movies from the library and RedBoxes, we were set.

Until football season this fall, that is.  Since we don't have cable, even our network channels come in fuzzy, and now the station that broadcasts the Denver Broncos' games doesn't come in clearly.  My husband finally got fed up enough to break down and have cable television installed.

Yes, that man loves his Broncos, and is doing his part to indoctrinate his son:

"Are the Broncos the good guys or the bad guys, Daddy?  What color are they wearing?  Was that a touchdown?  Why not?  Is that a pass?  Why is it a pass?  Why are they passing?  What are they passing?  How many yards?  What's a yard?  What's a foul?  What's the name of that thing?  Who's that?  Oh, that's a commercial!  What's a commercial?  That's my favorite commercial...."

but is less successful with his daughter:

"Snnyzzzxxxx...."

Anyway, we paid extra for access to TV5 Monde, a channel offering French shows round-the-clock in the USA!  Now, though, I'm overwhelmed just looking at their programming guide: so much to see (and no clue what a lot of it is).

So I'm hoping someone(s) out there can help me figure out what is worth watching.  I can already watch the news in French on my iPad, and I can get films in French from Netflix and the library, and I'm not interested in sports.  What does that leave?  Game shows, talk shows, documentaries, music, programs for children*?  Where to start?!

Please share your recommendations!  I'm most interested in: 

• shorter, lighter shows that will help me practice my listening comprehension** and teach me about modern French culture (in other words, not dense, heavy, complex, esoteric movies or "Law and Order" and "Friends" dubbed in French)
• programs about (or taking place in) other countries where French is spoken
• shows that a nearly-five-year-old will be eager to see more of

*TV5 Monde has a little brother, TiVi5, a children's channel all in French, but you have to have a satellite dish to receive it.  Maybe if my husband gets disillusioned with the cable system....

**TV5 Monde also helpfully offers pedagogical materials for teachers of French--I should take a look at those too.

What's new at Bringing up Baby Bilingual? (February 2012)

A new month brought new categories for my blogroll--radio in French, children's books in English--and more cool websites to share.  (I just wish I had more time to read everything they recommend, listen to everything they offer, try their activity ideas with Griffin and Gwyneth, and blog about my reactions!)

You can now find the following sites among the others in my blogroll:

Streaming radio in French:
French, Swiss, and Canadian radio stations--a list of links with short descriptions of each station's genre

Radio Barbouillots--Internet radio in French, featuring music for children

Radio Ouistiti--Internet radio in French for children, with songs and stories (but not all necessarily in French)
RFI Langue française--specifically for learners of French
RFI home page 

Children's lit:

Childhood 101 posts about reading

365 Great Children's Books--a blog featuring thoughtful reviews of picture books by a mom whose background as a geography teacher brings a slightly different perspective than the other sites'

Read Aloud Dad--enthusiastic reviews of books for children (not just picture books) by a father who advocates reading to our children

Reading Rockets--literacy resources for parents

Language teaching activities:
French Activities from Beth Manners--coloring pages and more, including CDs for purchase (she also offers ideas and materials for Spanish as well)
LanguageMom French for Kids--a website with fun resources to support anglophone parents teaching their children French, with a program to purchase to use at home
Spanish Playground--resources and ideas for teaching Spanish to children


Multilingualism:
Gato and Canard--Blog by a Frenchwoman with a PhD in linguistics, married to a Portuguese man, living in Germany with their toddler
Multilingual Family in the UK--Connect with other families in the UK who want to get together to practice using the minority language; and even if you're not located in the UK, check out their links to language-learning resources in 18 languages (here's French, for example)
Panda Mom blog--American mom and Taiwanese-American dad learning Chinese with their children
Perogies and Gyoza blog--Canadian mom raising kids in Japan

Parenting resources:
Brain, Child magazine--I have subscribed since before Griffin was born, and this magazine makes me laugh and think and cry.  It's eye-opening and well-written.  Plus, it published an essay by my friend Kelly Feinberg, which won her a Pushcart Prize posthumously.)

Noel en français for free!

Speaking French while celebrating Christmas with your kids?  You'll need these sites!

Writing letters to Santa Claus is so old-fashioned, don't you think?

Well, no, actually, I don't, but Griffin can't read or write yet, so I'm thrilled to discover this website, "Portable Santa Claus," which will send a personalized video message (for free) to your child in French or in English!

You input information about the child (age, hair color, eye color), what behavior issues you wanted him to work on this year (selecting from drop-down menus of everything from "obeying your preschool teacher" to "obeying your stepmother" to "eating all your vegetables" to "going to bed on time" and so forth--and these are just the toddler options, because there are different choices for different ages), what he wants for Christmas, and so on. You can also include photos and indicate what they represent--a trip you took this year, a new arrival in the family, and so forth.

The website then puts together a video of a jolly, gentle Santa greeting your child and reading about him from his "grimoire" (complete with the photos you uploaded). Santa compliments the child on his good behavior (or chastizes him for not being a good boy, if you select that option) and generally says lots of Santa-riffic things. The versions of the video letter for older children are longer and begin with a tour through an area of Santa's Workshop at the North Pole.

Next, here's a fun resource for those of you who celebrate Christmas and speak French with your children: an online advent calendar with a song for each day! The sound quality isn't great--they are recordings from children's concerts, probably in school auditoriums--but the lyrics appear onscreen along with simple animations. And since it's a site from Quebec, it also includes a song about the national dish, la tourtiere!

Via that same site, you can also visit the Train de Noel, more songs by school choirs with onscreen lyrics and simple animations.  Most are in French, with some bilingual ("Lumières de Noel")  and even some French translations of traditional English songs ("Promenade en traineau," for example, which we know as "Sleigh Ride").

You'd prefer to hear adults singing carols professionally?  Okay, then you need to visit La neige folle, a Christmas-season-only online francophone radio station (November 20-December 26).

(I meant to poke around YouTube to find some existing French holiday playlists and some clips of French children singing and celebrating Christmas, but that'll have to wait for another day!  Perhaps in the meantime someone will share their YouTube or other online resources in French about the holidays?)

Finally, over at momes.net, the kiddos will discover all sorts of Christmassy inspiration for recipes, crafts, songs, and other activities in French, while their parents can read the holiday activity suggestions at Vos questions des parents.  In fact, if you click on the "French for kids" sites in the sidebar of this blog, you will probably find more activities than you could ever do in one holiday season!  But I can't check right now....must finish making candy to give away, finish wrapping presents, and get the basement ready to house my parents and my brother who are coming to visit us for their first Christmas in Colorado.  Merry merry, joyeux joyeux.  Thanks for joining me here.

(Oh, and I haven't sent any of our Christmas cards yet.  I should have just gone to Dromadaire to send their free e-cards in French!)

This post is part of the December Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism.