Most, if not all, parents would like their children to learn another language but do not know where to start. I am an early years language tutor and my goal is to give parents confidence to teach their child the foundations of French.

So, have you got 5 minutes? Grab come blocks or some boxes and get on the floor with your child because today we are going to teach them  to count to 10 in French. Remember! Repetition is key so do this regularly and count during the day (walking up stairs etc) and it will sink in. I guarantee it.

Counting in French: a great topic for all levels

• Numbers are high-frequency words (very commonly found in daily conversations) and are therefore genuinely USEFUL.
• Numbers can lead to lots of other topics (body parts, food…)
• The numbers 1 to 10 are composed of many of the 11 phonics which non-French speakers struggle with. You may think that you know then but can you pronounce them REALLY well? (The Mini Languages platform has pronunciation videos and guides)

Top Tip! 💡 Create a language learning home with prompts & visual resources in key places!

• This can include books (these can be homemade – more on this in a future post), labels, posters. Don’t underestimate the impact of these prompts on your progress together.

• Here is a cute numbers poster which has the pronunciation written phonetically for you. Practice, practice, practice!

Free Mini Languages Numbers poster 1-10

Counting game: Un, deux, trois… tombé!

This building game is called ‘One, two, three… fallen down’ and it is an activity I play with my own children but also in class at my parent and child group.

“Faisons une tour!”

All children like to build towers… and knocking them down! Simply grab some blocks or stacking cubes and take turns to place them one top of the other to make a tower. How many can you stack before they fall? Count them as you go and when it topples shout ‘Tombé’ which means ‘fallen down’!

Key sentences:

Faisons une tour… (Pronounce: Fez-ohn ewn touh-rh) Let’s make a tower

 Oh la la! C’est haut! (Pronounce: Oh la la! Say oh!) Wow! It is high!

 Un, deux, trois, quatre…. Tombé! (Pronounce: Tombey) 1, 2, 3, 4… fell down!

How could you take this further naturally? As your French progresses, you can also name the colours of the cubes as you stack them…

i.e. De quelle couleur est ce cube? Il est rouge! 

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Felicity x