Monday, August 03, 2009

"Fancy people speak...

French!" So says M. Heavily influenced by the Fancy Nancy books, M has for many years now requested that I teach her French. (Which I myself do not know.) Now, I'm sure that a then 2 or 3 year old did not understand the meaning of "I want to know French so I can be fancy." (The meaning being years of hard work.)

Also, a few years back I made my too-small-to-understand children the promise that if they learned a language, I would take them to a country that speaks that language. Spanish seems the obvious choice since we are near(er) to more spanish speaking countries than anything else. But, our heart is just not in it. I mean, learn French = go to France. Bryan promised too.

So, here is where my promise to my children and M's desire to learn French merged with my love of Europe. We are giving the language program Muzzy a try first. We'll see how it goes from there. And I'm fully prepared for the idea that we may totally bomb and say "this is too hard!!".

14 comments:

Elle said...

Impressive!!!

lisa said...

Looks tasty! I think if the kids learn "Where is the bathroom" and "take me to the US Embassy" they'll be ok to go to France.

Abbigail said...

so cute that Milli wants to learn French. Give it a try right? If she is interested, then that is awesome. Reminds me of Bryan as a teenager, how he was obsessed with France and learning French. She must take after both of your love of language and travel. Good things to have.

How do you make the frosting color so bright? Do you have special food coloring? Mune are never that bright with the usual from the grocery store.

jodi said...

If I learn Italian will you take me to Italy? ...make Bryan promise to.

pamela said...

abbi - i buy the wilton brand that is in the little jars... from craft stores. ..and i also probably use way too much. but ya, i find the store ones to be not powerful enough for me.

and yes, bryan still is obsessed with france!

Camille said...

Pam, you are setting the bar way too high on what Mom's do.

Morgen said...

I agree with Camillitary. You make me feel very guilty as a mom. You should homeschool Milli. You already do more stuff than her teachers could do AND it would be one on one.

Melanie said...

Stumbled on your blog from Craft magazine's website. Love the idea. While there are slight differences between "parisian" French and "French canadian" French, it is my first language and my mom taught it for many years. If you need any translation, activities, or songs, contact me.

Krysalia said...

Bonjour, dites à la petite Milli qu'elle a un goût très sûr en matière de vêtements, et qu'elle est très élégante dans ses nouvelles tenues :)

Bravo à elle de vouloir apprendre le français, c'est une langue difficile mais aussi très amusante et imagée, j'espère que ça lui plaira !

pamela said...

Melanie!! once we get going on our regular schedule of french lessons (i'm still in planning stages) i would love to bombard you with questions.

oobbles said...

We got Muzzy for our daughter to learn German. She has really enjoyed it so far. Best of luck with the French!

Martha said...

I really hope it works out, because it'll be SO much easier for her to learn it at this age than later in life. Those elastic brains. :)

Carolyn said...

Well, there's always Canada.

Cate O'Malley said...

Tres bien! Love the cupcake idea!