French Club

I've just finished using this French bookwith the boys. It comes as a set with a book 1 as well. I got them from the Book People. Book 1 was ok, but many of the audio pieces were songs which I did not like. Book 2 however is very good! The chapters do not teach a systematic or thorough approach, the book is not designed that way, but various bits of grammar are built on and through regular use the boys picked up lots of vocabulary, maashAllah. What I really liked about book 2 was the audio. The listening comprehension exercises are really good, varied with a varied way of recording answers. The conversations are relaxed, and go at a good speed, just enough for challenge. I found that the boys benefitted from the listening exercises, and this also improved their pronunciation.
I have been searching and searching for more such listening exercises, but the materials designed for use with children in keystage three areVERY expensive. I mean £80 plus for an audio cassette to go with a pupil book. Adult courses are cheaper, but generally just contain the sort of tourist vocab that young kids don't need to use. They are also usually set in a social context suitable for young adults, or business people, neither of which is any good either. I'd love to get Rosetta Stone, but it is just tooo expensive at the moment. All of this makes the Book Club course even more praiseworthy, as it comes at a decent price. There is a Spanish set too, (which I have not got.)

Quite some weeks ago the girls and I planted some seeds. Coriander and sunflowers. Here are the results so far, maashAllah!