Learning a familiar language seems a lot more attractive than learning a foreign one, right?
Well, kids certainly feel this way. For them it means that crucial difference between wanting to know and having to learn, between "you can" and "you must".
So what does it take to become familiar with a language?
Very little, in fact. Here is what thousands of families do:
they start with rethinking their family holiday strategy.
Kids who will begin to learn French at school when they're ten could spend their first holiday in France at four or five. Not as mere tourists of course, but in close contact with a French family. Ideally with a family whose kids intend to learn their language!
Naturally they will only pick up a few words in the beginning, there is no rush and no pressure for results anyway. Familiarity is the goal: familiarity with the sounds and the melody of the language. Familiarity with the way people live, work and socialize, with the games kids play and the songs they sing, with the taste of their food and the fragrances of their gardens.
Synergy Parenting lets our families build longterm relationships, gives them the framework for short stays and for longer visits, for entire summers even, getting into the swing of each other's culture, language and lifestyle. A kid who has been to France a few times, who has enjoyed visits from the French partner family and has often listened to adults and other kids talk is more than ready to learn French in school, is eager to understand and speak himself and has no problems with pronounciation from the start.
The domino effect is tremendous. Familiarity with life in other countries increases the readiness to dive into other subjects too, geography and history lessons become more relevant, politics and global awareness take on a new meaning - even for ten year olds.
Very popular: hosting teenage students for a language holiday who speak their language with your kids and your language with you. Thousands of our member families are raising kids who speak two, three or even more languages with no or hardly any accent. They're making the most of their kids' most formative years.
They don't need a lot of money, just an open mind, curiosity and a genuine willingness to cooperate on a give-and-take basis.
Well, kids certainly feel this way. For them it means that crucial difference between wanting to know and having to learn, between "you can" and "you must".
So what does it take to become familiar with a language?
Very little, in fact. Here is what thousands of families do:
they start with rethinking their family holiday strategy.
Kids who will begin to learn French at school when they're ten could spend their first holiday in France at four or five. Not as mere tourists of course, but in close contact with a French family. Ideally with a family whose kids intend to learn their language!
Naturally they will only pick up a few words in the beginning, there is no rush and no pressure for results anyway. Familiarity is the goal: familiarity with the sounds and the melody of the language. Familiarity with the way people live, work and socialize, with the games kids play and the songs they sing, with the taste of their food and the fragrances of their gardens.
Synergy Parenting lets our families build longterm relationships, gives them the framework for short stays and for longer visits, for entire summers even, getting into the swing of each other's culture, language and lifestyle. A kid who has been to France a few times, who has enjoyed visits from the French partner family and has often listened to adults and other kids talk is more than ready to learn French in school, is eager to understand and speak himself and has no problems with pronounciation from the start.
The domino effect is tremendous. Familiarity with life in other countries increases the readiness to dive into other subjects too, geography and history lessons become more relevant, politics and global awareness take on a new meaning - even for ten year olds.
Very popular: hosting teenage students for a language holiday who speak their language with your kids and your language with you. Thousands of our member families are raising kids who speak two, three or even more languages with no or hardly any accent. They're making the most of their kids' most formative years.
They don't need a lot of money, just an open mind, curiosity and a genuine willingness to cooperate on a give-and-take basis.
