French with a preschooler

At 3 to 5, your child is bootstrapping grammar and flooding you with questions. This is the age of the English answer, and knowing what to do with it is the whole game.

Ask, don't narrate

This age wants questions. Où est… ? De quelle couleur… ? Tu veux… ? Keep them answerable by pointing or with one word.

Accept the English, recast in French

They will answer in English. Don't correct, don't ask them to repeat, say their meaning back in French as though it were the most natural reply in the world, and carry on.

Mixing is competence

A child who says 'I want the ballon' is not confused. Code-switching means both systems are live. It resolves itself with input.

Never make it a test

Correction teaches a child that French is a test they can fail, and the reliable response to a failable test is avoidance.

Play is the way in

Play is a preschooler's love language, so play in French: puppets who only understand French, superhero missions, a word-of-the-day game. Silly voices and imagination carry more French than any lesson could.

Non-visible verbs and longer sentences

Now you can go beyond what's in front of you: penser, imaginer, ressentir. By five most children have the everyday grammar they hear daily, so start stringing moments into little stories they care about.

They can be someone else now, so let them

A preschooler leaves the here and now behind. They put on a costume and become a loud policeman, a sad fairy, a very serious horse. They decide the blue rug is the ocean and mean it. This is the best thing that will happen to your French, because a character can have their own language. Le policier only speaks French. So does the fairy, when she is in a good mood.

Give the puppet the French

Hand your child a puppet and let yours do the talking, in French, asking real questions. Something loosens when the words are not coming from your face. Shy children answer a puppet long before they answer a parent, and a puppet is allowed to be ridiculous, mishear things, and ask again.

One game, played properly, beats ten activities

Les policiers et les voleurs, police and thieves, will carry more vocabulary than a worksheet ever could: cache-toi, je te vois, attrape-le, arrête ! Pick a game they already love, run it in French, and play it until they are sick of it.

Phrases that open a conversation, not close it

At this age the useful phrases are the ones that hand the floor back to your child. Each of these asks for more than yes or no.

Pourquoi tu penses ça ? Why do you think that? poor-KWA too ponss SA
On fait quoi aujourd'hui ? What shall we do today? on fay KWA oh-zhoor-DWEE
Ça, c'est à toi. Ça, c'est à moi. That is yours. This is mine. sa say ah TWA, sa say ah MWA
Qu'est-ce qui se passe ici ? What is going on here? kess kee suh pass ee-SEE
Raconte-moi Tell me about it ra-KONT mwa

Free download · made for 4 to 5 years

Free printable sound cards for this age

At 4 and 5, children love matching sounds to pictures. These cards colour-code each French sound inside a familiar word, d comme dragon, b comme baleine, so your preschooler can see how it fits together. Print, cut, and play.

See the full stage-by-stage guide, from the womb to school age →