French for Kids

My Long Journey from Teaching to Coaching Others How to Teach French to Toddlers and Preschoolers

Bonjour!

My name is Ana Lomba and I have been helping young children learn languages (including French) since 1999, when I founded my first afterschool language immersion program in Princeton, New Jersey.

Although I had taught undergraduates and middle school children throughout the 1990’s, my first steps in teaching toddlers and preschoolers was a total failure! I’ll tell you why in a moment…

Today I am a Parents’ Choice Award-winning author of many books and resources in French for young children. I lead workshops nationally for teachers and for parents, and help several language organizations promote early language education in the USA.

You can probably tell – I loved teaching young children back in my teaching years and I am passionate about helping French teachers like you now. It is so rewarding to see the thrill young children get from learning French!

Learning French is Easy for Preschoolers!

Preschool is the perfect age to learn language. Young children find it easy to learn languages.

It’s what young kids do naturally. Their brains are wired to do it.

And, with the right kind of help, they LOVE it too!

But Teaching French to Preschoolers is HARD!

Here’s the problem. Most of us who really want to teach preschool French simply don’t have the education and resources we need to help our students learn to their full potential.

I learned this the hard way…

My first day teaching young children was a catastrophe! (In my case, I taught Spanish, but the basics of teaching young children are the same for French).

My Painful Experience

It should have been easy for me, right? After all…

• I am a native speaker
• I had taught undergraduates at the Romance Languages Departments at Binghamton University and at Princeton University for seven years.
• I had graduate degrees in literature (so a very high command of the language).
• I had also taught in a private Princeton middle school.
• And, I was the mother of two young bilingual kids (three now)!

How Wrong I Was!

My first class was a parent-child group. I had spent two months organizing it, using all my skills, and it was a complete failure.

After a few weeks, I realized I had to abandon that direction, and go back to the drawing board.

I had to admit, my skills were not enough. I knew how to teach older students, but I had no idea how to teach a new language to preschoolers.

Where Could I Find Out What I Needed?

I set out to learn what I was missing. Surely someone must know the right way to teach a new language to younger kids!

• I visited local preschools (none of which offered French or any other language at that time).
• I subscribed to foreign language and early childhood organizations.
• I attended conferences.
• I participated in language teachers Internet groups.
• And bought tons of resources from catalogs and the Internet.

Many of the things I invested in turned out to be poor translations of American games and other activities – they just didn’t make any sense because they were not properly adapted!

Oftentimes, the rhymes didn’t work, these books didn’t bother to change expressions so that they made sense in the different culture, or even care to use proper spelling and grammar! (This is a problem that continues today.)

My basement is still full of this junk!

Money was not the only thing I wasted. This process also took years of my life.

I don’t want any other teacher to have to go through the same experience, and the key is to have a clear plan before even thinking about buying anything.

If you don’t know what you are doing, then you will be an easy prey like I was back then (you should see my basement!).

Creating a New French for Kids Program – Just For Preschoolers

I finally realized that I had to start from scratch and develop my own program and my own materials (I started with Spanish and then adapted my classroom tested materials to French and Chinese with the help of some wonderful native educators).

You see, languages in this country have been traditionally taught in high school and college. We have a choice of teaching methodologies and text manuals to teach French to older students,

but practically nothing for teaching French effectively to young children.

Although some elements of second-language teaching techniques that work for older students could be used to teach young children, most were unsuitable.

I was at a loss. If I was going to make this work long-term and ensure that the preschool kids I was teaching loved learning the new language and see the rewards, I needed to start over.

That’s what led me to create my own complete system. I rolled up my sleeves and started to apply what I knew about language development in early childhood with elements from foreign language teaching methods for older students.

Teaching French for Kids with Stories, Songs, and Games

As you know, young children have powerful imaginations. They love stories, plays, songs…

And the best way to teach should always match the way people learn. So my teaching style is theatrical, and based on the way young children learn, which is highly active and sensorial…

I was fortunate to know plenty of traditional games and songs for kids from my own childhood. I realized I could use some of those with preschool students.

I also created many games and songs from scratch that would target the specific needs of preschool children learning a second language.

I also adapted traditional stories and created new ones to be used as skits in my storytelling sessions. I wrote many songs and rhymes to be used with the stories as well.

In the case of French, I hired native French teachers and other professionals to help me collect, adapt, and create songs, games and stories in French.

Putting it all Together – “Ana Lomba’s Easy Immersion^®” Program

I could use a song here or a story there, but I needed to think how I was going to integrate all the elements in a comprehensive, long-term preschool language program.

I needed a structure.

Creating this structure took years of trial and error, testing theories in my classes, keeping what worked, and adapting the materials from everything I learned.

I was learning just as much as my young students!

The result is my French for Preschoolers guide – a complete handbook to the methods for teaching French to young kids. It will let you quickly and easily build your own curriculum to suit your preschoolers.

How You Can Avoid Making the Same Mistakes I Made

I have done the hard work, so you don’t have to.

I have sorted through the latest information and research to find you the most relevant and useful for early childhood French teachers. My French for Preschoolers E-Guide includes all this advice plus dozens of practical tips and sample activities for your lesson plans.

The French for Preschoolers E-Guide gives you a comprehensive view of my unique approach to teaching languages to young children – which you can use to create your own curriculum for teaching kids right through from age 1 to 8.

It is not every day that you get to see the ins and outs of a top chef’s kitchen – and now I am giving you full access to the secrets of my success…

In the French for Preschoolers you will:

• Learn how to effortlessly immerse your students in French (teaching lists of colors, numbers and days of the week in French is NOT teaching a language!). With the techniques I’ll show you, your students will be on their way to speaking fluent French from day one.
• Discover the different types of activities that young kids enjoy doing most, so they will love being in class, absorb information quickly, and learn while having fun.
• Find out how to create, use and expand activities for your preschool French lesson plans. Specifically I’ll show you…

• Tips to create activities that will help you move quickly toward meaningful, conversational French for kids. You don’t need to be a language expert to learn these techniques!
• Practical strategies to integrate literacy into your curriculum. Building strong reading – and writing – skills in French is an important success factor on the way to being truly bilingual.
• Step-by-step advice to plan your own thematic units, so that you never again have to worry about what you will do tomorrow in class.

French for Preschoolers E-Guide also includes these 2 special BONUSES:

• A sample 60-minute lesson plan from one of my thematic units.
• A template you can use to start creating your own units.

Download the #1 French Preschool E-Guide Now!

• Because this product is downloadable you can start reading it within five minutes of purchase, from the comfort of your own home, right from your computer or tablet.
• I estimate that I spent well over $20,000 in self-education (workshops, books, etc) just to get me started teaching young kids – and remember, I had already taught for many years at Princeton University and other top-notch places!
• Furthermore, over the years I have spent many times that initial substantial investment as I refine my knowledge and expand my system with new resources for teachers and parents of children learning languages.

In contrast, the French for Preschoolers E-Guide will cost you only $37!

The Best Resource to Get You Started On the Right Foot Teaching French to Toddlers and Preschoolers – Guaranteed!

I happily offer you a 30-day guarantee. If you are not entirely satisfied that the French for Preschoolers E-Guide gives you the know-how, game-changing information, I’ll send you every penny of your money back straight away!

Click the button below to get your own copy of the hands-on, information-crammed French for Preschoolers E-Guide, and receive today the tools you need to create an exciting preschool French curriculum!

Sincerely,

P. S. The information in the French for Preschoolers E-Guide is more important today than ever. Teaching toddlers and preschoolers is becoming the new cool fashion, and lots of people are rushing to teaching colors, numbers and animals in French or translating back-and-forth between languages.  But you know what? That is about the worst way to teach a language!

P. S. S. Instead, you can read this guide and become a pro at creating lesson plans packed with fun activities to immerse your students in fluent French for kids — from the very beginning.

Knowing how young children learn language naturally is the key, and the results of using fluent language will amaze you!

P.S.S. Still some lingering questions about the guide? Don’t know how to download it? Visit the FAQ section to find more about it.

Contact Ana