Hop, Skip, and Sing French (Hop Skip & Sing)

I'm in pursuit of introducing French and German to our four children before we attempt a European vacation. I'm bilingual, so teaching Spanish is a breeze for me, but I got a bit stuck when attempting the other two languages. Thank goodness for Ana Lomba's materials. I like the songs and the cute conversations. The children do get bored during the explanation parts of how to do the songs, but I'm able to reel them back in and still get some practice in. (That's why I'm giving four stars, not five) I wish the explanations weren't so prolific - having them in the pamphlet that comes with the CD would be great. It's just a little too much English for us (the kids are all five and under.) In my language learning, I like as much French as possible.

All in all, it goes well with Flip Flop French: Ages 3-5: Level 1, which we use for our "doing" lessons, and any explanations about how to put sentences together..., and then we use this for our listening lesson. They both have the CD's, but they are VERY differently presented, so the kids seem to enjoy switching back and forth. Hop Skip and Sing is well worth the money, but being a visual learner, I don't think I could get by without Yvonne Batot's Flip Flop French.

If you're familiar with Ana Lomba's other materials, you know to expect a quality product. I was pleasantly surprised that this new CD includes many songs/rhymes (and explanations) for younger kids. There are about 25 songs/rhymes on this cd, some original, others traditional. Most are suitable for young children, ages 3-4 and up. Many songs have hand motions, which are explained on the cd. There are some longer songs for older kids and these songs tell more of a story. (They're actually fairy tales, like Goldilocks and the three bears and Little Red Riding Hood.) A native speaker sings the songs and sometimes she is accompanied by native speaking children; the spoken French is excellent. An English speaking man's voice gives explanations and talks about the vocabulary in upcoming songs. His French is also very good. He also explains the hand motions or gives some cultural background. There is French and English text for all the vocabulary and lyrics in the booklet that comes with the cd. My favorites are L'escargot (track 7), a game (more a rhyme) with handmotions, Ouvre et ferme (track 15), a song with handmotions and Maman Cane (track 45), a song about mother duck and four eggs/ducklings; lots of crac, crac (eggs cracking) sounds and couac (quack) that my preschoolers will love. A great product!