Getting Started with French - A Homeschool Crew Review

In July I learned I would be on the review team for Armfield Academic Press. I have become a student of languages, and I welcomed this opportunity to review Getting Started with French by William E. Linney and Brandon Simpson.    

I studied French last century, many decades ago... 1970-1974 to be exact. I have fought to retain my ability to use the language, but alas my vocabulary is extremely limited at this point. I was so happy to be selected for this review! What a great opportunity to refresh my abilities in this romantic language!

The book arrived, and I opened it with delight!

I flipped it open to the inside of the back cover and my heart dropped -- the book did not come with a DVD! What? I was really surprised. I set the book aside to start the next day.

Opening the book the next day I began at the very beginning and flipped through the pages, reading them one by one, and coming to the realization that this was one of those rare books that you MUST read this way. The Preface and "How to use this book" cannot be skipped!

I quickly learned there ARE audio files to accompany the book! Accessible on the Getting Started with French website are audio files of narration to go with the lessons as well as audio files of pronunciation to help the student know how to speak French correctly.

Getting Started with French is a gentle, incremental program that builds a solid foundation slowly and thoroughly. The book contains 172 lessons and 281 pages. A typical school year has 180 days, so your goal would be to do one lesson per day through most of the school year.

The typical days lesson begins with the printed content for the lesson in the book. Most lessons are designed around the introduction of a new word in French. Having the student write down the word and its definition helps the student learn the new word.  

Step 2 is listening to the narrative for the chapter. Some of the content may seem redundant, but think of it as reinforcement. There is also material in this audio that is not in the book. 

Step 3 is having the student work through the exercise at the end of the lesson. This generally involves translating up to ten words and phrases from French to English. Example: "mon amie" = "my girl friend".

The final step is having the student listen to the pronunciation and practicing the words in French.

If you ever want to give a quiz (maybe you want a way to be sure learning is occurring), you go back one lesson and have the student do the exercises. So say you are on Lesson 50 -- the quiz would be the exercises at the end of Lesson 49.

We (Review Crew) were expected to work on our French at least three days per week during the review period. I had the book almost two months and completed 35 lessons. I did not completely follow the directions above because the program is review for me. So I did not write out the exercises, but did them in my head.

I was surprised at some of the things I learned. New to me were "Forbidden Liasons", "Liasons" and "Elision". These are words for practices in French that I had known how to use but didn't know the words for, like if you knew how to make contractions (he will = he'll) but you didn't know they were called "contractions". I also appreciated being reminded of French words I forgot long ago (mari = husband). I look forward to continuing my way through the rest of the lessons.

Getting Started with French is not a program that should, in my opinion, count as a credit for high school French. It is not as rigorous as the French course I took in 7th Grade. I suggest it is best for students in K - 6th grade. Depending on the situation it could be used for anyone older, but I would still hesitate to count it for a credit on a high school transcript. I would not hesitate to recommend it for a learner of any age who wants an introduction to French. This is a very affordable way to get a beginning French education.

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed this product. To see more product reviews, please click the button below.

Middlebury French - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

In late August I learned that Middlebury Interactive Languages would be giving members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew the opportunity to review one of four of their interactive foreign language programs: Spanish Courses, French Courses , German Courses,  and Chinese Courses. So I asked my son if he was interested in reviewing the program and learning one of these languages. In typical boy fashion, he replied, "French." We are required to complete two years of foreign language for high school graduation in our state, and we've been kicking around Spanish, French and Latin for several months. French is such a classic language -- I always wished I could help him learn it. Maybe now I can!

When we filled out our form indicating our interest in the product, we indicated which language, as well as which level of the language we were interested in. I indicated Level I high school French. So in early September we received access to Middlebury's High School French I Course. If you look at the following chart you can see all the various levels of the various languages offered by Middlebury:

We quickly worked to integrate it into our already full academic schedule. It was my hope that we could cover the material at the rate of one lesson per day, five days per week, which is the way I studied French when I was young. Aim high and you achieve more that you would if you aimed low, that's my theory.

We began our French studies and very quickly fell behind my intended schedule. Once you have started with Middlebury Interactive, each successive time that you log in the program takes you right to where you left off. Initially my son and I were not seeing this -- it looked like a blank screen, 

but at the bottom of the page it says: "Next Up:" and the calendar date of the next lesson to tackle. 

Not seeing this, I clicked on a button to open a menu,

 clicked on "Calendar", 

which took us to the actual current date. 

Then I clicked the "back" button on the month to get to the lesson we were actually on. What a pain. I'm so glad they actually have a button at the bottom keeping track of where we actually are in the lessons!

When we first started Middlebury French, we received a quick start guide. The program seemed fairly easy to understand, so I let my son do his lessons on his own for a few days. That was when I realized that what might seem intuitive to one person might not be as intuitive for another. A few days into the program, and the information accessible to the teacher was not showing completion of lessons.

When you first start a lesson, you have a large video screen on the right and a selection of thumbnails on the left.  When the student has worked through the large screen or watched the video, the student must then click on the next thumbnail which sends that thumbnail to the larger screen. Each time the student finishes with screen he/she must go to the next thumbnail until the student has worked his/her way through all the thumbnails in the lesson.

I am still not sure where the format was breaking down for my son. I do know that when there is a video, when the video is complete he has a sense that he is done. If the video was from the last thumbnail on the left, he definitely thinks he is done. He did not see that there is a slider bar to the thumbnails, and that each lesson has about 20 thumbnails, and he is not done for the day until he has worked through all the thumbnails for the day.

As we got into week 2, he was becoming frustrated. He was probably still using the calendar method to get to the next day's lesson and then only watching three thumbnails a day and moving on. He was clearly missing much. At this point I think we've never caught up. I explained that he needs to scroll through and do all the sections of the lesson each day. Is he doing it now? ...the smart computer program tells me he is not. So, we are still a work in progress here.

So, how did we like it? My son seldom likes anything we review. He blew me away when I asked him. He likes it! He likes it! So, while for us it has been a bumpy go, the chance exists that we will continue. We were given six months of high school French, and if we complete the course my son can take 1/2 credit on his transcript, or can take another six months and take a full credit. (I'm not sure how that works, since a school year is at most ten months, but the goal is learning, right?)

Middlebury's High School French I Course is recommended for high school aged students. The earlier one starts, the closer one will get to a level of fluency during high school, so 9th grade is a good time to start.

Middlebury's High School French I Course costs $119, and for that amount you receive the 1 semester (or 6 month) course, but you have access to it for a full year. I was very pleased to hear that because at the rate we are going we will clearly need longer than six months! It  is interactive,  and it grades his work!

Do I have any suggestions for how Middlebury's High School French I Course could be improved? Well, I'm glad you asked! The main thing I would ask for, hope for, if it is possible to make this type of revision, would be that each lesson screen would end with a button that says "NEXT" that the student could click. If not right inside the lesson screen, than right below it. Even better would be a "PREVIOUS" button on the left and a "NEXT" button on the right, so the student could go back and check something he saw but already forgot. That's the only recommendation I have. This is a winner of a program! Some products that we review get set aside when the review period is over. My son likes this program, and we might just finish this one!

If you are interested in reading other Schoolhouse Review Crew reviews of Middlebury Interactive's various foreign language programs, click the button below.

French Essentials - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

My home schooling with my son began many years ago based upon the teachings of Charlotte Mason. One of the concepts of a Charlotte Mason education that I had never successfully implemented was that French was to be a daily part of the child's education. Now, thanks to French Essentials, I have finally begun to teach French to my son.

For many years my son actually resisted my efforts to begin a French program arguing, with good reason, that in our area it was much more practical to study Spanish, And study Spanish we have. However I, having a broader exposure than my son to the world in general, not to mention classical literature, am firmly convinced that it is also important for him to study French. Fortunately our family interest in the television Dr. Who, among other things, seems to have softened his attitude toward French, and he has been willingly working on it with me since we received access to the materials. "Allons y, Alonzo!"

French Essentials, a small company out of Canada, kindly offered selected individuals on the Schoolhouse Review Crew, their Full Access Online Program (one full year, all modules, of their French lessons) for purposes of review. [Fear not, the fact that the company is in Canada does not mean the French is the Canadian version -- this course teaches the universal version of French.] For four to five weeks we have been working our way through the beginning of their program.

When I initially attempted to get started up with the program, I immediately ran into trouble. The program relies strongly on downloaded documents, which are then clickable for audio and video files. What cool technology! I'd never encountered it before and was not familiar with it. But, sadly, as I sat click, click, clicking my mouse, nothing was happening. I emailed the company, and they responded quickly. First they asked me for my phone number and a time when they could call, and then they called when I asked them to. It was much easier to work through the issue by phone than by email, and the issue was quickly resolved. It was related to a setting on my computer that I had been unaware of, having never used this technology. Without help I would not have known what I was looking for or how to change the setting. I also learned that I was speaking directly with Greg Shone, the co-author of the program, and I learned how small a company it actually is. It was such a delight to be dealing right with the owner/author, and to be taken such good care of.

It was also fun to find how much of my high school French I still remember. I might not speak French any better than a French three year old, but when M. Shone wrote me a follow up letter, throwing in a few French phrases, I was delighted that I knew exactly what the phrases meant: 

C'était un plaisir de vous parler ce matin. (It was a pleasure to speak with you this morning.)

Bonne journée! (Have a good day!)

So, finally equipped to get the program to function, we began our journey. Going first to the French Essentials website, there is a row of button choices (Home, Parent Info, Student Area, Purchase, and Free Registration), select Free Registration.  I was going to give you a step-by-step instruction of what to do next, but I found there is a Quick Start video you can watch to see what to do next.

To get started, once you have purchased the program, you can get familiar with how the program works on the "Parent Info" section,