Presenting: Let's Cook! with the Zazoo

This is my book!!!

It's the book I wrote with the people from Little Bilingues. For those who have stumbled on this very dormant blog (and for those who know me), a lot of this blog has been about exploring my children's budding bilingualism. Using my kids as guinea pigs, along with the kids I have in my cooking workshops here in Lille, I developed a bunch of kid friendly recipes. The cookbook, Let's Cook with the Zazoo! is a fun way to help kids learn English through cooking. The book is geared towards parents and their kids as well as teachers, schools...pretty much anyone who wants their kids to learn English in a different way. It's real hands on learning.

If you don't know Little Bilingues, take a look. There are cute books and lots of activities, all of them aimed at helping kids learn French or English, depending on your need.

If you would like to know more about the cookbook, you can leave a post here or contact Little Bilingues directly. Say I sent you :)

Storytime : spring has sprung!

Storytime at the Wazemmes Library has really taken off. The February dates were successful. The Saturday reading took place on the Saturday that school vacation started. Since my mother was our “guest reader”, I recruited some friends to make sure there’d be at least some kids. And to my surprise, the room was overflowing with both kids and their parents! There were at least 20 people crammed into the little room at the back of the Médiatheque Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier!

We didn’t have a French librarian with us that day, so I took over the French part (at one point reading the English instead! Old habits die hard). My mother and I read a couple of books in bilingual format to get the kids acquainted and then I let my mother do her librarian thing. She told the story of Joseph’s little overcoat, using paper and scissors to tell the story. She then read a couple of simple books in English, finishing with an English translation of a French book called Press Here (or Un Livre) by Hervé Tullet which is a book that screams for crowd participation. But the kids wouldn’t participate. By the time my mother was done, all of the kids were grabbing and pressing and shaking the book (this is normal behavior for this book which asks the reader to do all those things to move the spots around on the pages).

My mother observed how reticent the kids were. Where American kids would have been geting up and repeating the words or pressing the book, the French kids sat still and listened. This harkens back to my participation theory of the French which I’ve already observed in professional settings. But I digress...

March story time dates are Wednesday, March 21st at 3:30PM and Saturday, March 31st at 10:30AM .

Here is a list of books we have read so far and which seem to work well in the bilingual setting and format. There are both books in French and English, and there are some bilingual in the text.

• Le Machin/ the Thing by Stéphane Servant and Cécile Bonbon
• Bark George/ Aboie George by Jules Feiffer
• What a Radish! / Quel radis dis donc!  by Praline Gay-Para and Andrée Prigent  
• Little Blue, little Yellow / Petit Bleu, Petit Jaune by Leo Lionni
• A Color of His Own  / Une histoire de cameleon  by Leo Lionni
• The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog/ Le Pigeon Trouve un Hotdog by Mo Willems
• What Faust Saw/ La Nuit de Faust by Matt Ottley
• Yummy / Je te croquerai byLucy Cousins
• Elephant and Piggie : there’s a bird on your head / Un Oiseu sur la tête by Mo Willems
• I like Books/J’aime les livres by Anthony Brown
• Willy the Dreamer / Marcel le reveur  by Anthony Brown
• My Dad / Mon Papa by Anthony Brown
• My Mum / Ma Maman by Anthony Brown
• I Want My Dinner/ Je Veux Manger by Tony Ross
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear / Ours Brun, Ours Brun by Eric Carle
• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt /  La Chasse à l'ours by Helen Oxenbury
• Tralalire : Ours Bleu et Tigre Rouge - a bilingual text from issue 116 from july 2010)
• La maitresse dit hello by Kris di Giacomo
• Tout le Dit Hello by Kris di Giacomo
• Farmer Duck / Le canard fermier by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury
• Press Here / Un Livre - Hervé Tullet
• Come Out and Play Little Mouse  /Viens jouer avec moi, petite souris! x by Robert Kraus, Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey

Other books in English that work well for a non-English speaking group:

• Cat the Cat by Mo Willems
• Orange, Pear, Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
• Press Here by Hervé Tullet
• Monday Spaghetti by Eric Carle
• Jazzy in the Jungle by Lucy Cousins
• ABCs by Bruno Munari
• Red Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton

US Consulate 2012, Joseph's overcoat and me.

Yesterday I made my quasi-annual trip to Paris to visit the Americans. At one point, I actually dreaded the Consulate because of a run-in with a rude French woman who poissoned the American atmosphere for me with her French administrative ways. But now that I have two kids, the Consulate seems to be old hat (although I'm always scared they'll refuse me a passport because I'm not American enough or something).

Since my mom's visiting, I turned it into a family outing, dragging tow kids and my mom down to Paris along with everything possible to prove Suzanne's American-ness as well as my own. when we arrived at the security gate, the guards emptied our bags with smiles and jokes. I began to wonder if they had been briefed on American courtesy and customer service. Max was not amused when they confiscated the lollypops from my bag and told him they were going to eat them. After they'd checked us out, they said "Welcome to the United States" at which point I realized that, actuality it technically was the US. Suzanne asked why there were guards and I tried to explain in 5 year old terms about global terrorism. As we walked into the Consulate waiting room, Suzanne asked me in her not-so-soft 5 year old voice if Obama was dead.

While we waited, Suzanne, my mom and I played "I spy" while Max slept in his stroller. "I spy something brown," said Suzanne. "The man's hair? The woman's shoes?" "No, Mommy! It's Obama," she said as she pointed to the picture of Obama looming over the Consulate's waiting room alongside a huge TV tuned into CNN and a picture of Hillary Clinton.  I tried to explain to Suzanne all about Hillary Clinton but I don't think she got it. I also tried to explain what the Consulate was (ie Obama's friends in France) but she didn't seem to care.

Once I'd given all the paperwork to the nice French man who processed our papers, I went back to sit mulling over the display of IRS documents. I eventually stood up and grabbed a copy for a rainy day(any readers know about filing taxes?). Interesting indeed but for another time.

When the consular officer finally called us over, he took my paperwork, including the consent form my husband phinageled the Mairie to sign (note: the city hall will no longer sign documents for you like they used to do. Before, they would notarize things for you. now, they can only notarize your signature but not the content of the document). I had to hold up my right hand (I held up my left) and take an oath that this little girl clinging to me was indeed my daughter. The officer then asked Suzanne if I was really her mother. His way of asking was so nice, but yet so serious. It made me realize that he was doing a security check. He then asked if I had an pictures of Suzanne since her expired passport had a 6 week old on it and now there was an almost 6 year old standing before him. He nicely explained to me that you can already see certain facial traits from a young age. Luckily Suzanne passed the test and he even called her adorable.

After the consulate, the kids chased pigeons in the Tuillerie in a very non-French (read noisy way). As my kids ran around roaring at the pigeons, I had a Pamela Druckermann moment realizing that all the other kids around us were composed and quiet.

We then moved on to the Marais to eat falafel, visit the Jewish bakery and the Jewish bookstore where Max pointed to most of the books telling me he had them at home. I was surprised to see Sammy Spider in French and even more surprised to see Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, my favorite book from when I was little.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in a park watching the kids play. In fact, the day was more American than Parisian.

And as I got off the train in Lille last night and my kids ran down the platform to meet their father, I realized something: this is a really cool life.

story time: the rebirth

Story time is finally coming to life! I didn't realize the beginning would be so rough...or that the rough period would last so long. We are celebrating a whole year.

Since the new director arrived at the library, everything's been looking up! My counterpart librarian and I have a rhythm and a solid and fun repertoire now so the readings are smooth. Last Saturday, there were 2 new families; last Wednesday, there were 2 returning families (plus my friends who have been endlessly supportive of this endeavor!).

The head librarian has been answering emails that were left untouched for months, among them a request for Saturday "camp" to come to the readings (20 kids!). We also have dates booked through June, including a reading at the Gare St. Sauveur during the Braderie des Livres. The Gare St. Sauveur is an unused freight train station transformed into an amazing cultural space in Lille.

People have been coming to me saying they have seen the posters up around town, including Story time with Rebecca (et l'équipe jeunesse de la bibliothèque). It's all very exciting. 

But the best part ? It's the kids...My kids really appreciate the language play, where we intermingle French and English in the same story. It reinforces their own bilingualism. As for the monolingual kids, it's showing them that language is fun and accessible. They really enjoy the stories and the new words! An, of course, discovering new books like, The Thing/ Le Machin, is always good.

I'll continue to post future dates here. Come one, come all!

April Storytime: a blessing

I was wondering if my storytime was maudit (or cursed) because 2 days before storytime, the head librarian called me to tell me that Emilie - the librarian who I was supposed to do storytime with - had changed services and she wasn't sure who would be my french speaking counterpart. Since I couldn't come meet with the librarians beforehand, I gave her the idiot's guide to storytime.

When my brood and I arrived for storytime, there were already some familiar faces waiting for us. In fact, all of the faces were familiar since they were all part of my following ie people who I know or who I've personally invited. I was really glad to see Rachael and her two boys (she's a faithful reader). Just as we were about to begin storytime, a woman and her young son walked in. I didn't know them. Yay! I'll take that as a sign of success. In fact, storytime was published in the official Lille library agenda which means that anyone who cared to pick it up at any one of the branch libraries in Lille would have seen storytime on the dochet. Once again, there was a librarian from another branch present as an observer.

Marie - my new counterpart - and I took about 45 seconds to go through the plan and then started. We begin with the welcome song, followed by two bilingual books where she read the FRench and I read the English : Ma Cousine Dit Hello and a bilingual tale from a kid's magazine called Tralalire. We then read Bark George (Aboies George) by Jules Feiffer and I Like Books (J'aime les Livres) by Anthony Brown. A round of Head and Shoulders was thrown in there as well.

The kids seemed happy! The bilingual format worked well. I read a page in English followed by Marie who read the same page in French. It worked well because the books were short. But if we'd chosen longer books, I would have opted for an alternating style where I read one page and then she read the next page in French.

Even Suzanne best friend (the one who wanted me to read in French last time) was interested. I realized that the reason the library hasn't been pushy about it is because they are very excited about storytime but don't want to ask too much of me. Au contraire, ask ask! So, instead of storytime being cursed, I think it's blessed.

The next storytime is scheduled for May 18th at 3:30 PM. There is also a date in June. More dates to come...

Trilingual Max?

I didn't believe him when he said it for Suzanne. But maybe I should believe my husband this time around when he says Max's English is better than his French.

At just over 12 months, Max is still not saying much but understands a lot. He says mama, papa, buh for bird, ba for ball and makes various animal sounds (fish, lion and dog). But his mouth and body are in constant motion. As with Suzanne, I never speak directly to Max in French. He of course hears me speaking French to French speakers, but never to our family. Max clearly understands simple commands (with and without hand gestures) and questions like "come to Mommy", "do you want milk?", "dance" (he bops his head), "splash", "sleep" (he puts his head down) and "wake up". And like his sister, he seems to be very good with people and faces. He recognizes the names of all of his family (including uncles and grandparents as well as cats) in addition to close friends.

Until last week, Max was being watched by an Algerian woman who spoke to him in both French and Arabic. So, when Jerome says that Max was hearing more English than French, it may be the truth. And who knows how much Arabic Max has actually absorbed! Max started at the crèche yesterday, but I hope that the residual effects of hearing Arabic so early will manifest later.

I am happy to report that Suzanne is still speaking to Max mostly in English which provides him with that much more exposure to the minority language. We've also made great progress with reading. At 1 year old, Suzanne and I were reading books like Charlie and Lola and I Lost My Bear by Jules Fieffer (she's now beginning Roald Dahl at night!). Until last month, Max couldn't get through a page of a picture book without taking it from my hand, closing it to look at the cover, reopening to study the picture inside and reclosing it (I get the impression that he is comparing the cover picture to the picture inside). But in the past couple days, we have finally made it through 3 books (the same number I read to Suzanne every night). I find that if I mix up the types of books - a lift-the-flap, a textured book, and a book with highly contrasting drawings like Maisy - he doesn't loose interest so quickly. Lack of reading has been my main concern with Max's lanauge acquisition because I firmly believe that reading with my children is a key to their successful bilingualism.

And just because I'm a doting mother and I think my kids are so cute, here's a little picture of Suzanne and Max on vacation in Burgundy.


PS I'm looking for an American babysitter so if any of my readers know someone in Lille, leave a comment!