Around this time last year, I wrote a blog post about how I use French seek-and-find books to teach my kids French at home. One year later, I am happy to report that both my children still enjoy them. One such book that has recently captivated my two-year-old, Tara, is Cherche et trouve des tout-petits : dans les comptines by Auzou. This particular book stands out because each of the nine scenes featured in it is based on popular French nursery rhymes that promote language learning in an enjoyable way.
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Famous French Nursery rhymes in the book:
- Une souris verte
- Un éléphant qui se balançait
- La famille tortue
- Au clair de la lune
- Un grand cerf
- Promenons-nous dans les bois
- Cadet Rouselle
- Savez-vous planter les choux?
- Il était un petit navire
Singing in French
I usually sing each song to Tara while using my hands to point out words I’m saying and make gestures and movements, which she loves to copy. While she’s not yet singing the songs with me, she knows many of the words and will now point to corresponding images when she hears them.
Finding images in the legend
When we first got the book, I would point to the images in the legend and ask her to find them in the picture.
Where is the mouse? Où est la souris?
Repeating the words
As her language skills developed, I started asking her to repeat some of the shorter, simpler words. It then became sort of a bit of a habit for her to say the words after she found them.
Increasing the difficulty
When that got too easy for her, I started asking her to find elements that were in the song, but not in the legend. In Une souris verte, she liked searching for all the snails (les escargots). To make things more interesting, we started counting the snails or looking for specific colours such as the red hat in the picture (le chapeau rouge). There were also certain objects that she recognized and liked pointing to and naming out loud, like the houses (les maisons) or the sun (le soleil).
Enjoying some friendly competition
While Tara loves to read the book with me, what she likes the most is when she gets to compete with her sister! They both get so excited and competitive as each of them tries to be the first to find the picture. It really is such a wonderful sigh as a parent: seeing them laughing and having fun!
Other than the language benefits of this musical seek-and-find book, we love it because it’s a book that can evolve with the kids as they get older. We’ve had the book for a while now, and it still brings Tara as much joy as when she first started discovering it. There are always new words, colours, and concepts that make Cherche et trouve des tout-petits : dans les comptines a book that she requests we read over and over again together.
Here are a few other French seek-and-find books to check out, depending on your child’s interests.
How do you use seek-and-find books to teach your kids French at home? Please share what works for your family in the comments!
