CHILDREN’S LESSONS
GROUP LESSONS, a brief “sabbatical” to offer even better classes, and more languages and staff!
POTOMAC MARYLAND Lessons are available for ages 4 - 6 and toddlers and
babies.
See “CUSTOM LESSONS FOR CHILDREN, GROUPS, OR SCHOOLS” for this location and
others.
For twenty years, Petit Centre Francophone has offered quality group lessons in various locations to children from six months to eighteen years old. Close to a thousand children have passed through our doors and learned to understand and speak basic French; many have become fluent. Those who have come to our classes as children frequently tell us that in high school, they are “A” students. Junior high and senior high students being in difficulties in French class tell us that their grade go up one to two levels. Recently, a student from Holton Arms studied with us this summer. Her grades last year in French were 66%; this year her quizzes are in the ninetieth percentile.
We are changing our website, our organization, and our offerings. For a few months, we’re taking a sabbatical from group class offerings. While we position ourselves to add Spanish and Chinese, we’re also investigating new space, which will allow us to grow. In the meantime, we are still teaching children in local schools, and private homes. Our group classes will return between January and March. We will announce them soon. We apologize to our longtime clients for this temporary inconvenience. Please call us at 301 770-2937 with any questions you have.
CUSTOM LESSONS FOR CHILDREN, GROUPS, OR SCHOOLS, call 301 770-2937 for further information.
Potomac, Maryland Wednesdays
1:15pm - 2:25pm: Private group has openings for mother/child class
French through art projects and songs
Location: Potomac Falls
Format: Ages 4 - 6, with a parent
Material: colors, numbers, animals, body parts and general nursery school
vocabulary through art projects and songs. Parents and children participate
together.
Levels: Mixed ages, all levels. Speaking whole language and using age-appropriate
activities allows the teacher to integrate beginners, and all levels, including
fluent children for the ages of the class. Activities are age-appropriate.
Techniques: These classes are “guided immersion.” English is used for orienting
children, for safety issues, and to teach language-learning skills. Most
activities, after established are taught exclusively in French. Ultimately, most
of the class becomes an immersion activity. Mothers learn skills with the
children and activities to follow-up at home are suggested.
Cost: $253.00 for eleven one hour ten minute classes
Materials: Bring poster paints, scissors, markers, crayons, pencils, a smock and
paint brushes for your child.
Dates: October 24 - January 16
Call 301 770-2937 for information. Send payment, name, child’s name, and why
you’re interested in French to enroll at PO Box 56 Rockville, MD 20848-0056.
Private Classes in Potomac or Bethesda Available: Time Wednesday mornings to create a class in your chosen space. You can gather the groups, or we can seek other members. Currently, several mothers with two year olds are interested in joining a group in Potomac or Bethesda.
Custom Spanish Classes can be planned for January through June.
Other Locations:
Virginia: Mondays, am or pm.
Columbia, Greenbelt or Baltimore: Fridays. Last class must end by 1:30pm.
Other locations: Contact us, and let’s see what we can provide.
French available now; Spanish from January on.
Plan now, we’re almost booked in French, and Spanish will fill quickly.
WHAT’S AVAILABLE FOR CUSTOM GROUPS?
This can be done for French or ESL now and Spanish, from January through June.
- Choose the concentration of the lessons. We always use an activity coupled with the language taught: art, music, movement and dance, theatre and music, science, arts and crafts, nature, a combination of activities.
- Tutoring groups can be organized for junior or high school students. These classes, in both private and public schools, tend to be hard for some students to learn to hear and speak the language. A few sets of group study lessons can remedy this. Private lessons are available too.
- Choose the age group and the length of the lessons.
- Choose a location (personal home, community center, a school)
- Decide if you want to start the group and have us advertise it or if you want to have a group chosen by you.
- We will let you know the cost and suggest a schedule.
- We are responsible for the curriculum, but reserve the right to adapt and revise it according to the needs and response of the group. For example, if the mothers choose arts and crafts, but the children have limited manual manipulation skills and lack an interest in such activities, we may suggest a variation, or offering simpler crafts, supplemented with more physical activities for the group.
- We will choose the vocabulary sets together.
- Decide if the group will be parents and children, or the children alone.