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talking to a 3 year old!


opas
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I have been aproached by a lady in the village who does Home help(and therefore knows everyone and everything that goes on) .She has asked me if I would be interested in speaking with a 3 year old French child in English for 2 hours every day. It has been stressed by her that it is payant. I have said I would give it a go. I need to have this on a legal footing, so when I meet the parents I shall ask them to do this through cheques employ.........I would be at the childs house, so assume that they can use this system for the reasons i have given, am I correct?
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Lets put it this way........I will not be doing this as a babysitter, if there is any hint that the child will be my responsibility I will not be doing it. My hubby always said i was not an earth mother[:-))]
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Only my own two children.........but then they are English! 

I too feel that this will be too much but as i have not met the parents yet ,it could all be pie in the sky.  My thought was to sugest that if they want their daughter to learn English then perhaps an hour on wednesdays playing with my youngest  (who would love it, if there were plenty of new activities on offer) and perhaps take it from there. 

My first thoughts when I was approached was "what reason do they have to want a 3 year old to be in another adults company for so long in the day" 

Anyway we shall see........the main reason for this thread was to find out if Cheques employ would be a suitable method of payment for this work

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[quote user="opas"]

Anyway we shall see........the main reason for this thread was to find out if Cheques employ would be a suitable method of payment for this work

[/quote]

Yes, it would be.  I was paid by CESU for teaching English, though my students were ten years older than yours [:D]

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2 hours is a very long time to hold a conversation with a three year old - especially if they don't understand what you're saying! I appreciate the parents' intent but think their approach impractical. Far better would be to surround the 3 year old with English speaking peers/older children for short but regular bursts of time. If that's not possible, half an hour one to one every few days will be ample. It sounds like they are trying to wangle a babysitter!
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That is my thoughts exactly! I have been gardening this morning and plenty of time to daydream/think things through.  There are no other English in the village, so no children tho play with.........I shall sugest as I have already said , that if they are serious , I shall ask my youngest to play and speak only in English to her(mine is 9, but loves to play dollies, colour and make things) and then perhaps a reading book session .....I have plenty of young books , with pictures. I too feel that 2 hours everyday is taking up too much of this childs day using a 2nd language.
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I went for a chat with the mum today.........I certainly shall not be alone  with this little girl,  , the lady who asked me if I was interested , is her "daily" , mum is a doctor, so works strange hours, dad is a pompier so dito, grandma lives around the corner and comes over every day! 

This little girl has been having English conversation on a daily basis with another English lady (who is now returning to UK) I innitially said no as I fet I was being asked to do childminding......but the lady who is leaving , convinced me to have a go. So monday morning at 10 am  I go to meet the little girl......I said we shall give each other a trial , after all she may not like me or vice versa.

Anyway it will give me a chance to play "through the peephole"[:-))]   from what I saw of the house , it looks amazing1

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Well I have spent 3x2hour sessions with the little girl this week. She is very bright and VERY well behaved, she understands a lot of what I am saying to her but will pose questions in french, she will answe me in English when she can, but mum has asked me to tell her in English that I do not undertand what she wants if she asks me for someithing in French........when i do she turns typical tourist and just says it louder ans slower in French[Www]

Any way, we have been looking a t books for most of this week and I have done most of the talking, I suggested playing dollies(dressing them etc for a change) and asked her if we could play with some of her toys...........I am quite saddened, she only had a Dora dressing table with some hair brushes, no sign of dolls, games, paints jigsaws........I do think this well bahaved child thing that the French have is taken too far.

So can anyone suggest to me some games that could be used to keep her interest in learning English........I do not want to be sat at a kitchen table for 2 hours looking at books, I was planning to take some carrotts and apples today to go for a walk to the horses, but it is peeing it down!   I wonder if mum will let us bake some buns in her designer kitchen[:'(]

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Did the cheque d'emploi turn out to be the best solution here? I've been asked to provide similar services before and would love to know if this system works so I could take someone up on it if asked again.

As for kids - each one is different but I recommend hide and seek, jigsaws and I Spy (3 might be pushing it but you say she's clever) plus lots of colouring in and drawing. If the girl is into Dora then if she has DVDs tell the mum to put the english language option on next time she watches (if available). This helped my son lots as he knew the storyline already but then heard it all in french too. TV's not great all the time but it can help. Cooking is always a winner so mess up that designer kitchen at the earliest opportunity! Our list of favourites also include making playdough, banging saucepan lids and gardening but perhaps that wouldn't go down too well....

Jane

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Opas - not sure if she is old enough at three, but a game my daughter's class played in primary school was:

you put about half a dozen photos of animals (or you could use anything I guess) on a table.

You ask her to find the horse and she has too choose from all the animal photos the horse.  You go on to ask her to find the goat, cat, dog, etc.

My daughter's class would do this every year on English Fete Day.  They had the fete each year and would go to the local hall (MJC) where all kinds of game tables were set up.  We would have two teams at each table and the teams would play against each other, earning points if a team won.

Anyway, she may be a bit young, but it could be a fun change of pace.

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We did the "find me the..." game on Friday, I found an educational word game in the cupboard that had some pictures with it, that went down well, we also (or I did) and she mimicked...some songs, ie  incy wincy spider and its raining its poring.........well it was!  which she loved, so i am trying to remember songs from when my 2 were little.

The cheques d'empoi is exactly the way to go, when I asked if she could pay me that way, she seemed releived and it is heaps better for me as I am covered if i have an accident. ie trip up over a toy or slip on the newly cleaned tiles (that wouldn't happen in my house[Www])

All seems to be going well, the weather sounds good for next week so a walk to the horses, and perhaps to the park, I am also plannng on contacting an English family a few miles from me who have a couple of small children to see if we can arrange n hour together once per week(if mum agrees)

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