Happy Bastille Day: Part Two

We decided to focus on French cultural arts. for our second half of French culture week. Ruth had bought some postcards of famous impressionist paintings, which she cut up into puzzles for the kids to put together.

Next, Ruth read a fabulous children's book titled, "Make Van Gough's Bed." It featured famous impressionist works from a variety of artists, and was very hands on and engaging. Then, I showed pictures of my visit to "Monet's Gardens" and the kids were able to compare photographs of the actual gardens which Monet's paintings of them.

We then gave everyone a sketch pad, and they went out to the backyard to sketch "Ruth's gardens," Monet-style.

To introduce ballet, we watched a segment from an "Angelina Ballerina" DVD, where an instructor demonstrates different dance steps. The kids loved to try these out, and especially enjoyed leaping across the floor.

For our French Monuments portion, we passed out pretzels and gumdrops, and the kids enjoyed trying their hands at creating eiffel towers and arc de triomphes.

We ended our day with a game of "Le Facteur n'est pas passe," which is very similar to "Duck, Duck, Goose," and teaches the kids the days of the week in French.


For our Friday field trip, we went to the art museum and visited the French Masters, and Georgia O Keefe exhibits. We were a bit nervous taking a group of 4 and 5 year olds into such a lovely museum, but we had an exceptional docent, who knew how to communicate on their level, and make the art come alive. for them.

Outside the museum, the kids lunched, and played, and watched an artist sketch the nearby lily pads.
Then, they tried it themselves!!

I was so grateful for the opportunity to share a culture that I love with my friends and my daughter. I wish we had taught Audrey to speak French. (Although I did try, and it was a lot harder than anticipated). Graton has a theory, however, that our kids will get so sick of us speaking French when we don't want them to understand what we're saying, that they'll learn it themselves. I hope someday, we'll be able to visit France, or better yet, live there for a period of time together. In the words of Gertrude Stein, "America is my country, and Paris is my hometown."