Boowa et Kwala have filled our lives with the joy of singing and dancing in our target language! Thanks to UpToTen.com, the "Sunny Earth Kids," Soleil and Géo, go around the house joyfully singing and dancing in French! I end up singing a lot of their songs and I often change the words to fit whatever is going on at that moment. I find that narrating our life, sometimes through singing, is one way I can keep the language input at a maximum without sounding like a narrator.
For anyone wanting fun, free resources for French or English, then UpToTen's Boowa & Kwala may be for you. It is geared toward young children and is available in English by clicking on the little flag that is found between the "Chercher" and the "Parents" icons at the top of the page. Depending on where you are in the site, the option to change the language may vary:
You can purchase the premium version that offers an ad-free version. There is also a version for schools!
The children are really enjoying the games section. I will write a future blog post about the games. When the kids were too young to play the awesome games, we used to listen to "les chansons non-stop" which has over 90 adorable songs with fun animations. We listened to these songs so many times that I have memorized several of the tunes and some of the lyrics. These are the songs that I change the words to in order to narrate our daily life and to create some fun kinesthetic moments in French. Here's an example of a favorite song that came to mind as we checked out our "new dance floor" which now is our living room:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/J5GBTw5Qujo]
Check out the adorable animation the above song came from. I can remember when the kids were younger, we used to play "La danse des bouées" and the children would follow the lead of Boowa et Kwala, falling dizzily to the floor at the end in hysterics! Sometimes they'd get me to join them. Writing this now is making me want to remind them of these times and see if they want to try it again! It is so perfect for language learning since they are actually acting out what they're singing.
Every song in this section has a little "P" by the control buttons at the bottom left corner. The "P" stands for "paroles," so by clicking the lyrics will pop up. I love this feature. Sometimes I needed that visual of the lyrics to be able to sing fast enough to keep up in French. I am not a native-speaker, after all, and I've been teaching Spanish for 15 years! I really appreciate this little "P"!!!!
Here are some examples of other songs that we listened to over and over that include something interactive and/or repetitious to boost children's language acquisition.
Les grenouilles: Song that teaches how to count up to six, and we always like to croak like frogs at the appropriate moment! CROA! As a lover of puns, I loved the play on the words "quoi" and "croa"! :)
Bisou, câlin et doudou: I have sung Boowa's part as a lullaby for my little loves.
Dodo Boowa et Kwala: Another lullaby that we just love.
Moi je t'aime et toi tu m'aimes: A sweet song about friendship.
Dans ma potion: It doesn't have to be October for us to still seek this silly song out. The children are both really good about saying "Non merci" and I believe I have this song to thank! One of their all time favorite games actually goes along with this song. It's called "La potion de Boowa" and it's one of the games they still need my help with. I think they will keep at it until they don't need me anymore, though, since they think it's hilarious.
Quelle couleur avons-nous?: Love the art lesson included in this song.
L'expérience donne l'expérience: I love the message this song provides!
Peux-tu marcher comme un canard: This is another great song that packs a punch of language learning! We just followed Boowa's lead by copying Kwala and voilà! The kids internalized the meaning of the verbs "marcher," "nager," "voler," and "parler."
Il pleut, ça mouille: This is a very popular song...especially since we live where it rains quite a bit! It may be grey and rainy out when we sing it, but for some reason this song always makes us smile!
Noël est déjà là: Another pleasantly repetitious ditty. I am certain that Soleil and Géo understand the future tense and the verb "gâter" thanks to this song!
Même pas peur: This is another popular song in our household. The words have been changed up for the appropriate situation, but the "même pas peur" part is always the same. The children enjoy this song as it makes them feel brave in a painful situation.
J'aime te câlins: We sing the "câlins tout doux" part of this all the time.
Souris, fais cheese: Love the silly rhymes and especially "Truc qui finit en ise" that Boowa sings! LOL
Picnic: I don't know why, but this little tune is probably my all time favorite from Boowa et Kwala. It's really hard to choose just one, but I'd have to say this is it. Maybe it's because of the pure joy that dear little Kwala exudes by singing this song and doing her little happy dance. We do the happy dance with her as she sings! Sometimes I find myself singing this song, but most of the time we're not going on a picnic, so I'll change up the words to fit the fun occasion.
I could keep going on and on about the adorable songs and animations! Why don't you check them out for yourself! Here's a handy spot to choose by monthly themes. It's called "Events" and is one of our favorite go-to spots for some interactive fun with Boowa et Kwala.
Finally, another great thing about this website is that they seem to have something for many of the holidays we celebrate. For instance, check out this cute musical gift a child can create for their mom on Mother's Day! Fun stuff like this can be found on the Events page I just mentioned above.
We are so grateful to the creators of UpToTen.com. It is all around good, clean, engaging fun! The website states that it's geared towards 0-10 year olds, but I am definitely out of that range by a few decades and sometimes I find myself taking my own turn after the kids! The music fills our heads and we use it in our daily life. Being the only person my children hear French from, and a non-native speaker at that, websites like this are so appreciated! They are helping us provide fun with French to our children and that is the best gift we could ask for! So we'd like to say "Merci beaucoup", Up To Ten!!! You rock our Sunny Earth!
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