La leçon de Français

My Maman sent me the Méthode Boscher so I can teach my son to read and write in French. It brought back a lot of good memories. How about a little French Lesson?

Les mignonnes petites poires

My old school book had lot of cute illustrations like these, little rows of things, to learn to count too...I already knew how to read fluently when reaching first grade, so I spent hours watching the illustrations after doing my school work.

Quatre petites pommes, où est mon panier?

In a way, being a book worm so very young ( I was reading children's novels on my own by 5) was my passport to become an illustrator.

Voilà mon panier.

I was a fast reader and writer , so I would be finished before the others and then lose myself in the textbook's illustrations. Watching the birds by the window would get me caught by the teacher, so I day dreamed delightfully in my textbooks instead.

Le joli jars aime les jolis jarrets.

Back home I would try again and again to copy the illustrations. It was very difficult, but I enjoyed myself. French textbooks in the seventies had the most delightful illustrations, by authors like François Garnier or Gerda Muller. I loved them so much, I chose reading books as my subject for one of my masters of art memoirs. Studying text books taught me a lot about our society...but this is another story.

Now, I design activity and creative books for children and parents, and I use my favorite text book to teach my son...I guess I went full circle. All that, and more because I couldn't watch by the window...

Idée pour la lutine : sur une feuille bien blanche et sans ligne, dessiner des frises d'objets aimés, tous pareils mais tous différents. S'arrêter et regarder si la ligne est bien droite, les éléments espacés de manière régulière, et tous d'une taille similaire. Non, ça n'est pas facile, essaie pour voir!