La Reprise
What to say when your child answers in English
Every parent raising a child in a second language meets this moment, usually within a fortnight. You ask in French. They answer in English. And here's the reframe that changes everything: they understood you. The French went in. All that's missing is your next line, and that's exactly what this library holds.
Don't correct. Correction teaches a child that the second language is a test they can fail, and the reliable response to a test you can fail is avoidance.
Recast instead. Say their meaning back to them in French, naturally, and continue.
Child: "I want more"
Tu veux encore ? Tiens, encore un peu.
Child: "that's mine"
Oui, c'est à toi. C'est ton camion.
Child: "I don't like it"
Tu n'aimes pas ça ? D'accord, tu n'es pas obligé.
Child: "one more story"
Encore une histoire ? D'accord, une dernière.
Three things are happening: they hear the correct form immediately after producing their own version; nothing has been marked as wrong; and the conversation continues, which is the actual goal.
When the same mistake settles in
Somewhere down the road your child will get stuck. Not on French in general, on one particular thing, and they will make the same error so consistently that it starts to sound right to both of you. Past tenses are the usual culprit: il marché à l'école, again and again, for weeks.
This is a plateau, and it is a normal part of the road rather than a sign anything has gone wrong. What it needs is not correction, which only teaches avoidance, but a flood of the correct version in a context they care about. So make the past tense the game.
Take photos through the day, then look at them together at bedtime and report what happened. Nous sommes allés au parc. J'ai mangé une pomme. Tu as sauté dans les flaques boueuses. They hear the correct form five or six times inside two minutes, attached to a memory they were part of, which is worth more than fifty corrections.
Then be patient about it. These stalls come with hesitations, backtracking and odd little inventions, and they pass. Patience, a prompt when it helps, and plenty of encouragement smooth the ride better than accuracy ever will.
The library
La Reprise holds the things children actually say, in English, sorted by developmental stage and by ritual, each with its French recast. It's searchable, so you can look up "won't put shoes on" at 8:04am and find the line.
It took longer to build than everything else in Petit à Petit put together. It's also the reason families are still going strong at month six, because the hardest moment of the day always has a next line ready.
La Reprise is included with Le Dodo.
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