Turn your kids’ devices into French teachers to help them keep up with French!
Since kids love their smartphones, they might as well take advantage of this time to learn and enrich their French through one of these great apps.
As an adult, it’s relatively easy to learn a language on your own by using your determination. It is different for children.
It is important to provide guidance to them since they are unfamiliar with the language and lack grammatical knowledge. The first few lessons of the child’s learning process should involve their parents, however.
Here we offer a range of 7 best apps for kids to learn French and have fun.
7 Best Apps to Learn French for Kids
1. Gus on the Go
Ages 2-6
The popular French lets children take part in activities such as matching pictures and other games to help Gus the owl on his adventures. Your kid will be able to meet new characters, make them move while exploring the new language.
Orientation to vocabulary is required before users begin the game and story in each section.
This French learning app has a very easy interface that’s a big plus for kids, and something that can be opened quickly while waiting at a doctor’s office.
Besides the free printable that come with Gus on the Go, there are also story puppets, number flashcards, and other fun additions to the app.
2. Mia’s Language Adventure
Ages 6-10
Designed to integrate educational elements into a fun game, the app lets children learn through play. In the game, your child controls Mia, finding clues, picking up items, or making decisions designed to stimulate your child to think.
The game teaches French and Spanish to children between 6 and 10 years old as a second language.
The game’s 14 educational activities teach the elementary vocabulary (objects of everyday life, animals, fruits & vegetables, occupations, family members, etc.;) adjectives, verbs, numbers, prepositions, sentence structure, placing the adjective, verb tenses (present, past, future). All the basics to cover the everyday situations.
3. Mon encyclopédie interactive Dokéo
Ages 6-9
The app answers a lot of questions children have. How does our body work? Who were the Romans? What’s in the sky above our heads? You will still have to answer your children’s whys but with Dokeo it becomes much easier.
They will find a great deal of information there that will accompany and deepen the knowledge mentioned or processed at school. In each topic, several files are available.
Each deals with a particular element of the selected theme. When you choose a file, you discover a landscape or a scene full of details.
As the set opens, a voice-over explains the context. Then, just tap the different details with your finger for more explanation.
With the interactive encyclopedia App, users can fully explore the encyclopedia or take quizzes in a game mode. Each of the five units in the app includes nine interactive scenes: earth and universe, body and history, landscape, and history.
Kids can use this app to practice listening comprehension in French. The activity does not require reading or writing, so it works well for older kids who can understand French.
This series of videos focuses on teaching children how to build languages from the essential building blocks. Apps in the series provide a way to track a child’s progress through the program and reinforce what they have learned.
Their program introduces kids to the fundamentals of French, using words and themes integral to kids’ daily lives such as colors, shapes, counting, and foods.
Little Pim makes sure everything is lively on its app, starting from the lively music, lively animation, and live-action, engaging kids for hours.
A thing parents appreciate the most is that children can learn independently without prior language knowledge. It’s a great tool, with subtitles helping as well with phonetic pronunciations.
Another cool feature is the ability to download lessons, worksheets, and activities, while guides and scripts are available for parents and teachers.
5. Penyo Pal
Ages 2-6
It teaches basic vocabulary in French through flashcards. The game is based on memory games and challenges. They listen or read the word, then match a picture to it.
With 40 words per level and native speaker audio clips, it is designed with beginners in mind. They claim to adapt to the latest advancements in pedagogy, cognitive science, and user-experience design.
To help children learn the phonetic system and grammar, native speakers and certified professors have recorded audio clips.
6. Duolingo
Ages 6+
Kids and adults are being motivated because Duolingo includes gamification in the learning process. Moreover, there are also the language-specific leagues, fluency meter, and reward system. These elements make their users addicted to learning and keep them coming back.
Your child will be able to take a test, however, in case of failure you can’t move on to the next lesson.
After completing a course, your child can review the lessons. There are visual reminders, as well, that will help you know your strength on a particular skill.
Learners in intermediate and advanced levels will benefit from this feature. Reading interactive short stories in the language you’re learning is a great way to improve your language skills.
An interactive quiz will follow after that. You can find out what you learned from the quiz. Additionally, you will see how dialogue is constructed.
7. Mango
Ages 12+
Mango languages offer unique learning experiences for whole families, as well as being tailored to homeschool family needs. Their approach is different, and it’s a rare platform where it is possible to learn languages as a family.
Mango is a very intuitive platform, where the culture and grammar notes make it easier to learn and remember new words. They offer some unique activities such as enjoying a family movie night with Mango Premiere.
It is possible to even make a learning game out of it using the vocabulary words that Mango Premiere previews and play as you watch the film.
Another cool activity is switching roles. You can have your child teaching you the things he’s learning with Mango. You can practice the phrases in Mango that your child has learned after they have completed a unit, and both of you get some practice speaking!
Make Kids Enjoy Learning French
It isn’t easy to learn a new language, and it’s even more challenging to teach a foreign language to a child.
If presented in the right way, children can accept the learning process with enthusiasm. While it keeps them busy for hours, it also teaches them skills that will be helpful in the future.
Along with telling them facts about the country and the people, you can use an array of apps to make the process a lot easier and more fun for your child.
