Tip Top! French will amuse and motivate your child to learn le français. No doubt about it!
Tip Top! is a curriculum developed for children 9 to 11 years-old by Editions Didier. I received Tip Top! Level 1 free, in exchange for my thorough and complete review.
What We Received
We received the student book, activity book, and the audio CD. These 3 items plus a teacher’s guide, and a class pack, make up the complete package. Though we didn’t receive the teacher’s guide, I downloaded it for free at their website (click on “Accȇder à la ressource”). So, we got all we needed for our homeschool.
What to Expect
You must know that everything is written only in French. Everything. I believe they may use this curriculum in France with kids who study French as their second language. If you don’t read at least basic French, this will likely not be a good fit for you. But if you can get by (like me), Tip Top! is an excellent choice for children in the targeted age group.
I can understand most of what’s in the Teacher’s Guide or Guide Pȇdagogique. Since the guide is aimed for classroom use, I skip over many of the instructions. You can probably be just fine without the teacher’s guide altogether. In fact, this is what happened to us. I hadn’t realized I could download the guide until after we finished Lesson 1. Nevertheless, the Teacher’s Guide does give you an overall good idea of what’s to be done each the unit.
The Student Book or Livre Élève has all that you need to get the lesson going. Throughout each unit the child needs to listen to the audio, speak, read, write, play a game, and do a creative portfolio or atelier. An icon on top of each section indicates the type of activity, so you know what to expect right away.
The corresponding exercise for that particular section appears in the Activity Book. Typical French landmarks and cuisine introduce cultural awareness through the atelier activity. The activity book also has a space for the child to auto-assess himself in each section. He’s able to track his progress in the following:
- comprehension of the songs or dialogues
- readings
- speaking of the most salient unit’s phrases
- playing the games
- writing of particular unit’s words
Here are some samples in PDF if you’d like to peek inside Tip Top! 1:
- Overview
- Table of contents
- Unit 1
How We Used Tip Top! French
Using Tip Top! is easy and straight-forward. We open where we left off and continue with what’s indicated. Super Hero enjoys the games and the songs the most of course. He even played some songs while we worked on different subjects, like grammar and history –in English! Talk about a good sign that it is working! Right?
Here’s how you can get to know Tip Top! a little better –hopefully!:
Listening and coloring feminine with pink and masculine with blue
Practicing French writing in the activity book Tip Top! 1
Playing games to in the activity book to practice the lesson
Creating a French culture portfolio or atelier
Working on his French culture atelier
Our Opinion About Tip Top! French
What makes Tip Top! work so well is the variety of activities, the upbeat songs and the simple, yet fun, games. The illustrations are lively and colorful. Super Hero enjoys “experiencing” school through the kids in the lessons. All these make Tip Top! appealing and fun! But don’t take my word for it, here’s the almost-9-year-old Super Hero sharing his opinion:
In a Nutshell
Both Super Hero and I loved Tip Top!
I am so glad I discovered it and had the opportunity to review it. Many thanks to Marguerite and Editions Didier for producing this wonderful, spot-on-for-kids French curriculum. We look forward to continue to enjoying the rest of level 1, and then moving on to levels 2 and 3.
These are the vendors who carry Tip Top! here in the US, in case you’d like to give it a try too:
Schoenhof’s Foreign Books
European Books & Media
What to Learn More?
If you’d like to learn more about Editions Didier, please visit them at their website or Facebook account!
