Sunday 5 August 2012

Twinkling star to Shining stars...

In the beginning


As a bilingual mother (French-English) I was keen for my son to learn French too.
I had learned a lot of English nursery rhymes during story time at our local library and searched on the net for the words of the few French nursery rhymes I could remember from my childhood.

However I found some of the French nursery rhymes were not sending the right educational message, some being rather cruel, others encouraging to eat sweets for example.

A change of tune


Our son loved the melody of twinkle, twinkle little star.  However I did not like words the words of the French version; 

'Ah ! vous dirai-je, maman
Ce qui cause mon tourment ?
Papa veut que je raisonne
Comme une grande personne
Moi je dis que les bonbons
Valent mieux que la raison'.


Oh let me tell you mummy 
what is causing my torment
Daddy wants me to reason
like a big person
I say that sweets 
Are better than reason. 

 One day


I wondered whether I could translate the English version of twinkle twinkle little star into French, whilst keeping the rhyme, the meaning and the melody. This would mean I could effectively sing the same song in English and in French. 

To my amazement it worked, so I kept going with other well known English nursery rhymes which I liked.

While researching the English nursery rhymes on the web, I discovered some had  more verses than were usually sung.  To me this made singing them more interesting, though more challenging to translate so all the more exciting when it worked.

In the end 

As a volunteer at my local Children's centre I was 'testing' the songs out on the children there during sessions called rhymes from around the world.

This encouraged me to translate more and eventually I ended up with 14. At which point I thought it was worth compiling the rhymes into a book with CD.

It then occurred to me that I could use these songs to help children learn French in Nurseries, pre-schools and reception year of primary schools. I set about running a session at my son's pre-school 'Shining stars'.

It was such success they want more.

If you are interested in hosting a bilingual 30 to 45 min songs and rhyme session then please get tin touch.