[luinfrance]

Hello

I am into my second month of teaching English (privately) once a week to a group of "3-6" yr olds in France. Actually the group consists of 1-7 yr olds from time to time, and the mix of abilities is enormous. They are as follows;
- A 7 & 3 yr old, trilingual (French, English, Serbian)
- 2 x 5 yr olds, bilingual (English/ French)
- 2 x nearly 3 yr old French
- 1 x 5 yr old French
- 1 x 11 month old French

I start with the hello song, we have worked on animals, colours, numbers, body parts via books, flashcard games, charades, songs, colouring, playdough etc etc (not all at the same time!).

I am writing to you all for some advice because today after having such a mixed group and it being slightly chaotic, 2 of the mums (who either sit in or hang around ) had different suggestions ... one French mum suggested that next trimester I should break the bilingual kids up from the french kids, and another mum suggested i should break the much younger kids up from the older kids. I agree that the under 3's have a much shorter attention span and shouldn't be in the group, but I am not sure that breaking the bilingual kids up from the french kids is a) helpful or b) feasible as I am on my own and haven't got eyes or ears in the back of my head.

What would you do in my situation? I bring my 5 yr old son with me and I am fairly limited with the amount of time I have available ...

Looking forward to your advice!
Lu