Description
French 1 Course Overview
This class is approved by the NCAA.
This class is part of the MyFunScience live online homeschool classes, which provide structured instruction for middle school and high school students. Families can explore all of our foreign language courses for homeschool students.
This live online French 1 class helps homeschool students begin developing confidence in speaking, reading, and understanding French. Students build vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension through engaging lessons designed to make language acquisition natural and meaningful.
After more than 20 years of teaching foreign languages, this course blends proven classroom experience with the Comprehensible Input (TPRS) approach to language learning. Instead of focusing primarily on memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary lists, students learn through engaging stories, conversation, and reading they can easily understand. This approach helps students naturally build comprehension, confidence, and the ability to communicate in the language.
This method equips every learner — from gifted students to those with dyslexia — to succeed in learning a new language.
While students will speak and converse often, this class is far more than conversational practice. Grammar is learned through meaning, repetition, and focused explanations as language is acquired naturally through understanding.
Students begin speaking, understanding, and reading French from the first week and grow quickly in confidence and ability.
Course Overview
- High School Credit: 1 credit
- Recommended Grade Level: High school or motivated 8th graders
- Format: Weekly live online French class
- Prerequisite: None
What Class Looks Like
Watch a Sample Live Online Class Session
What Your Student Will Learn in French 1
Parents often ask what their student will actually be doing throughout the year. The document below explains the learning goals, classroom approach, and how students grow in understanding and confidence.
Download the French 1 Learning Summary (PDF)
Course Structure & Expectations
Students should plan on 30–40 minutes of work each day, four days per week, in addition to the live class session. Consistent at-home work is foundational to language acquisition.
Students will work through the course text and read one or two novels entirely in French, depending on class progress. Because we incorporate significant “out-of-text” material, the class moves through the text intentionally and thoroughly.
Scripture memory is included, along with praise songs, hymns, contemporary music, cultural exploration, foods, and games.
Parents: Please contact me if your student has dyslexia or other learning differences. This teaching approach is often very successful for those students.
Benefits of Learning French
Learning a foreign language provides academic, cultural, and career benefits. It also deepens students’ understanding of their own language.
Languages exist for communication and relationship. Through language, we build connections with people around the world — and these relationships provide opportunities to share the love and truth of the Gospel.
What Families Are Saying
I want to tell you how very impressed I am with your approach to teaching language…
We have been so pleased with all our daughter has learned in your class this year — we are definitely signing up for French 2!
You made my journey through French 1 to 3 immensely enjoyable… I am especially grateful for the way that you always kept Christ at the center and focus of our work.
Required Materials
Novels Required: (First novel required about the fourth week of class)
- Le Capybara Botté (Canion)
- Rhumus à Paris (Marrama & Piron)
- La France en Danger et les Secrets de Picasso (Canion) (Possibly used in second semester)
Société Honoraire de Français
Beginning after French 2, high-achieving students may be eligible for induction into the Société Honoraire de Français, the national French Honor Society.
We are one of the few homeschool-based chapters in the country and are excited to offer this honor to our students.
Complete French Program
This class is part of the MyFunScience French program, a sequence of live online homeschool classes designed to help students develop strong French language skills over multiple levels.
Students can progress through the full sequence while strengthening vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and conversational ability.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a live online French class?
Yes. Students attend a weekly live online class where the teacher guides discussions, storytelling activities, and language practice.
Is this class designed for homeschool students?
Yes. This French class is specifically designed for homeschool students who want structured instruction and a supportive classroom environment.
Does this class earn high school credit?
Yes. French 1 earns one full high school foreign language credit.
What comes after French 1?
Students typically continue with French 2, French 3, and French 4 to complete a full high school language sequence.
