This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark of the Charlotte Mason method: narration. Have you ever heard of it? What would you like to know? 

I’m focusing heavily on how we use narration in our homeschool, but if you have specific questions about it, I would love for you to 1. Take the poll in my stories, and 2. Ask any questions you may have about narration in the comments so that I can answer them in my video! ❤️
Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encoura Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encourage those who are intentionally making a better life for their children than what they may have experienced as kids. It is not easy to change the cycle, but it’s well worth the effort. 

In the words of Louisa May Alcott, “A woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor is the art of ruling it not as a queen, but a wise wife and mother."
📚 We are moving right along with term three of 📚 We are moving right along with term three of our school year. Slow but steady, we will finish up mid June and I’ll begin prepping for next school year in July and August! 📚

Here’s some of my random old and new tips + what I’ve been doing to help keep organized with the CMEC. 

01. Keep a regular day for nature outings or field trips. We have two days a week where I intentionally plan a hike or museum visit, etc. One is usually at the middle of the week and the other is at the end. It offers great variety to our weeks.

02. Notebook! I have had the girls consistently notebook this year, and it’s been such a delight to go back and see my form 1b student’s progress! I have a video coming out about how we notebook and why you should try it very soon! 

03. To stay on track with our morning timetable I’ve been writing the time we end each lesson in my logbook. It’s really changed how productive I am in making sure we get everything on our timetable done for the day. (I have a video on my logbook if you’re interested in learning more about that!)

04. And 05. Popsicle sticks! Friends, if you’re already a CMEC family, use these to help you choose which activities you review! I have on these for old singing games, French songs, folk dances or Swedish drill routines. I’ll share more on what I have on ours, specifically, but it’s fun because the girls and I get to be surprised rather than me choosing what we review!

06. Art instruction. Originally I had us doing three art lessons per week in the afternoon, but it didn’t allow for enough free choice, so we’ve reduced it down to one formal lesson a week for six weeks, then we change the method. So right now we are in week two of our chalkdrawing lessons. After six weeks we will switch to brush drawing instruction for the remainder of the term! As Charlotte Mason recommends, we draw from memory, model, and from imagination. 🌞

I hope this was helpful to you! So many of you guys are using @the.cmec next year! I am SO excited to see all of you at the online form meetings this coming year! 👏🏻 #thecmec #thecmecform1 #charlottemason
Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf o Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf or in a drawer? This drawer is right next to my stove and it’s my favorite way to store my spices! I reuse these little jars and fill them every couple of weeks with my bulk @azurestandard spices. 🧂
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you Are you planting a garden this year? What are you growing? Containers and raised beds? Or in ground? What do you plan to grow? Veggies? Flowers? We are doing a little bit of everything. 😍

It’s my third year growing food. (And ironically, our third house 😅) We just got our @greenstalkgarden planter, several @smartpots, and six raised beds that are ready to be filled next weekend. Really looking forward to this gardening season! 🥕🥬🥦🌽🌶🫑🫐🍓🥔
“Let then once get in touch with nature and a ha “Let then once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” -Charlotte Mason 

My kiddo had a birthday this past weekend. We do one main gift and a couple of small gifts; typically they’re  things they can use outdoors. Bikes have been a popular birthday item around here! My eldest wanted an apple tree last year. ☺️ But this year we got N a mud kitchen! Some friends of ours had one they built, and it inspired us. My kiddos have been playing on the forest floor in the mud for years now, but it’s exciting for them to have a little space in our garden for mud play. 🌳 What are some fun outdoorsy gifts you’ve purchased for your kids?
📚 When should I teach my child to read? How sho 📚 When should I teach my child to read? How should I teach my child to read? What does Charlotte Mason say about reading lessons? How did she teach children how to read? What curriculum do you use to teach your child how to read? 📚
These are all questions I answered in my blog post and video, “teaching reading the Charlotte Mason way” 📚 you can also swipe over to see some of my favorite CM quotes on teaching reading! 📚

I also shared what I do with my 3-year-old (which is very minimal) if you have younger children. You can view the post at the link in my profile! Are you up children school-aged? What do you use to teach reading?
I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more unpacking and organizing to be done, pictures to be framed, meal planning to do, laundry that needed folding, bike rides to be had, meals to be prepared, sourdough to be prepped and lesson planning + pre-reading to do. Oh and dishes. So many dishes. 😅

I do essentially all of the inside housework aside from taking out the trash + recycle, but for a season my husband helped out while N was small by doing dinner dishes and sometimes even preparing dinner so I could nurse her after we ate. But as of late, I’m trying something new where I don’t ask my husband to clean up after dinner and instead I do it myself. I don’t mind it, and since my girls are old enough to get their own pj’s on now, I’ve been doing dinner clean-up (as well as lunch and breakfast clean-up and prep!) before I head upstairs to tuck them in, read them a story and sit with them while they fall asleep. Call me old fashioned, but I’m happy to do it, and I delight in my husband being able to enjoy some time with the girls after dinner instead of clean up a mess after a long day of working.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post - I’ve felt pulled in so many directions today and it’s something I feel often, (and I’m sure so many of you can relate) but after five months without a home to care for and nurture I simply can’t feel frustrated or annoyed at my list of 10,000 things I need to do. Instead I pray my way through each task. I sip tea in between. I light a candle and wear my great-grandmother’s apron as I work. I read notes like the one my six-year-old left for me this morning and I weep tears of gratitude and joy. Happy Sunday, my friends. ❤️ 
.
(swipe to read her note 🥰 + a transcription in the comments!)
Remember that word we heard so often when we were Remember that word we heard so often when we were parenting infants? Attachment.  What comes to mind? Breastfeeding on demand. Co-sleeping. Babywearing. All of those things that come pretty natural to us when taking care of a baby. But did you know that attachment doesn’t just end when your child gets bigger? Attachment is actually necessary THROUGH adolescence. 😳

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté is a brilliant book that stopped me in my tracks. The book addresses the severe lack of attachment to parents that is incidentally replaced by an attachment to peers. I wrote all about it on my blog, but if you swipe over you can see a few passages that I underlined, highlighted, and wrote down in my notebook. 

Peer culture is more prevalent than ever. Not only because our society now prefers it that way, but because of social media’s ability to unite our youth in an unprecedented way. What we need is a shift in how we pass down culture to our kids from a horizontal attachment (peer to peer) back to a vertical attachment (family to child). I’ve often felt this long before I read this book, but we prioritize our Children’s friendships and relationships with others before we prioritize their relationships with us. We don’t value the family unit the way we used to decades ago, and it’s to the detriment of our children. 

I will gift this book to every new parent I meet from now on because of the wisdom the authors share. I wish all parents would read it so we could be on the same page as a society and those of us who choose to hold on to our kids wouldn’t be going against the grain. So this is my plea to you. If anything I’ve said piqued your interest, or struck a chord, please read Hold On To Your Kids! ✨

(For those of you who have read it! Share your thoughts with us! Help me convince everyone to read it! 👏🏻)
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Babywearing • September 21, 2018

Beginner’s Guide to Woven Wraps

Of all the ways to wear a baby, I’ve noticed that woven wraps are the least popular among new babywearers. Yes, there is definitely a learning curve with woven wraps, but honestly, I feel like they aren’t used as much because you don’t really hear about them! It’s sort of this underground world. Today I’m here to shed some light on woven wraps.

I’ll address commonly asked questions, explain the ins and outs of woven wraps, and share almost all of the knowledge I know! So, here you have it: my beginner’s guide to woven wraps.

BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO WOVEN WRAPS

What is a woven wrap?

A woven wrap is a long piece of material that you can manipulate into different carries to carry your child. Women have been wearing their children in wraps (or sometimes towels/pieces of cloth) for centuries! It’s one of the oldest forms of babywearing.

There are two types of woven wraps. Machine-woven and handwoven. Some wraps are woven by machine, and they typically cost less (since it’s less labor), and some are woven by hand on a loom by hand (see photo below). The process of weaving a wrap by hand is very time-consuming, so that is typically why you’ll see them cost around $500 U.S. dollars (and some are way more!)

(Photo Source)

Woven Wrap Sizing

If you are beginner it’s a good idea to start with a simple, base size 6 (4.6 meters) wrap, as the carries are easier for beginners to master. Once you master longer carries, you might see the need to try out other sizes/carries, and you can go for a shorter wrap if you want!

I explain sizing in depth in this post here: Woven Wrap Sizing.

Woven Wrap Material/Fabric

Woven wraps are made out of several different types of materials. Some are made out of 100% cotton. Some are a cotton/linen blend. Others are made with fibers like hemp, silk, or wool. Each weaver decided when they sit down to weave what they’ll use.

The cool thing is that different fibers mean different levels of support. For example, hemp or linen blend wovens can be light and airy; great for summer or hot weather. Wool wovens can be cozy and heavy; great for winter!

The type of fiber (or warp) you have will give you a different type of wrap quality. Some wraps are more “glidey” and others are “grippy”. Wrap qualities are what us woven nerds like to chat about hahaha.

SEE MY COMPREHENSIVE BABYWEARING BEGINNER’S GUIDE HERE

Woven Wrap Carries (How to Use Them)

So, there are several different carries for woven wraps. Like A LOT. But the single most used one I believe is the Front Wrap Cross Carry (FWCC). I have shared how to do it many times on my Instagram, and you can see a video on my IGTV channel here. It’s fairly simple once you practice a few times!

I explain sizing in depth in this post here: Woven Wrap Carries.

Where do you buy a woven wrap?

I’ve seen this question so much. I answer it in detail in this blog post, but I get most of my woven wraps on buy sell trade pages on Facebook. In fact, 90% of the wraps I own are used! I prefer it that way, as they’re usually more broken in, and go for a bit cheaper. It’s kind of rare to buy a wrap brand new, to be honest!

What are your favorite brands?

See this post to find out which woven wrap brands are my favorite! I wrote them out and shared some photos as well!

Woven Wraps FAQ’s

GENERAL:

What is the average price range of woven wraps?
The range really is from about $100-$700 for machine woven wraps.
Where can I get one?
I wrote a post on where to buy woven wraps. See it here!
How long can you use them? What is the weight limit?
Woven wraps can be used pretty much right out of the womb. (If your baby has a special medical situation, is under five pounds at birth, or born premature, however, I would consult your doctor first!) As far as maximum age, I believe most wraps can be used with kids until around 45 pounds.
Are they more comfortable than soft structured carriers?
So, I feel like wovens are way more comfortable, but that’s because it’s like a big blanket that you mold to your baby and around baby. That being said, as far as long-term support, soft structured carriers are a great option too. It’s all about preference.
I joined a few facebook pages and noticed that they’re hard to buy. Thoughts?
So, if you’re after a wrap that is made in very small quantities (we’re talking like 2-3 wraps per release) then they will be hard to buy… additionally, addressing the next question – they’re expensive because a lot of people may want them and are willing to fork over a pretty penny for one.
For example, I once bought a SSC Tula for around $1200, even though it was only worth $360. There was a limited quantity made, and a lot of people wanted them!

Why are they so dang expensive?

See the above answer!

I am having a c-section and I wanted to know if you can use a wrap after surgery?
Yes, you absolutely can. A fwcc shouldn’t bother your tummy. I think wovens would be more comfortable than SSC’s because those have a waist strap.
It seems like wraps are sturdier than stretchy wraps. Is this true?
Do they hold better than Moby wraps? I feel like baby slides a lot.
Yes, ABSOLUTELY. And for this reason, I don’t like or wear stretchy wraps. Wovens are more comfy, supportive, and grippy. They don’t slide around. I just do not like stretchy wraps. At all. They last for maybe two months then baby get too heavy.
Are they super hot in summers? How do you stay cool while wearing woven wraps?
Not if you get the right blend! See my above explanation on wrap fibers!
The cool thing is that different fibers mean different levels of support. For example, hemp or linen blend wovens can be light and airy; great for summer or hot weather. Wool wovens can be cozy and heavy; great for winter!

SIZING:

What are the pros to smaller than your base size wraps? (shorties)
So, there are a few reasons to try out a shortie. A shorter wrap (size 2 or 3) doesn’t drag on the ground, so if you are out and about it means you won’t drag your tails on the ground when putting baby up.
Another reason you might want a shortie wrap is if you want to do a carry like a ruck or a rebozo. These carries only require one “pass” meaning, one layer of wrap. If you have a super long wrap it will hang down and be in the way.
Are woven wraps good for short women?
I’m going to say yes! You can choose a wrap that’s smaller (size 4 or 5) and it means less tails, and you can customize carries for your height too. I don’t think it would be an issue for short women!

CARRIES:

If I’m trying a woven wrap for the first time, which carry should I start with?
Yay! I’m so excited for you to dive into the woven wrap world! Definitely start with a Front Wrap Cross Carry (FWCC), as it’s the easiest to master, and it is actually how you start many of the other woven wrap carries.
Sitting always feels awkward in a woven, is there a trick?
Baby probably isn’t high enough up on your torso. Once they reach a certain size sitting won’t be comfortable. I found sitting with my newborn was amazing, but now that Norah is almost six months old it isn’t very comfy. She expects me to move.
I can’t get it tight enough – I feel like she will fall out – help!
So, you need to really pull tight when tightening the wrap… there should be NO slack at all. Think of it like you are wrapping them in a swaddle. You want it to be tight – you really can’t tighten too much.
Can you wear them as a sling?
You can! It’s called a rebozo carry, with a size 2 or 3 wrap!
Do you use woven wraps outside or do you prefer buckle carriers?
I love wearing my wovens both inside and outside! I wear them at home a lot because I don’t like to get the tails dirty, so some stay home, but many of them I take out with me too! Usually the darker colored ones.

VIDEO TUTORIALS

I have several video tutorials for doing different wrap carries on my Instagram/ IGTV channel! Click here to see those!
I really hope this post about woven wraps was helpful to you! I spent a lot of time educating myself on the world of wovens when I started wearing Gracie several years ago, but it was well worth it! Wrapping and wearing in general is one of my favorite things about being a mom.
Questions still? Ask them in the comments, and I’ll be happy to answer! Thank you so much for reading!

SEE MY COMPREHENSIVE BABYWEARING BEGINNER’S GUIDE HERE

Filed Under: Babywearing

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Comments

  1. Pamela says

    September 28, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    Love this!! Wearing my baby in a carrier right now but want to use my wrap from my last baby. Thank you for doing the videos!! It will take some practice remembering how to use my wrap. Lol! -Pamela “TheSparkleMomma”

    Reply
  2. Pamela Wineinger says

    January 24, 2019 at 12:25 am

    Thank you for all the info. My niece sent me a picture of the wrap you are wearing standing in front of the dresser. I am a weaver just for friends and family and she wants me to weave her this wrap. Do you know where I could get the pattern draft for this wrap. She is absolutely in love with it!

    Reply

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I'm Larissa. A mama to daughters and wife to my college sweetheart. I am passionate about sustainable fashion, whole foods recipes, and Charlotte Mason home education. I also love being outdoors with my family. You can usually find me sporting a wide-brimmed hat, with a baby on my back.

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This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark This week I’m writing + filming about a hallmark of the Charlotte Mason method: narration. Have you ever heard of it? What would you like to know? 

I’m focusing heavily on how we use narration in our homeschool, but if you have specific questions about it, I would love for you to 1. Take the poll in my stories, and 2. Ask any questions you may have about narration in the comments so that I can answer them in my video! ❤️
Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encoura Happy Mother’s Day! I especially want to encourage those who are intentionally making a better life for their children than what they may have experienced as kids. It is not easy to change the cycle, but it’s well worth the effort. 

In the words of Louisa May Alcott, “A woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor is the art of ruling it not as a queen, but a wise wife and mother."
📚 We are moving right along with term three of 📚 We are moving right along with term three of our school year. Slow but steady, we will finish up mid June and I’ll begin prepping for next school year in July and August! 📚

Here’s some of my random old and new tips + what I’ve been doing to help keep organized with the CMEC. 

01. Keep a regular day for nature outings or field trips. We have two days a week where I intentionally plan a hike or museum visit, etc. One is usually at the middle of the week and the other is at the end. It offers great variety to our weeks.

02. Notebook! I have had the girls consistently notebook this year, and it’s been such a delight to go back and see my form 1b student’s progress! I have a video coming out about how we notebook and why you should try it very soon! 

03. To stay on track with our morning timetable I’ve been writing the time we end each lesson in my logbook. It’s really changed how productive I am in making sure we get everything on our timetable done for the day. (I have a video on my logbook if you’re interested in learning more about that!)

04. And 05. Popsicle sticks! Friends, if you’re already a CMEC family, use these to help you choose which activities you review! I have on these for old singing games, French songs, folk dances or Swedish drill routines. I’ll share more on what I have on ours, specifically, but it’s fun because the girls and I get to be surprised rather than me choosing what we review!

06. Art instruction. Originally I had us doing three art lessons per week in the afternoon, but it didn’t allow for enough free choice, so we’ve reduced it down to one formal lesson a week for six weeks, then we change the method. So right now we are in week two of our chalkdrawing lessons. After six weeks we will switch to brush drawing instruction for the remainder of the term! As Charlotte Mason recommends, we draw from memory, model, and from imagination. 🌞

I hope this was helpful to you! So many of you guys are using @the.cmec next year! I am SO excited to see all of you at the online form meetings this coming year! 👏🏻 #thecmec #thecmecform1 #charlottemason
Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf o Do you keep your spices in a cabinet, on a shelf or in a drawer? This drawer is right next to my stove and it’s my favorite way to store my spices! I reuse these little jars and fill them every couple of weeks with my bulk @azurestandard spices. 🧂
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you Are you planting a garden this year? What are you growing? Containers and raised beds? Or in ground? What do you plan to grow? Veggies? Flowers? We are doing a little bit of everything. 😍

It’s my third year growing food. (And ironically, our third house 😅) We just got our @greenstalkgarden planter, several @smartpots, and six raised beds that are ready to be filled next weekend. Really looking forward to this gardening season! 🥕🥬🥦🌽🌶🫑🫐🍓🥔
“Let then once get in touch with nature and a ha “Let then once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life.” -Charlotte Mason 

My kiddo had a birthday this past weekend. We do one main gift and a couple of small gifts; typically they’re  things they can use outdoors. Bikes have been a popular birthday item around here! My eldest wanted an apple tree last year. ☺️ But this year we got N a mud kitchen! Some friends of ours had one they built, and it inspired us. My kiddos have been playing on the forest floor in the mud for years now, but it’s exciting for them to have a little space in our garden for mud play. 🌳 What are some fun outdoorsy gifts you’ve purchased for your kids?
📚 When should I teach my child to read? How sho 📚 When should I teach my child to read? How should I teach my child to read? What does Charlotte Mason say about reading lessons? How did she teach children how to read? What curriculum do you use to teach your child how to read? 📚
These are all questions I answered in my blog post and video, “teaching reading the Charlotte Mason way” 📚 you can also swipe over to see some of my favorite CM quotes on teaching reading! 📚

I also shared what I do with my 3-year-old (which is very minimal) if you have younger children. You can view the post at the link in my profile! Are you up children school-aged? What do you use to teach reading?
I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more I needed to accomplish a lot today. There was more unpacking and organizing to be done, pictures to be framed, meal planning to do, laundry that needed folding, bike rides to be had, meals to be prepared, sourdough to be prepped and lesson planning + pre-reading to do. Oh and dishes. So many dishes. 😅

I do essentially all of the inside housework aside from taking out the trash + recycle, but for a season my husband helped out while N was small by doing dinner dishes and sometimes even preparing dinner so I could nurse her after we ate. But as of late, I’m trying something new where I don’t ask my husband to clean up after dinner and instead I do it myself. I don’t mind it, and since my girls are old enough to get their own pj’s on now, I’ve been doing dinner clean-up (as well as lunch and breakfast clean-up and prep!) before I head upstairs to tuck them in, read them a story and sit with them while they fall asleep. Call me old fashioned, but I’m happy to do it, and I delight in my husband being able to enjoy some time with the girls after dinner instead of clean up a mess after a long day of working.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this post - I’ve felt pulled in so many directions today and it’s something I feel often, (and I’m sure so many of you can relate) but after five months without a home to care for and nurture I simply can’t feel frustrated or annoyed at my list of 10,000 things I need to do. Instead I pray my way through each task. I sip tea in between. I light a candle and wear my great-grandmother’s apron as I work. I read notes like the one my six-year-old left for me this morning and I weep tears of gratitude and joy. Happy Sunday, my friends. ❤️ 
.
(swipe to read her note 🥰 + a transcription in the comments!)
Remember that word we heard so often when we were Remember that word we heard so often when we were parenting infants? Attachment.  What comes to mind? Breastfeeding on demand. Co-sleeping. Babywearing. All of those things that come pretty natural to us when taking care of a baby. But did you know that attachment doesn’t just end when your child gets bigger? Attachment is actually necessary THROUGH adolescence. 😳

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté is a brilliant book that stopped me in my tracks. The book addresses the severe lack of attachment to parents that is incidentally replaced by an attachment to peers. I wrote all about it on my blog, but if you swipe over you can see a few passages that I underlined, highlighted, and wrote down in my notebook. 

Peer culture is more prevalent than ever. Not only because our society now prefers it that way, but because of social media’s ability to unite our youth in an unprecedented way. What we need is a shift in how we pass down culture to our kids from a horizontal attachment (peer to peer) back to a vertical attachment (family to child). I’ve often felt this long before I read this book, but we prioritize our Children’s friendships and relationships with others before we prioritize their relationships with us. We don’t value the family unit the way we used to decades ago, and it’s to the detriment of our children. 

I will gift this book to every new parent I meet from now on because of the wisdom the authors share. I wish all parents would read it so we could be on the same page as a society and those of us who choose to hold on to our kids wouldn’t be going against the grain. So this is my plea to you. If anything I’ve said piqued your interest, or struck a chord, please read Hold On To Your Kids! ✨

(For those of you who have read it! Share your thoughts with us! Help me convince everyone to read it! 👏🏻)
I promised I would share how I teach foreign langu I promised I would share how I teach foreign language the Mason way✨

When my oldest (now 6) was younger we loved and used @theculturedkid but since beginning formal lessons we’ve switched to this wonderful book by @cherrydalepress. 

Mason recommends that students learn 5-6 new French words a day and that they use them frequently. She writes in Home Education, “…children should learn French orally, by listening to and repeating French words and phrases; that they should begin so early that the difference of the accent does not strike them, but they repeat the French word all the same as if it were English, and use it freely…” (p. 80) she then writes about how important it is to employ the use of French vocabulary words during time out-of-doors. My kids and I have taken this to heart, because it isn’t uncommon for us all to be walking along the hiking trail, singing our French folk songs together. It’s something I’ll remember that we do together for many years. 

The Cherrydale Press program allows the child to learn common phrases, orally, a bit at a time. Along the way, they learn common verbs and vocabulary. 

Each “series” lasts about 2 weeks.
So here is the process we go through in that time:

01. We practice and memorize the English phrases. 
Here’s an example: 
I take the book.
I open the book.
I close the book.
So we say the phrases as we ACT THEM OUT, which is crucial to this method of learning French and retaining it! It’s helped me tremendously as a non-native speaker.

02. We then learn the French verbs from those phrases in French: je prends, j’ouvre, and je ferme. We memorize how to say them and act them out!

03. We learn the whole thing in French as we act it out. 
Je prends le livre.
j’ouvre le livre.
je ferme le livre.

After my daughter can say/act them without error, on her own, we move on to the next series!

Thanks to The Living Page, I keep a French notebook where I record the phrases or words we learn! (That’s what I shared in my stories the other day!)

In addition to this program, we have two French folk songs, one French vocabulary song per term (we sing daily) and a story we listen to in French, thanks to @the.cmec and their support!

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