International Parents seeks to both stop short and go further than Frenchparents.

• To stop short of giving detailed local advice by major city worldwide, as is done elsewhere on the Web and as Frenchparents aims to do for San Francisco.
• To go further by enabling members to keep in touch and connect, both near home and across the globe, according to their interests, their native cultures, and their children’s ages.
  The anti model is Facebook, the supermarket of online networks, where one finds everyone and everything.

International Parents is:

• Both local and global, being organized by major city worldwide- à la CraigsList
• Highly respectful of members’ privacy and intimacy – identities are not visible to non members
• Set in a colorful setting, making for a warmer, in my view more feminine approach
• Not based on a volume, pure advertising model but on a qualitative, premium membership approach
• Membership is on a by invitation basis only

International Parents has also been designed to help professionals offering the products and services you seek and need as global parents to connect with you, because you are hard to find and so are they!

We love it when people contact us to be local representatives for the network.

Looking forward to seeing you on International Parents, Frenchparents members! The invitation link will go out soon.

With two diferent offers by age group ( 2-6 and 7-12), the BayardKids sites offer online educational games and content, advertising free and with a strong attention to quality.  The sites are a real parent’s friend.  No need to tell the children time’s up on the computer, the sites automatically log the child off after a predetermined time- 20 minutes I believe.

Isn’t that great? No more fighting with children to free them from the lure of the screen, the show stops all on its own!

This being a beta version, BayardKids is initially offered free of charge as a complement to its magazine subscriptions to children’s magazines like Pomme d’Api,  j’Aime Lire and Astrapi.

The 2-6 year old site is due to be open by subscription to non magazine subscribers in early 2009.  Prices announced are 5 euros a monthor 60 euros a year.

Bayard group is quite discreet about its initiative.  There is no information about it on its main site, whether in French or in English.

– > Info on Bayardkids edutational sites (in French)

•  edutational content typical of high end children’s magazines (offering illustrated stories, games, stickers and a poster)

• and true instructional content that parallels what children are to be learning that year in school, ie:
  •  Math
  • French language
  • and History and Geography content.

In a country where there is a real worry on the part of parents as to what their children are learning in school, given the comparatively poor results the French educational system has had since the 1970′s, this magazines is clearly designed to calm their angst.

The magazines are beautiful, with a glossy cover, thick paper and brilliant colors, and the instructional content in appealing to the eye as well as in its approach.  A six year old boy not particularly known for his love of school work was found deeply interested in the magazine’s exercizes, not only in the ‘ fun ‘ sections!

They are bi-monthly publications.  They are sold in French press kiosks by the unit and on a yearly subscription basis.  They cost about 7 euros each in a kiosk and 36 euros a year for a  6 issue subscription, in France.  Prices will be higher outside of France no doubt.

Milan Presse is the French publisher behind the idea.  Milan was recently acquired by Bayard Presse, a worldwide leader in children’s magazines, with tens of language adaptations of its leading French titles such as J’Aime Lire, called Adventure Box in the UK.

– > More on Champions du CP et du CE1 and on subscribing

Its truly fascinating to see the hundreds of comments she gets from faithful readers, ie, pre-teenagers, to every post. She talks about everyday issues these pre teens face in France: the end of year school show, arriving late at school, being nervous about going to summer camp, etc…

–> Lulu’s Blog

– > Astrapi magazine information online

Apart from books we got a lot of great stories, quality illustrations and writing from magazines (which look like soft cover books really) published by Bayard Presse, a France-based publisher that sells worldwide.

For 3- 5 year olds who are smart enough to read or have someone who can read to them , the magazines are: Pomme d’Api and Belles Histoires. They are available only by subscription, although Bayard Editions eventually publishes book versions of the stories.

For 3-5 year olds:

• For a great look into French society today and really fun text and illustrations, there’s a collection of fine hard cover books from Bayard Editions with the following titles:

• 
  • ‘Des Grands Parents, quelle aventure‘, by Roser Capdevilla, A-L Fournier-le Ray – (‘ Grands Parents, what an adventure‘)
  • ‘Un Bébé, quelle aventure‘, by Gaudrat Ma ( ‘ A baby, what an adventure’ )
  • ‘Une maman, quelle aventure‘, by Roser Capdevilla, A-L Fournier-le Ray ( ‘ A mom, what an adventure’)
  • ‘Un papa, quelle aventure‘ , by Roser Capdevilla, M-Agnès Gaudrat ( ‘ A dad, what an adventure‘)

The kids love to read them over and over as they depict tens of everyday situations they really relate to, in a fun way.

• Other charactersfound in book series for this age group:
  • Tchoupi: a cute little bear, a boy symbol
  • Martine: Martine is a little girl probably about 7 years old. She does babysitting, etc…
  • Caroline: Caroline is a cute 7 to 9 year old girl who seems to live with a ménagerie of animals, all very human-like in their behaviour, so that the little ones can find an interest in her adventures. A typical French culture story is ‘Caroline et la Galette des rois’: Around the Epiphany, on January 6th, called ‘ la fete des Rois’ in France, traditionnaly a ‘galette’, a French pastry, is eaten with a ‘ fève’ in it, that designates the queen or the king. Here the event is full of surprises as one of Caroline’s pets eats the ‘ féve’…
  • Léon le Bourdon, Mireille l’Abeille, and other animals series: A cute series with very original illustrations that I liked a little less because it had some mean, sarcastic elements in some of its stories.

For 5 to 7 year olds:

Nathan publishing, a French publisher, a collection of books called Première Lune ( ‘ First Moon’ ), in high quality, hard cover forma, with text that’s nice and large in size and many illustrations on its pagSome titles in the series we enjoyed are:

• Je le dirai à ma mère, by Béatrice Rouer ( ‘ I’ll tell on you to my mom ‘)

Is about two girl friends who quibble and involve their mothers in their fighting. The mothers first react agressively with each other and then find a way to make things fine again.

Searching for it on Amazon.com it says its out of print, but there’s another book in the same collection by Beatrice Rouer: Le Pestacle et Les Pétards, which looks fun too.

• Calamity Mamie, by Arnaud Alméras (‘ Calamity Grandma‘)

There is a series of ‘ adventures ‘ involving Calamity Mamie, a forgetful, disorganized and ‘unny grandmother who gets maried again, puts makeup all over her face by mistake, etc… If you know a grand mother like that among your family circle, you’re sure to enjoy this reading with your children.
- >Petite Librairie online bookstore has some of these titles and others

Its a series of shows available in DVD, VHS and now VOD (Video on Demand, from your PC) format and produced by the French television channel France 3. It’s called: ‘ C’est pas sorcier ‘ ( Translations could be: ‘It ain’t magic‘ or ‘ It ain’t rocket science‘).

They cover history, nature and science topics galore and have the truly unique characteristic, in particular for a French-made product(!) of being both extremely informative and fun to watch. Even us parents watch when they’re on, if that’s a good enough sign for you.

The three main individuals who narrate alternate live scenes and theoretical explanations with perfect timing so they don’t lose us. I’m a toughie for good content, be it for kids or adults, and trust me, this is good, quality stuff.

Some of the titles you can get (all are in French):

• A History of France ( from the middle ages to modern times)
• Beware, fragile planet
• A History of Civilization
• Volcanoes, Earthquakes and other Shakes
• The Human body
• Mountains
• Space (The Moon, the solar system, the stars…)
• Conquering the Sea

Prices for DVDs and VHS range from 17 euros (about $23 these days) to less for special 3 DVD packs priced at 27 euros ($35).

For VOD, a 26 mn episode can be downloaded for 4 euros. Nice to see their videos are apparently compatible with Windows Media PLayer 9 for MAC OS X.

- > C’est pas sorcier site

- > France Television online boutique C’est pas Sorcier section

- > Video on Demand for C’est pas sorcier

Just like its French paper cousin, this is a paid subscription-based service, starting at $8.99 for 4 weeks ( 20 issues).

My hunch is a lot of you would be quite interested in a French language online newspaper for your kids, either because they’re learning French in school or they’re native French speakers who need to keep up their French.

Am I wrong?

Some questions for you:

• What do you think will be the reaction of American families to this offer? Do you think they’ll go for it?

• Where do your kids go for news, if at all?

• What educational sites do you like to send your kids to? Watch for a post up soon on a good reference for sites for kids.

This publisher has about 200 000 old and new subscribers who were ready to pay $36.50 for a six months subscription ( for France). The price obviously skyrockets outside of France because of postage fees.
Quoti, Mon petit Quotidien, Mon Quotidien and L’Actu, which constitute the range of daily news titles covering ages 5 to 17, are also used by teachers in the classroom.

-> Info on the French kids dailies
- > MyDailyTen kids daily news site

Please tell these people if you order you found them through this article!

Each site will tell you what pubs are for what age range:

• Canada (ey): Owl publications: Chirp, Chickadee and Owl are their titles for ages 3 and up.

A leading Canadian children’s publisher with a small range. Theses magazines are made with modesty ( but then isn’t that so Canadian?- coming from one!) and subscriptions are for 10 rather than 12 issues, hence their affordable susbscription prices. Paper quality is thin, the content is the primary attraction here. They’re not equivalent to books, contrary to the UK-based Box Publications, which have the quality of the best soft cover books.

Subscriptions for 10 to 12 issues are around $28 in the US in 2007 and $48 to subscribe outside the US.
.

>http://www.owlkids.com/

• US (huh?) Carus Publishing Co.; Babybug, Click and Ladybug are some titles for ages 1.5 and up. They are the result of a merger between Cricket and Cobblestone.

The Cricket pubs to me are the equivalent in style and paper quality of the French-based Bayard presse. They are a A US based educational mags publisher with a wide offering, high quality glossy paper and elaborate graphical rendering for its children’s offering.
Not to spoil anything, they have an apparently nicely operational web site (and ordering service).

They’re between $32 and $36 a year for 9 to 12 issues a year in the US but with international postage it’ll send the prices higher.

Cricket magazines

• Other US publishers :

- CBHI Publishing with mags like Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, etc.;

- the NWF doing nature mags for kids (Ranger Rick, etc)

Others are: National Geographic Kids, Hopscotch, Kids Discover, Boys Life, Fun for Kidz, Highlights…

• UK (you say?): Box pubs, i.e, Bayard Presse UK: StoryBox, AdventureBox, NatureBox are the titles for ages 3 and up.

Very nice quality, glossy paper, beautiful illustrations with long enchanting text. They’re the only ones that seem to allow clients to subscribe from a number of countries around the world through an -almost- single point of contact, the Bayard Presse main site. If you’re in Canada they direct you to the Canadian subsidiary, for instance.
Prices around 60 euros for France and the UK!

Bayard Presse main site ( in French and English): Select ‘Adventure Box’ in the left side menu to subscribe.

Bayard Presse UK

Oops, almost forgot the :

• BBC educational kids’ mags: the Magic Key series

To me they seem a little too educational and not fun enough compared to what I know best: the StoryBox series from Bayard… They’re also usually made of the poor quality paper used by Owl publishing, which I find less pleasing as a parent reading to my children. No age range is specified but they seem to address the young reader audience, ie: 5 to 7.

They have a nifty new magazine ordering site as of April 2007, which should makes subscribing from around the world relatively painless, except when one selects ‘ France’ or even the US among the long list of countries as the country of origin, one gets the message that ‘ Service is not available for that region’. My, imagine, sending magazines across the Channel, what a feat! Not to mention across the Atlantic.

Accross the Channel, ’tis still a different World. A UK subscription is about 26 pounds for 13 issues.

Magic Key BBC

The FrenchParents.net online network is a good place to discuss your opinions of magazines, books, Cd roms and other edutational products for children in English, French or both languages. membership based.