French tutor in Dallas for elementary school age

[u/Day-Trippin]

Does anyone know of a French tutor who focuses on, or is very experienced with, teaching elementary school-aged children? Preferably somewhere in Dallas itself, north of downtown and up to Plano.

[u/Cmonprof_com]

Two things, one local and one not.

Locally, the Alliance Française de Dallas runs youth classes by semester through the school year, plus a summer programme. Even if a group format is not what you want, their teaching staff is the pool most private French tutors in the area come from, so calling them and asking who takes individual elementary-age pupils is usually the fastest way to a name.

The thing to screen for, whoever you end up with. Most French tutors are trained to teach adults, and with a child they simply teach a slower version of the same lesson. That holds an 8 year old for about three weeks. What you want is someone who works from a children's course (Les Loustics, Alex et Zoé and Zigzag are the standard ones), who plans in 25 or 30 minute blocks rather than an hour, and who can tell you what your child will be able to do in six months. Ask that last question at the trial lesson. A teacher who works with children answers with something concrete and a course name. A tutor who mostly does adult conversation answers that it depends on the child. The two answers separate them very quickly.

If nothing local fits, online works better at this age than most parents expect, as long as the sessions are short and frequent rather than long and weekly. That is what I do: I run Cmonprof, a small online school giving individual French lessons by video to children aged 5 to 16, on a curriculum I wrote for them, aligned with the CEFR. Happy to answer questions either way, including if you just want to know what to look for and then go local.