My name is Luci McQuitty Hindmarsh. Ma Puce started life as a section on my mother.wife.me blog and now has its very own home. I started it as a way of keeping focused on teaching my daughter French.
I chose the name ‘Ma Puce’ because it is a commonly used term of endearment for children in France. The literal translation of ‘ma puce’ is ‘my flea’!! Whenever I mention my daughter on the site or blog, I refer to her as ‘Ma Puce’.
Both my husband and I are English, but we made a decision when I was pregnant that we would like our daughter to have second language. We settled on French because I studied it to A-Level and spent a lot of holidays in France over the years. So, though I am far from fluent, I am confident enough to help and support a child learning French.
Our daughter, ‘Ma Puce’, has been exposed to varying degrees of French since she was just a couple of months old. We started off with French DVDs, nursery rhymes, books and electronic toys that came with more than one language option.
Then, when she reached 20 months old, we started going to a mother and baby French group. The group focused on teaching French through singing, stories and movement. Unfortunately for us, after we’d been going along for a term, the group leader was unable to continue the group.
Cue a bunch of us mums to start our own DIY French group. The first session happened in January 2012 in my home. We continued for several months taking a session at one of our homes each week.
In July 2012, fellow mum Kezia Cantwell-Wright took charge of the group; named it CouCou and it took up residency at Dalston Library in London.
Meanwhile, having spent eons of time researching and gathering information both online and through quizzing fellow mums. I thought I’d try and make it a less time consuming chore for other parents, by creating a site that pools together the best of everything related to teaching your child French as a second language. Oh and the Ma Puce blog lives on through the Ma Puce site too. Click here to find out more about Ma Puce.
I hope you find this site useful. I welcome feedback, so please do drop me a line with your thoughts.
Best, Luci
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