My oldest is 9 and my 5 year old tags along with the reading mostly. We did Spanish last year, the oldest knows general things like Hello, my name is, what is your name, how are you, counting, some colors, the alphabet, and a few more. This year he really wanted to do French, so we are doing it twice a week. I don't feel like this is enough, but we don't have room in our schedule to do more. Is it worth it, do you think? Will he get confused trying to remember Spanish, French and English? Would you do review days in Spanish to keep up what he previously learned? Has anyone done one day in French and one day in Spanish a week? I feel like God may have been preparing his heart for French because he expressed such a strong desire to learn it, so after prayer I want to definitely include French. Thanks in advance.
How Often and More than one Language??
(3 posts) (2 voices)-
mrsjamiesouth
MemberPosted 3 years ago # Report Post -
Bookworm
MemberHi!
In my home, we learn French, Spanish, (English of course), Latin, and we also have kids working in Indonesian and Swahili. ! :-) We get confused a lot. :-) But I think it is still worthwhile to learn ANY language. Don't worry about how much time you have. Work on French twice a week if that is what you have right now. At his age, I wouldn't worry a lot about Spanish review--perhaps as you work on French you can review some Spanish as you go, informally. (What is the Spanish word for "chien"?) But at age 9 I'd just focus most of my time on ONE language. We pick up our third at about 10 and add another at 12, then so far the teens have all wanted to add another. It can sometimes get confusing. *I* am confused a lot and sometimes turn out some really interesting Franish-Latinesianhili sentences, but I can just plead Middle-Aged Brain. :-) It really is easier on the kids, although I do remember one year in high school where I had Spanish first hour, then English, then French, and was often pretty mixed up by lunchtime. LOL
To add in some more time, if your child really is motivated to do the French, in addition to twice a week scheduled lessons, consider getting him some additional materials--perhaps a few comics in French (I used to have stacks of Peanuts comics I loved to read when I was a kid) or some other reading material, or a student website or game site that he could do on his own. Or get a Bible verse in French and put it up on the wall and have him repeat it and work on a word or two from it that he does not know. Or some other informal stuff he could do without it being "lesson time" in your school day. That will reinforce his learning, relatively painlessly for you. Just a few ideas!
Posted 3 years ago # Report Post -
mrsjamiesouth
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