Cherrydale Press Spanish book users — do you jump around in the volumes?

I am highly interested in these resources (Cherrydale Press Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and Francois), but dh says to be sure to check other reviews first.  How are you finding them?  They do seem pricey, do you find it worth it?  

Each volume is expected to last 2-3 years by learning a series every 2 weeks or so. $30 for 2-3 years seems quite reasonable to me.

We intend to implement this method with the Spanish book in our CM co-op beginning in the fall. We will learn the series at group and everyone will have the book at home to practice. I’m really looking forward to learning this content in community.

I am very intrigued by this curriculum! How are you all liking it? Do you think I need to know the language to teach my kids? I had French in school, but zero Spanish…but I think Spanish is more useful/useable.  I don’t have time (I don’t think) to do multiple languages with my oldest (8th grade) — he’s only ever had some Latin pre-homeschooling. 

Thoughts?

The introduction gives instructions for older students and adults to write the series to aide in learning.

I like this resource. It has a unique approach to teaching another language.

I am somewhat dissatisfied with it in general, however. I will share this to help you decide for your high schooler.

The premise is learn a statement in English while acting it out. Identify the verb. Learn the Spanish word for that verb. Speak the Spanish translation. (acting out throught these steps to reinforce)

My dissatisfaction is mostly in the exercises used. Most of the sentences are not sentences that we (in our family) use. Sometimes a Bible verse is included in the additional exercises at the bottom, which I like. If I did not previously know Spanish at all or have the opportunity to speak Spanish with native speakers, then this book would be fine.

However, I would like my children to learn phrases they would actually use to communicate with the Spanish kids at the soccer field or the guys who work at our farm. My seven year old son is buddies with two of my husband’s employees. I asked him one night if he talks to them in Spanish or English. He said mostly English because he doesn’t know many words in Spanish. He told me he was making them laugh one day by saying “sacapuntas” which means “pencil sharpener,” from the early lessons in Volume 1. So I asked him what he would like to be able to say. He wanted to learn how to say “good morning” and “see you later, alligator.”. :).

Therefore, I would suggest you consider your goals for your son learning Spanish. Also, if you need a foreign language to fulfill high school/ college entrance requirements, you may want to contact the company since it is a non-traditional approach and may or may not meet those requirements.

I don’t want to come across as negative about this resource at all. I just would prefer to learn/teach words which we would use on a daily basis.

No, mrsmccardell. I am considering doing my own using the SCM memory box system. It’s just not a top priority right now. We are still using Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and Francois right now in order to provide consistency. We did learn the months last week doing the same little “Macarena” dance moves we used to learn the months in English when my children were younger! 😉 What I’m thinking I’d like to do is to alternate between learning some conversational sentences one week and a Bible verse the next. Then I would move what we learn through the memory box as outlined for Scripture memory (even/odd, days of the week, days of the month). Of course, I would have to pull all that together, but I could get input from the kids about what they would like to learn. I just don’t want to reinvent the wheel!

That’s funny. Sacrapuntas is a big hit in our house.

With a real quick check of practical Spanish I found this web site

http://www.learnpracticalspanishonline.com/beginner/basic-sentences/greetings.html

It looks simple and functional.