Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: French language

This topic has 7 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 12 months ago by Melanie32.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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June 9, 2017 at 8:17 am
Sue
Participant
DD16 would like to study French this year and probably in her senior year as well. For two years, we were blessed to have a Spanish teacher from a local Christian school offer small classes in her lovely home to a few homeschool families. (It was delightful….the kids learned Spanish from a native speaker, and the moms sat and sipped coffee by the fireplace.)
I have not found a class nearby for French (except for one possibility that is rather expensive), and in reality, we have enough travel time for 4-H, fine arts school, and our co-op classes that I really don’t want to add another class outside of home.
Can anyone recommend something of high school quality online or through dvd/cd-rom that I could purchase for her to use? I’m looking for something that we could use over the next two years should we decide to continue it in her senior year.
Thanks,
Sue
June 9, 2017 at 9:28 am
alphabetika
Participant
I have no personal experience with French as a speaker or with any of my kids, but a friend of mine used The Potter’s School (online) for one of her daughters and they were very happy with it. She took French for all four years of high school, I believe, and in between her junior and senior years traveled to France with her teachers and many of the students. I think one of her other daughters is also taking French with them now, and another is taking Russian!
June 9, 2017 at 2:20 pm
Sue
Participant
Thank you! I will check into that.
June 11, 2017 at 1:26 am
Melanie32
Participant
Sue-I just wanted to mention that William Linney, the author of Getting Started With Latin, also wrote a French version titled Getting Started With French. The first gets rave reviews as a beginning course for all ages. You might check out the reviews for the French version.
Also my daughter has fooled around with the free curriculum online that offers so many languages and is similar to Rosetta Stone for French and enjoyed it very much. The name is escaping me right now but I’ll ask my daughter tomorrow and be sure to come back and share it here. She hasn’t studied French very rigorously but she has enjoyed dabbling in it a bit.
Duolingo just popped in my head and I think that is what she has used.
Hope you find the right program for your daughter!
June 11, 2017 at 7:28 pm
Sue
Participant
Thank you, Melanie32, for your suggestions. I am really looking for something that I could use for high school credit, though. One of the FAQ answers on the Getting Started…. website stated that their book would be equivalent to 1/3 of a high school year of French.
Also, Duolingo seems to be more of a lesson enhancement, although I didn’t look too closely at it. I felt the same way about Mango Languages through the library. It was good beginner practice for my oldest daughter, but she learned more from the Spanish class she took overall.
So this leaves me still trying to find something affordable yet not too “French Lite” for DD. (The Potter’s School, which looks to be a very thorough class, is too expensive for our budget.) Somewhere along my search, I heard of Rocket French. Is anyone familiar with that?
June 12, 2017 at 4:41 am
Melanie32
Participant
I hear you Sue. I don’t like to invest a lot in a foreign language program until I see my child is really serious about learning it, so I might begin with Getting Started With French, and then follow up with Duolingo. If my student were diligent enough to work through both of these programs, I would be willing to invest in something more expensive and thorough. I would award credit according to time spent on the language.
I’m a bit leery of expensive programs for foreign language because the truth is, very few students actually learn how to speak the language and most usually forget the majority of what they do learn.
My daughter has dabbled in several foreign languages and I am very glad I didn’t purchase a curriculum for each one she was interested in! When she showed an interest in Japanese, I had her use the free components of an online program. After she worked diligently at this for several months, I purchased the other components of the program as well.
This is how I have handled foreign language so that is why I shared those resources even though neither is worth a full high school credit on its own.
Hope you find the right program for your daughter!

June 12, 2017 at 8:00 am
Sue
Participant
You’re right about not spending a fortune on something they might not follow through with or maintain an interest in. A foreign language is not like the core subjects. “You don’t like math anymore? Well, guess what….everyone has to learn fraction, and so do you!”
I was happy that my oldest daughter started working with Mango Languages in middle school. It gave her a taste of Spanish before we spent the money on the books & lessons with the teacher.
June 12, 2017 at 8:20 am
Melanie32
Participant
Love your new profile pic by the way! 😀