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How to choose a Foreign Language
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Can someone please help me with foreign language? I’ve read CMer’s doing Latin or French. What about Spanish? What age do you recommend beginning? I know CM began in the early elementary years but the thought of adding a foreign language is making me hyperventilate ?.
Do you speak any other languages? Did you take any in school? How do you feel about those languages now? Do any other languages appeal to you? Is there a language that you would really like to learn? How about your kids? That’s where I would start. Whether one language is “better” than the other in some way, or “more CM” will not matter if you and your kids aren’t excited about it and motivated to learn.
So my advice is that if you know a language, teach it to your kids. If you don’t, pick the one that you think will be the most fun for both you and your kids.
I studied French in school and really love French literature, so we do French in our house. I started teaching my two oldest when they were in 4th and 6th grade, but some of my younger kids have joined in as early as 2nd. I’ve had my older kids take 1-2 years of Latin later on, but only when they were old enough to self-study or take online classes, because I don’t know Latin and am not particularly interested in learning.
We started by learning root words around 5th grade with a fun card game called Rummy Roots. My daughter started French with a free curriculum on youtube called French for Beginners and a bit of Duolingo in the 7th grade. She then used Duolingo for some Spanish instruction for 8th grade. She is in 9th grade now and she has chosen to focus on Latin for her highschool foreign language credits. We are using Visual Latin.
I’m glad that she has dabbled in 3 different languages at this point. She has learned quite a bit and has a good foundation should she be in a place in the future to truly learn and use a modern language. We chose Latin because my daughter doesn’t have a native Spanish or French speaker to practice one of those languages with. Since Latin is a dead language, it’s all about learning how to read and write it and that is easier on a homeschool mom. 🙂 It will also give her a leg up in learning any of the romance languages. My daughter also chose Latin because she really likes the Visual Latin program from Compass Classroom.
If you do decide to start foreign language instruction, I have heard wonderful things about William Linney’s courses. They are sweet and simple and only take 10-15 minutes a day. They are also extremely inexpensive at about $20 each with a free audio lessons on his website. He offers Getting Started with Latin, Getting Started with French and Getting Started with Spanish.
We teach Latin. The thing I really like about it is that it’s a dead language. Pronunciation isn’t as big a deal as it would be with a modern language, so that made me less scared about teaching it.
Memoria Press’s Latin program is very easy to teach. You can use DVDs, but we just stick with the basic CD and have no problem with it. You can start as early as 2nd grade, but you can also wait until later. CM started Latin in 4th grade, which is when she began grammar. By teaching Latin, they pick up quite a bit of grammar, so it makes sense to start at this stage. My older two will be using Visual Latin, which moves at a faster pace and is recommended for ages 10 and up. This is DVD based, so there isn’t much teaching on your part.
There is no rush to add in a foreign language. It’s not really needed until high school. By the time they are that age, they could easily complete a computer or DVD based program on their own.
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