Pink Ballerina and others who have used or are using Power Glide Spanish can you tell me what you really like about it. I am still thinking about which Spanish program to get. My children ds 9 and dd 7 are going to start learning Spanish this year. They have no knowledge of Spanish and neither do I. I don’t want to just jump in and buy. There is many choices. I don’t want to do Rossetta Stone because it seems geared to age 8 and older. I want my children to work together on one program so they can speak to each other what they are learning. The Power Glide Spanish looks neat. I would appreciate some feedback on this program of those who may have used it or are in the process.
I originally bought Power Glide Spanish from a homeschool book sale dirt cheap (It came with tapes). I know the new thing is learning through immersion (like Rosetta) but since I’m learning Spanish along with my dc I like how this mixes English with Spanish. I was told by that HS parent who sold it to me it’s fine to do for fun in the early years. I agree. We are just introducing Spanish. Someday when we are serious I plan to use Rosetta Stone (I have Mexican friends who say it’s a good program). I just can’t spend that kind of money on a foreign lang program yet!
I found our second set of Power Glide on amazon for a good price. (well the first person I ordered from didn’t send me any CD’s so got the books for free, then had to order from someone else and got more books with the CD’s. lol It was a blessing, so each child could look at their own book!
We are starting Level II this fall and hoping it continues to keep their interest. So far the girls really like to hear the stories while they color the page. I try to supplement with Whistlefritz music and DVD’s we get from the library. Also we count in Spanish when we do our calendar. I’d like to label items around the house in Spanish one day so we can pick them up better!
We tried the PowerGlide German – and ended up hating it…. I don’t know how similar it is. The program looked good, but after a couple of lessons they hated it.
Thank you for posting. I was cleaning my house from top to bottom and I didn’t get to my email until just now. I will have to keep thinking about whether I should just go for the Easy Spanish or look into this Spanish Power Glide. Anyway thank you for your opinions. I don’t think my dd is ready for Rosetta yet. I am not going to rush into this. I think I had better pray on this.
Kim, Just curious which program you ended up going with. Some days I wish we had gone with another program. We started Level II and they don’t translate most of the passages! So I end up looking up phrases online so we know what we r saying. @@
I ended up choosing Great Commisions Languages. We have started the junior level. Even though my older one is already nine I felt the need to start at a simple level because none of us know how to speak the language. My daughter is enjoying the activities. I have been going slow and repeating the Cd’s almost every day. The more I take the words learnt and say them throughout the day the more we seem to learn. Unfortunately that is up to me remembering. The lessons are a conversation between a little dog and a girl.
One other thing that has helped me emensly is that A Spanish speaking lady told me that when you see the vowels they always sound the same. You may know this but this book failed to mention it or I missed reading it. I am going to tell you just incase you don’t know. The letter a makes the short sound a. The letter e makes the long a sound. The letter i makes the long e sound. The o makes the long o sound. And the u makes an oo sound. This has helped me read the words out to my children as we go along.
I am going to also make a box with the setup like the scripture memory and put in nouns such as casa, house. Being that Spanish is fairly easy to read I will be able help them learn that way also. My Spanish friend even encouraged me to put sticky notes all over the house. I haven’t done that yet though.
I have both of those programs and we fail to use either one. We’ll get started with one or the other at the beginning of each year, but then fade out rather quickly. I feel like The Great Commission one is too short of a lesson and listening segment on the Power Glide is too long. We’ve had the best sucess with Spanish in 10 minutes a day which we borrow from the library. I just put the cd in the car and we listen for a few minutes every time we go somewhere. Then we’re all learning the same words.
I hope you have better luck with the two than we have!
That’s a great idea using the scripture memory for Spanish words! One thing we do in our day that is consisten is we count on our calendar in Spanish and say the month and weather in Spanish. We found the phrases for weather at: http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/spanish_videos_for_children_basic We enjoy watching the videos and reading the Spanish phrases for everyday phrases, for colors, weather words, etc.
I did take one semester of Spanish Freshman year HS and do remember the vowels all sound the same!
I’ll look into Easy Spanish maybe for next year, though I hate to waste money not using Power Glide!!
Salsa is a series of short videos, 15 minutes at first, then the last few are 30 minutes. They use puppets to tell a story. The first is Goldilocks. Then the next several episodes use the characters from Goldilocks in new stories. Then Little Red Riding Hood, and some related stories. And so on. My kids are young (6, 4, 3, 2) and they love it, but I think kids a bit older would like it too. It is all in Spanish, with a few focus words each episode, but we are picking up many of the other words they use repeatedly in the stories. beyond just the focus words. They have suggested activities to go along with each episode, but they seem like just busy work to me, nothing that will really increase our understanding of the language.
It’s definitely just a basic introduction, but for my young crowd it’s all we need right now. For older kids it might make a fun addition to whatever else you are using. You can’t beat free.
OK – here’s the post I had posted on the Learnables topic, but it’s not showing up and I thought it might be useful here too.
Tara – I do like listening to Powerglide Spanish because it’s more interesting to ME, but the segments are rather lengthy and my 7 year old can do it by herself, but I don’t feel like she’s gaining much from it. I think we’re just going to have to spend a whole winter in Mexico and let my girls learn it that way! 😉
Jen – thanks for the review – I have just started really wanting Rosetta Stone, but my husband is leary because I always want the most expensive things and it doesn’t always yield the most fruitful results! So we’re going to plug ahead with Mango for now and then maybe try this… (email from our homeschool co-op) Seems like a GREAT price for private tutoring!
“Want your child to learn Spanish? More interested in conversational fluency? Try using the new Virtual Real Solution offered by Homeschool Spanish Academy. Students learn authentic Spanish from the comfort of their own home via webcam with their personal native Spanish-speaking instructor from Guatemala. The closest thing short of flying to a Spanish-speaking country, these certified professional instructors guide your student through every lesson and provide instant feedback, correct pronunciation, and proper grammar which leads to faster results all while saving gas and time. The global dialogue has begun: let your child’s voice be heard! The Learning Center is pleased to partner with the Homeschool Spanish Academy to offer this amazing opportunity to our children. For more information, see their website or email them at info@homeschoolspanishacademy.com. You can sign up for a free trial session by using the promotional code OHLC. The Homeschool Spanish Academy has generously agreed to make a modest donation to the Omaha Homeschool Learning Center for services purchased through our website.”
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