We started earlier this year. I think it is low pressure and simple! My boys are 7 and 9. We spend no more than 10 minutes 3-5 times a week learning a series. The series are getting longer as we progress, so we are breaking them up a bit more. Basically, I read to them the english sentences and verbs several times, acting it out. For instance, Take the pencil. Put the pencil in the pencil case. Then I read the sentences in spanish, highlighting the verbs, and act it out again. Then I have the boys say it and act it out a few times. We repeat the same series all week. By the end of the week, we can usually switch it up a bit by changing nouns. Using the same example as before, I might now say, Put the pencil in the backpack (since we learned that noun in another series). The boys will often start to play around creating their own sentences, using English were they don’t know the Spanish yet. For instance, Pongo the shoe en la caja de lapices. Then they’ll giggle and try to make up an even funnier sentence. But it reinforces the words they have already learned. Hope that makes sense. I think this can be a fun way to learn and the acting out of it (while it took some convincing them at first) makes it easier to remember.
The book itself is well made and since there is no writing involved, will last for years. Both volumes are meant to be used to several years. I think it’s really important to read about how to teach using the Gouin series (The Teaching Languages with Miss Mason book). If you know Spanish, then you can come up with your own series using the teaching book. I don’t know Spanish, so I have Volume One and the audio of the series to help my pronunciation. If I’m really off in my pronunciation (I can’t roll my r’s!) then I play the MP3 snipet for my boys, but usually I just use the audio so I learn how to say it properly.
Hope that helps!
