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Spanish – all ages?
- This topic has 11 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 6 months ago by
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Ladies, I have decided that we’ll stick with Spanish this year and wait maybe 2 years before we go into Latin. That said I have been using Euro Talk and though it’s simple for my 6yr old to just look at and “play” with it’s just not cutting it for really learning Spanish as a language.
I would love to hear of what you are using and why you “love it”. I have 4 boys I’d like to be able to use it very indepentantly 12, 11, 9 and 6.5. My goals for Spanish is really that they can make simple conversation and get things. I was taught Spanish in high school and I don’t remember much at all.
Here’s what I would like: It to have a DVD to watch, a workbook possibly to go along and the goal of teaching sentences/questions more than grammar. I know that seems backwards but my goal isn’t to have majors in Spanish just that it would be great to have them be able to talk in Spanish at our local and most loved Mexican restaurant. LOL
Thanks for the help Misty PS Bookworm, I thought you were getting something new this spring? Did you get it and how are you liking it?
My husband’s first language is Spanish so we naturally wanted our children to learn the language, too.
We have a dd who is 8 and a ds who is 9. We initially tried Rosetta Stone, but it was waaaayyyyy over their heads past the first few lessons. (More at a high school level.)
We are now using The Learnables. It is sufficient… for now. It has stories on the computer that they watch and then they do exercises on the computer. After they have completed the CD-ROM lessons, they move into the work books. We are not there yet, so I cannot comment on them.
I have been looking at the TELL ME MORE Spanish program (http://www.tellmemorestore.com/magnum.asp?pg=homeschool), but I have not purchased it yet as I am concerned it might be too “Rosetta Stone-ish”. I am still praying about it.
Hopefully that helps a bit. Anyone else have any suggestions? I would be interested to see what others come up with….
Kind regards,
Patricia
Thanks for reminding me to post, Misty! I’m getting old. 🙂 Yes, I did get Spanish for Children in, and I like it very much. We’ve done a few years of lower-key things with my youngest (the oldest 2 did Rosetta Stone) like Eurotalk and The Fun Spanish. I wanted a more grammar-based program for him. And I really, really like Spanish for Children for this. It is very well organized, teaches grammar, conjugations, vocabulary, and phrases. It is more heavily grammar-based than anything else I’ve used for Spanish before high school. (I like Breaking the Barrier courses for French and Spanish for high school.) It does have a CD, and workbook, and teacher’s guide. There is a fair amount of writing, and daily chants/memorization. There is no DVD.
For a conversational program, have you looked at http://www.livemocha.com ? There are a few free lessons to try. No workbooks, though, and your younger-end kids would have trouble. My 9, almost 10yo has done parts of the Spanish 1 free lessons, and if he didn’t need the conjugation practice I would use the paid program for him. It is online-based, and you’d need to be nearby (it doubles as a social-networking site; no one has ever bothered my son but I am in the room when he uses the site. I own the account, and “contract” to him to let him use it) I’m not sure how it would work with more than one child, but you could look into it. I’m eagerly awaiting their Swahili release so my second son can use it in the fall. They have CATALAN, but no Swahili. ??? LOL
Do you have any Spanish speakers in your church/community that would do “conversational practice” with your children?
Check out this FREE program. It is designed for use in elem. schools that want to teach some foriegn language, but don’t have a teacher certified to teach the language (or is maybe brand new to it.) We have just started using the German one (first level) and they LOVE it so far.
The German one (I assume they are similar) has a German lady move into the neighbourhood and is introduced to a couple of families. The children are interested in learning German, so arrangements are made for them to visit her and her teach them. She is teaching them through an immersion method. (That is the main video.) For another day, there is a follow up video with a teacher teaching a few concepts. There is a teacher’s guide with suggestions for more activities. Basically we watch the main video, the next day we watch the “again” video, the day after we do some activities, or listen to some german songs, or something, and the 4th day we watch the main video again. (we generally do school 4 days a week.)
http://www.knowitall.org/instantreplay/content/LanguageIndex.cfm
I am enjoying it an learning from it – so I think it would be fine for older kids. No workbooks though. I think Spanish has 3 levels. They have Spanish, German, and French.
I know I’m thinking of ordering The Easy Spanish for my two boys. They are 7 & 8. We will start this fall.
Thanks for the idea’s. I will have to look into those at the library. I will mention in case someone else chimes in that I can’t use the internet for my Spanish, as dial up is the only option. We have to buy it from somewhere. Thanks again. Misty
I have to say I have looked at these and I will add a couple notes. I don’t have hundreds to spend on a language. $100 and under is my limit. I looked at a few older posts and looked at
http://www.tobreak.com, http://www.tellmemore.com, and http://www.randomhouse.com/lilvinglanguage
What I need is something for the elementry ages and not the high school. Can anyone who has used these give some insight to these programs.
Misty
Bringing this back up as I have a new 7th grader who want to “try” Spanish this coming fall. I don’t want to spend a ton either, but would like to give it a good shot. BTW, I have younger kids who may benefit from it as well.
@Misty, what did you decide on after all??
Not to try to hijack this post, but I have tell-me-more spanish that I purchased used last year and never used. I am wanting to trade it for a good latin program for my 4th, 1st and K children if anyone is interested!
I just read a review on Getting Started with Spanish. The link for the review can be found here.
Also, someone wrote on one of my homeschool forums that she accesses Mocha online through the Columbus, Ohio library….but you have to apply for a patron card from them. (Not a problem here, since we’re actually in Ohio, although nearly 150 miles apart!) Perhaps other libraries around the nation can provide access to Mocha.
Ooops! The online language program is called MANGO, not Mocha! (I guess I just love my mocha more than my fruits & veggies, LOL!)
I discovered something just now while looking at their website. Here is the link: http://www.mangolanguages.com/. On their home page, if you scroll down to the bottom right, you can click on Library Locator and put in your zip code to bring up a list of nearby libraries. It tells you whether your library has Mango access or not. There are a number of languages available: Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Farsi, French, German….and others, including ESL. Interesting….
Sue
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