Hello everyone, I am new here. I homeschool my two boys aged 5 and 7. We recently moved from the US to Canada and had to take a 3 month break from school. We are back up and running now and playing catch-up. My oldest is in first grade and my youngest is in Kindergarten (will finish in 2010). I have an eclectic mix of homeschooling styles from workbooks, self-designed unit-studies, computer instruction, etc. My focus on schooling is to instill within my children a love for Christ, a passion for souls, the importance of missions, a love of learning, and study of languages. We are currently studying 5 languages.
Hi and welcome. I don't think I could handle five languages, but the rest of your curriculum sounds a lot like us. My fifteen year old was talking to a friend who was questioning her about why we homeschool. Crystal said that it was because her mama wanted her to be a Godly person. I like that answer just fine. Glad you joined us. Beth
We are studying Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Koine Greek. Chinese is the most difficult, but I have exposed my kids to Mandarin for at least 3 years now. I think my kids like Arabic the best so far.
I am very curious about this....how do you teach/expose them to all the different languages? Is your goal to have them be fluent in all the languages or just be exposed? One of my biggest regrets in life is not learning another language and I definitely want my children to learn at least one other language...just don't know the best way to go about it (they are 4 and 2) right now. I wish we had relatives that spoke another language that could speak it to them.
Since I don't speak the languages I am using a curriculum that will teach it to them. Rossetta Stone is a great computer program that I use. I also have them watch lots of Youtube videos. Youtube has lots of kids videos in the languages we are studying. Once you choose a language do a Google search and you will likely find lots of kids programs that will help teach the lanuage. My goal is for them to be fluent. I plan on sending them to language classes/school when they are older. For age 2 and 4 you can purchase videos in your chosen language. If you choose Spanish or French you may already have some DVDs with a French or Spanish track. Initially I wanted my kids to understand the rhythm of the language and be able to distinguish between languages.
She's right! The language lessons, along with other lessons on you tube are fabulous! I found a young woman teaching Chinese and WOW, Just her one video taught me a lot! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh2Gt4HzAw8 We also have a favorite math tutor on you tube! http://www.youtube.com/user/videomathtutor PS WELCOME!
Right now I'm trying out a new schedule. We do language in the afternoon for 1-2 hours. We do each language once a week right now.
