I know there have been several threads about teaching languages recently, but they seem to be mostly dealing with older kids. My Joy LOVES Spanish, so we are looking for something to teach her with. I took French in high school (Canada was a LOT closer to Ohio than Mexico and the French club got to go to Montreal at the end of French 4!) (Of course, we ended up moving in the middle of my ninth grade year and the new school didn't do anything so cool... :roll: ) I was puttering around on Google looking for options and found "Flip Flop Spanish" which looks REALLY good! Has anyone else heard of it? http://www.flipflopspanish.com/ ~ Marylyn
Yep, I've heard of it! Suzanne Gose (the author) is our local Spanish teacher and she is going to homeschool her kids! She is a former public school teacher and now offers classes on her own. Tina's kids took her classes and they enjoyed it. She is going to have an older kid edition due out in the fall. I've not used it but...Tina has and she says it is real nice and gentle for the kiddios. HTH
Do they have one in French? I just got (another!!!) catalog in the mail today, and it has a McGraw-Hill French listed that looks fairly decent and cheap. I'm thinking of getting both the Middle School and the Elementary workbooks.
Jackie, Does that McGraw-Hill French come in Spanish? :lol: That makes a lot of sense---"does that French come in Spanish!" Oh well............
No, it doesn't come in Spanish, BUT they DO have a Spanish program, too, LOL! They have several Spanish workbooks at different levels. This is the website of the catalog I got: www.SchoolSpecialtyPublishing.com DEENA!!! You're not giving up on French for Spanish, are you???
We picked up the McGraw Hill Spanish workbook at either Sam's or Walmart for around $6. The FlipFlop Spanish is only spanish.
Jackie, My oldest was really wanting to learn French, and did fairly well, despite the Power-Glide! :lol: But now he's moved on to German, and likes it better. My dd wants to learn Spanish, not French, and my middle ds is doing Greek, and wants to start Hebrew also. So yes, I guess we've given up French. It was worth a try..... Thanks for the ideas and website Jackie and Sheila!
I have tried lots of books, workbooks, pc programs and cds. My ds will be K this Fall and I plan on using 2 things as the foundation of my spanish curriculum. Our Jumpstart Spanish and El Pato Paco pc games look perfect for him. My older dd still enjoys those programs so she can use them with ds and then also do our Unforgettable Languages cdrom for more in depth practice. My kids also enjoy doing spanish puzzles, Leapfrog spanish games, etc.
you guys may want to try a program called Muzzy. by early advantage. I was looking for spanish to teach to high schooler ( for our co-op) and went to the library and checked out this program. High schooler would think it is babish, but my daycare kids love it. (4 & 5 years old) It has 5 vhs tapes I think in comes in dvd form too. 2 tape cassettes, 1 cd rom, instuctioal guide, a vidoe script book. I have seen it on ebay and they have another set that has a workbook. 4 of the vhs tapes are in spanish and 1 is in english. 2 of the vhs tapes have vocabulary builder lessons (27 lessons) 2 tapes are story videos (6 parts) the 1 english vhs is a story tape the same of as the spanish but in english. The tape cassetes have songs and vocabulary. Muzzy also comes in french, italian or german
I tried to encourage Suzanne Gose, author of Flip Flop spanish to make a program that will be multi grade/multiple level type of thing. She is fairly new to homeschooling. She is one of our babies:lol: we are proud to say of Smoothing the Way. So she is still getting her sea legs as far as homeschooling, but really knows her stuff in spanish. Matter of fact the boys were in a play that she hosted for the year end Spring Recictal. She has 3 kids, expecting her 4th..and her oldest is only 4...So her spanish is really suited to the preschool/kindergarten age except when she does weekly a co-op. I mean the boys really had to *step lively* when they took her class. We really enjoyed it. She is wonderful instructor and I'm hoping to see more from her as far as affordable curriculum for the older kids.. BTW, my oldest was 11 and he didn't mind doing her spanish that was suppose to be for 3-5yo. New is new,kwim?
Hello Marylyn! I think it's fantastic that Joy loves learning a foreign language, and that you are encouraging her to do so. (How old is she by the way?). As a language teacher myself, I so often see ho whard it is to teach languages to older, unwilling children, so good on you both, and I wish you every success with your teaching/learning. OK, I have a couple of comments to add here. (1) I know Muzzy, and have used the English version myself in ESL. It seems pretty good. What I do like about it, though, is that it does provide the learner with a variety of input methods, and does concentrate on all 4 language skills: listening, reading and writing in particular, but speaking too, if you consider repetition to count as speaking, To encourage more in the way of speaking, or rather, interracting/communicating, I recommend that you support the course with your own interactove games that encourage Joy to interact in the language too. It would be ideal if you could have her intarecat with a native Spanish speaker, I know, but as long as she is hearing native Spanish all the time through her resources, it may not be detrimental if you speak to her in Spanish too. I am a language course author myself, and I have been considering putting together a guide for parents who would like to teach their child/children a foreign language, while elarning it at the same time. That's after my book on learning languages, the other one on teaching languages at primary school with no budget.....where does all the time go? (2) Personally I don't recommend these courses to adults - they are horrendously overpriced, but I believe The Rosetta Stone has been received quite positively by parents who want their children to learn foreign languages. As I say, I have grave reservations about the system as a viable teaching method for adults, but foir teaching basic vocabuolary to children 'naturally' you may find it something to consider. This is just for your information. If you can get them very cheaply, then it might be worth doing so, otherwise I wouldn't bother with them. (3) There are some good CD Roms out there that are designed especially for young children. Have you heard of Eurotalk? (eurotalk.com, if I'm not mistaken). I have not used their children's range, I must confess, but the ones for adults are OK, and reasonably priced. That might be worth checking out. I don't know whether you'll have any difficulties ordering them, though, being in the States but with the materials originating in Europe. I had difficulties when I tried to purchase a CD Rom from the US, living in the UK. That was through Amazon, though. (4) Finally, you might find this interesting: http://www.primaryschoolmfl.com/resources.html It's one of my learning sites - just to be up-front about it. I originally set it up to help primary school teachers in the UK deal with the move towards language education at primary school, but you'll find some really interesting stuff on that resource page, especially the first three items. The CD Rom from Swift is entertaining, colourful and very basic, and it's great value too. The sticker books are also great for vocabulary building. And I almost forgot, have you heard of the 'Diglot Weave'? If you go to the bottom of the page you'll see a banner link there to a site with some truly excellent materials for children learning foreign languages, called Power Glide. They don't just have Spanish - they provide for several languages. Hope that helps! Oh, yes, I have a Spanish resource that you might find useful for yourself. I can send you (or anyone else who wants one) a link to a free copy, if you want. It's being sold at other places on the Internet so in all fairness I can't place a direct link to it here, but if you're interested, e-mail me at the address given on the site above, or at chris[at]ultralearn.com (all mails go there anyway!). Wishing you all the best and every success.
Hi Deena. You wouldn't recommend PG? I'm interested in the experiences you have had with it. Could you be more specific with what you didn't like about it? I suppose it's like me with the Rosetta Stone - some people rave about it, but I think it leaves a lot to be desired. Looking forward to your comments...
Hello, Prospero!!! Deena and I both bought Power Glide French, and ABSOLUTELY HATED IT!!! I had heard so much good about it. I bought the Children's Power Glide and used it with all three of my kids, ages 5, 10, and 8 at the time. We stuck with it for half the year. They enjoyed the story (which drove me CRAZY), but found the activities boring. I've had five years of High School French, three semesters of college French, and spent a summer working at L'Association des Paralysees de la France. So I can say a little more than "Where's the bathroom?", lol! I didn't like the Diglot Weave stuff at all, and felt that my kids were learning without understanding. I felt it was a complete waste of money! I had bought an Usbourne French book really cheap, and we had done a little of that the spring before. My kids enjoyed it much better. They would often complain "Why can't we go back to the French we did last year???" when we would sit down to do Power Glide. This year, I learned that our library offered Rosetta Stone on-line for free, and they have done that. It has gone fairly well, especially for my 11YO. The problem with this is that there's no one to help with their pronunciation. And, I am honestly not much help! But no, I would not encourage anyone to buy Power Glide!
Hi, Prospero! Thank you for your advice. I will be checking out the websites you mentioned. (I'll check out Power Glide, too, but I'll keep in mind Jackie and Deena's reservations. Maybe their Spanish program is better than their French one? ) Joy just turned 5, so we're starting pretty early, but she gets SO excited when she hears Spanish or learns a new Spanish word. She jabbers in made-up words and then says they are "Spanish." LOL She has an uncle who lives nearby who is from Mexico, and of course there are a ton of people here in Houston who speak Spanish, so I think we'll be able to find lots of places to use it and hear it. I want to learn it with her, too. I took French in high school, and it has been very useful many many times to be able to read it, but I would really like to learn to communicate in Spanish. Thank you, EVERYONE!, for your input on this!! ~ Marylyn
Marylyn (and Jackie), Just awhile ago my oldest ds and I were looking at what to order for his 11th grade year next year (They grow up soooo fast!!!), and he saw the Power-Glide German advertized in the Alpha-Omega Catalog. He asked if we could get it for him. (Can you believe that Jackie?!) I was so surprised! I asked him why he thought it'd be any better this time around! He said, "well, that was French, and I really want to do German." I said, "But when we got that you really wanted to do French!" "Hmmm, yeah, I guess you're right. I have enough German stuff." Whew! But maybe it WAS just a dislike of the language more than the program??? But I can't afford to buy a whole new Power-Glide set!!!
