Rosetta stone is just plain boring to my kiddos. They keep begging for Muzzy (thank you, commercials). The only thing is, even the catalog and website don't list the cost!!!! It just keeps saying "start your free trial today." Um. Yeah, but how much is it?! I mean, I'll invest in a program that keeps their interest if it works, but I don't want to find out it's thousands after the boys are already in love with it.:roll:
I found this when I clicked on German to check it out: http://www.early-advantage.com/programs_german.aspx
Amie- this is what I found. http://www.early-advantage.com/product/MuzzyCombinationPackage.aspx It looks like their are "levels". Scroll to the bottom for the prices. Hope this helps. Gotta love those commercials!
FYI -- I clicked on "Try Muzzy Free" from the top row of buttons. A pop up box came up where I could click on a variety of languages and then I was taken to the price page.
Thank you! I did receive a catalog last week (I requested it via the website) but it doesn't have a single price in there! I wasn't looking at the specific languages though on the site, so that's where I went wrong. I kept looking for a link about prices. Do you know anyone who's used this? If it works, it looks like it would be a better option for us than Rosetta Stone (the boys dread RS). [If they were teens I'd tell them to suck it up, but they range in age from 9 down to 2.]
Noooooo! Don't get Muzzy. I did and regret it. It costs a couple hundred and is mostly 80's animation/storyline in your target language with subtitles in English. It isn't great quality and the storyline is a bit weird. Depending on the language it also has a CD-ROM game. My kids didn't learn from it at all. There are so many great options for kids out there - I would look elsewhere.
I've never used it nor heard of it until just now. But I've got a 16 year old... And we were able to get Rosetta Stone German for a good deal, so we will most likely stick with that.
What else would you suggest, then? Rosetta Stone is out. They really want to learn Spanish, but RS is completely boring to them.
We aren't learning Spanish so I don't have any recommendations, but Spanish seems to have the most resources. What kind of learning style do your kids have? I used Rosetta Stone without success. It was only when I chose teacher-intensive programs that my kids made progress. Galore Park seems to be a choice of many.
My boys are mostly kinesthetic with a fair balance of auditory and visual. In other words, with enough activities, I can make anything work. I've never heard of Galore Park.
Skoldo from Galore Park might work. It has fun exercises, songs, and full color pages. http://www.galorepark.co.uk/product/parents/2288/skoldo-elementary-spanish-pupils-book.html I would supplement with Spanish videos (use the Spanish track on popular DVDs). They have a program for age 9 and up too.
I don't like it when prices are in Pounds. lol. Thank you, Embassy! It sounds perfect... assuming shipping to the US isn't ridiculous.
You can buy them here: http://www.horriblebooks.com/galoreparkbooklist.htm too. I believe if he doesn't have what you want, he will order it for you so you don't have to get it shipped from the UK. The Book Depository also has it http://www.bookdepository.com/Spanish-Elementary-Pupils-Lucy-Montgomery/9781901870527 and they offer free shipping to most countries. You can see it in US funds there too.
Yahooooo! I'll mull it over tonight, but I'm leaning towards this. It looks more like what my kiddos would enjoy.
Me too. My kids never cared for it. If you wanted to try it, you could probably borrow it from the library for a while.
I don't recommend it for language learning. We totally lucked into a full set for $5 (can you believe that?) and I am SOOOOoooo glad I did not buy it at full price. My kids loved the cartoons, but the only thing they learned was how to say "Emmenez le." Which, incidentally, they found hilarious. I will say, it was a set of videos that they really enjoyed (and would keep them busy for a bit) and to which I had no objections. So I got my $5 worth out of. I don't know what language you're considering, but my oldest enjoyed the activities in the Easy French (I believe she also has a Spanish curriculum). I stopped mainly because I found it a lot of prep for just one child, and decide to wait until my other two were both old enough to participate. We will probably pick it back up later this year or next, since my youngest is now 5.
