Okay, I am looking at Spanish for Vicki for 7th grade. I want a good start on a foreign language. We have a lot of Spanish speaking people around where we live. Dh works with a lot also. I would like Vicki to be able to just carry on a conversation with them and never blink a eye. I was told Abeka was good for conversational, but BJU was better for the grammar. If I wanted Vicki to go to college I needed BJU. I need all the help I can get on this one. Should I do Abeka just for the conversations and later in 9th and 10th grade do BJU for high school credits.
When we homeschooled our older daughter at that age, we learned of a former missionary who held small discussion groups at her home. We had to pay (a nominal fee really) and drive our daughter there every week (a little bit of a burden), but it was very worth it. Frankly, none of the books in the world would have helped her to progress the way she did, chatting in Spanish each week with others at her level. She so enjoyed it that she did Spanish throughout high school and ended up getting two degrees at university (one of them Spanish). Now, as a PA, her Spanish is proving to be very useful in the emergency room. Another idea is to rent Dora the Explorer and other DVDs meant for young children - because they usually come with a Spanish as well as an English version. Add on top of that closed captioning - to match the spoken word to the written word - and there's a another inexpensive way to learn conversational Spanish quickly. (Yes - we suggested this to our college age son as he learned a language at Georgia Tech; he was not so eager to watch Dora the Explorer with his friends in the dorm!) So, while I can't answer your specific question (because we didn't use either Abeka or BJU), I would suggest that finding an inexpensive tutor (someone from your church, maybe?) and renting multilingual DVDs would be useful at that age. Very quickly, your daughter would begin to pick up conversations and understand them.
I would also emphasize that it is almost impossible to become that comfortable with a language (never blinking an eye) with any book. I took two years in high school and 1 1/2 years in college. I learned a lot. I couldn't hold a very long conversation though. That changed when I started talking to my Spanish speaking co-workers. Then some Spanish speaking neighbors moved in and I became friends with them. These two things have helped take the knowledge I learned from the books and make it practical. Hearing native speakers gets you accustomed to hearing the flow of the language. The book knowledge helped, but alone it wouldn't be enough. Now, I sometimes attend a Spanish speaking church service at our church and I can follow 50-75% of what is going on. I believe to become "fluent" (which I want to be) will take a few more years and some more work on my part (I have slacked off on learning new words). Oh, one more thing--there is nothing like desire to help overcome the barriers to learning a new language. If there is no desire, it will be very difficult. I have a strong desire to learn languages--I hope to learn more some day. I think it is one of the most intriguing things in the world to be able to understand another language.
Years ago, when I visited Iceland on business, I learned that most of the children there learn English by watching American TV shows. Have you thought of asking your daughter to watch some programs on one of the Spanish channels? Also, there are plenty of Spanish radio stations. The more immersed she can be, the sooner she'll learn.
We try to get her around as many Spanish speaking people as possible. Dh will come with new words from his friends at work. When she around gets his friends at work she will try to speak Spanish and they help her. We don't have any children around to help her. I really wished we did. That would be a win, win situation. They could learn some English and her some Spanish. We watch Dora a lot. We have some tapes that are Spanish. I haven't thought about the Spanish speaking channels. We might give that a try. She would love to learn to speak Spanish. That is one reason I am trying to get her going with it. If she is willing to learn the easier it will come. Thanks for all the good advice. I truly do appreciate it.
My dd did abeka spanish in 8th grade and found it very difficult. We aren't around many spanish speaking people so that certainly doesn't help. We are now using Rosetta Stone for spanish and she likes it alot more.
My sister in law said that the private schools around here are using Rosetta. I haven't looked into it. I think I will try to look into that.
Both my daughters have been attending Spanish-speaking (half-day) preschool since they were 18 months. There is also a lovely family who babysits for us a couple Saturdays a month. My girls are 2.5 and 4 and are bilingual—they speak to one another in English and Spanish and can flip back and forth without a thought. If the goal is fluency, immersion is the best. Perhaps your husband can find out if his co-workers have kids her age—invite them over for activities, with the understanding that they only speak Spanish (If the kids are learning English, then spend half the time on Spanish and half in English.). Many movies have been dubbed in Spanish. Church services—like Cabmom does—could be useful, and you might also meet nice young people with whom your daughter could become friends. Volunteer work might be another avenue to pursue.
I have never used Rosetta but have heard wonderful things about it. For us, the cost just wouldn't work but if I had the money, I would purchase it in a heartbeat.
