Hi all! Today we’re talking about our favorite foreign language programs in the homeschool curriculum forum series!
For younger students my favorite program is PowerSpeak. It is an online program with fun games and activities that help foster general vocabulary and sentence structure. My only issue with this is price and the lack of levels available. Currently they only offer elementary level 1 and 2, then the next one up is Jr. High which I thought would be too difficult for my 4th grader.
Pros:
- Fun and independent curriculum.
- No experience necessary to begin.
Cons:
- Fairly expensive, especially if you have multiple students.
- Limited in levels available.
- Only 5 languages available
My next choice is Rosetta Stone. We tried to use this initially when Strawberry Shortcake was in 2nd grade and it just didn’t go well. The curriculum moved way too fast for her, and it assumed a certain level of maturity to infer differences in verb tenses and sentence structure. However now that she’s a bit older we will re-visit this program and see how it goes!
Pros:
- Thorough lessons
- Visual and audio lessons
- Available in 30 languages
Cons:
- Can be costly unless you can find a used version.
So, now comes the fun part!
What are your favorite Foreign Language curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.
Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!
It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!
And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.
Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards FOREIGN LANG., I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.
Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!
Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.
Have you tried Duolingo? You can’t beat the price…FREE… and my kiddos are loving it!
What ages would you recommend Duolingo for? Ds9 wants to learn French. From the demo it looks as if he would need keyboarding skills.
Thanks for the tip my kids liked the first lesson. See if we keep it up
Siobhan
Muy interesante Dualingo. Gracias por compartirlo!!
Hello, this is a very useful website. I reccomend you Cactus Language Training. Two of my daughters are now studying Spanish with them and the provide Language courses accross UK.
Regards http://www.languagecoursesuk.co.uk/
We have been living in Germany for about eight months now and I really want my kids to learn the language so we are trying a LOT of different language options. Our favorite is Rosetta Stone (it is VERY expensive but because of that, we take it very seriously as an investment into our lives and future learning!) and we all take the lessons together. We also got a free app for the iPad called “Learn German” which the kids can play with anytime they want and is fun for them! Another program we use when we are driving is called Pimsleur Languages and comes in tons of different languages. It is also expensive so we just borrow the discs from the library instead. I love it because it teaches you more conversational stuff. It helps you memorize sentences you would use in everyday conversation and the repetition of words really helps make things stick!
Other random things to help us daily are a flip calendar with new phrases in German each day, practice counting daily, and even searching out a tutor that can help us. If you live anywhere near a military base in the states, chances are you can find someone that speaks/teaches the language you are intending to learn!!
Can’t wait to hear what others are doing!
Amy, I’m so glad that you mentioned Pimsleur! I was given a set, but hadn’t summoned the enthusiasm to test it out. Now that I know it’s a good one, I might just get started tomorrow. Thanks for the inspiration! (BTW, we just got back from Germany. Loved it! Hope you’re enjoying it, too!)
Are you homeschooling? We will be residing in Germany for 5-6 mos and want to homeschool or internet school during our stay. I know German law forbids this but is it possible for such a short stay?
We stayed in Germany for 3 months and homeschooled. It depends on where you are. In Paderborn area, you’d be in trouble – they’re militantly against homeschooling. In more lenient areas, I think it you’d be okay. Germany has more gov’t regulation (read “control”) than in the US. But under this administration, we’re catching up fast. Hoping it works out for you!
We are with the US Army in the Stuttgart, Germany area and know many families who home school with no German government interference. We home schooled our kids and now that I am teaching Spanish to army kids on Robinson Barracks army base, I have some home schoolers who come to my Spanish classes ( and also other “specials” like PE, music, art, and host nation German). Some American home schoolers live on base and some live “on the economy.” I plan to offer a Spanish class to home schoolers this year after school.
I forgot to tell you my favorite resource for Spanish that I found on YouTube and use extensively in my classes: Susy Dorn. She also sells DVD’s and CD’s. She has songs with very pleasing melodies and harmonies and good graphics for learning Spanish vocabulary. I have now bought all her DVD’s and CD’s and am making SmartBoard presentations to illustrate her CD’s. Susy Dorn is a native speaker from Peru and teaches Spanish immersion in CA.
I noted your interest in learning Spanish vocabulary.
For anyone with Kindle, I’d love to put you on our list for a free version of our “Hand Songs: Read and Rhyme with Me Chocolate.”
We use symbols (called Hand Songs) for finger plays with the text to teach multiple languages. Big and little learners have fun moving around while reading the texts.
We also have Mandarin, French, and Hindi pieces to come soon. We’re a little company and this is a labor of love. 😉
More info: https://www.amazon.com/Hand-Songs%E2%84%A2-Read-Rhyme-Chocolate-ebook/dp/B01M11WBC9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475590452&sr=8-1&keywords=Hand-songs+read+and+rhyme+with+me
I find it funny how Germany is always the first country mentioned in this when it’s also illegal in the Netherlands, Iceland unless you’re a teacher, Greece, Sweden, parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey and most of Latin America. Yet when you read about those countries, you get a sentence or two about it. Yet when it’s Germany, you get a tirade about the whole thing. HSLDA seems REALLY focused on Germany.
If you’re in the US military, what you do is none of their business as you are under US jurisdiction despite physically being in Germany. If you are staying only short term, they shouldn’t bother you and if they do show up, tell them that you’ll be leaving at x and y time. If you are staying less than a year, I doubt they will anyway. They are concerned with their long-term citizens, not for you guys staying short term.
While it is technically illegal, they’ve approximated that they are about 1,000 homeschooled children in the country. Most of them fly under the radar. In comparison, many of the other countries were it is illegal have virtually none. I’ve heard of people being granted homeschooling rights simply because their children were doing well with it. It’s religious homeschoolers the German government seems most afraid of.
We are in Baden Wurtemberg and my children have never been to school. If push comes to shove, we’ll think of a reason why they need to be in Distant Learning, but no one has bothered us so far. We aren’t religious, the kids are in activities, have friends and are learning well.
We used Olivata Oink which is a video plus work book approach for elementary age. Now I am trying Rosetta stone
We just finished Prima Latina for Latin this year and we are moving to Latina Christiana I next year. It was really easy to teach and my son learned a ton. It is from Memoria Press. I highly recommend the program for elementary Latin.
I have heard good things about it. Would like to get it for my DD. We are doing french this year. She is 6 but have thoughts on adding a second foreign language in a couple years. I am leaning towards Latin. What is a good age to start the program?
I started it with my 6 year old. I think that is a good age. Not too easy and not too hard.
We loved Prima Latina! We used with my 3 girls when the youngest was 7. They learned so much and it is so easy to teach. I had no latin experience, I would highly recommend it. Also I would recommend purchasing the DVD’s as the teacher on there is amazing and makes the lessons even easier. We finished it and have now moved on to Christiana Latina 1 and are enjoying it as well.
We are currently using Salsa Spanish, free from Georgia Public Television. My son loves it, but he says he wants to switch to French. Dd is also starting to pick up some Spanish, either from listening to Salsa while he’s watching it, or from Curious George games in Spanish (pbskids). I’ll probably schedule Salsa for her next year regardless of what ds and I are using.
Does anyone know of a free online program for French that uses puppets, songs, etc.? I like the looks of Adventure French for Kids, but for $75 I want to be sure he’s learning more than just a few basic words and phrases.
We also love the Salsa videos! The Wyoming Dept of Education has lesson plans available online for the different episodes as well.
We use La Clase Divertida for beginning spanish elementary, and Song School Latin from Classical Academic Press for beginning Latin.
We use a free online program through the library. It is called Mango Languages. My daughter seems to really like it, but we haven’t been consistent in foreign language this year.
We also use Mango through our library.
Do you like the mango? What age are you using it for? Is it fun to use?
I’m curious too. I was considering using Mango Languages this next year.
I would use it for older students because it’s geared towards adults.
We use Mango but find it is more conversational. For high school credits, we are looking for an approved curriculum. Purchased the “practice makes perfect complete french all in one” but it’s been a rough start.
We use Risas y Sonrisas at spanishforkids.com.
How do you like it? I’m thinking of getting this for my kids for August 🙂
We are researching currently. Our hope is to start Mandarin or Arabic this fall with our 4th grader. I worry about a program moving too quickly though. After a year of study we hope to team him up with a conversation partner from one of the local universities as well.
If anyone is I interested in Arabic, Critical Language Service (www.criticallanguageservice.com) provides great classes for students aged 6 to adult. The way it works is that you organize a group of between 2 to 10 students who can meet in one location twice a week. The teacher teaches the group via Skype. It’s just like a normal class except the teacher is on a screen. All teachers are native speakers who are experienced in teaching Arabic as a foreign language. The materials used vary according to the ages of the students in each class, so they are always age appropriate. Overall it’s a much more personalized and supportive experience than studying at a community college and more fun and effective than private lessons.
For Spanish we LOVE La Case Divertida for the younger ages.
I purchased Rosetta Stone too and even after completing a year, my girls really applied nothing. They sounded great repeating things back to the computer, but had no depth to what those things meant!
La Clase Divertida gets mom involved, which is great because you can use the words you have learned in conversation through-out the week – I think that is where real comprehension comes in.
Plus, in the 3rd year you learn the gospel En Espanol! SOLD!
I’m definitely going to check out La Clase Divertida! Sounds just like what I’m looking for!