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.
We will be using Song School Latin next year. It has a workbook, a listening CD with fun songs and also a DVD! It looks really cute, we’ve never used it before but I have watched the first few lessons on the DVD and I was learning a lot! :). My kiddos will be 3rd grade, kindergarten and a tot, so hopefully they will really enjoy it and learn a lot.
We LOVED Song School Latin and my son learned every word in that book. It is WONDERFUL! We have just started the Song School Greek book and it is much more difficult but we’re getting there!
We have tried Muzzy, Mango, and several others including different kinds of workbooks, videos, etc. and this has been our hardest subject to do well! It is terrible because my husband and I are both bilingual and I actually work as a Bilingual Interpreter and this is literally our only subject that does not go well.
My boys both had language issues when they were young, which is why we didn’t push Spanish at the time, but now I really regret it.
Same here! My husband and I are both bilingual (though English is our preferred language), and when our children had speech delays and stuttering issues, we decided not to teach a second language til later. Now I’m just not sure how to incorporate it effectively (they are 7 and 10 years old now). I am thinking about using flashcards with them this year. My idea is to learn a new word a day at lunchtime and review previous words. I think having mastered 100+ vocabulary words will serve them well when we finally start teaching it formally.
We are starting french this next school year. I found a curriculum called The Easy French. It has several levels, including a junior level for k-3. We can’t wait to begin it.
Thank you for posting this info, it has been useful for our family 🙂
Our local YMCA has Spanish for homeschoolers and my 9-year old loves it! It’s very inexpensive too. There is free childcare and my little kids get some play time while mom goes to the gym. We are a military family and did have our daughter in Italian pre-K, where she started speaking and understanding within 2 months. My husband has taken on learning Spanish now and reads the Bible to the kids before bed in Spanish and English, sometimes some of the very well known fairytales as well.
Wanted to chime in here.
Erica, I actually used your Calendar Time, LOTW and K4 curriculums and adapted them by making the words German instead of English (like Days of the Week Song, Months of the Year, the color flashcards, the number worksheets). We did this over the course of two years and it really helped immerse my son in the language! He now, at 5, teaches his adult uncles a little German using the game Go Fish, an idea he came up with during our K4 year.
Anyway, just wanted you to know that you helped our homeschool immensely!
Thank you!
We have 2 boys 8 and 11 who have been learning for the last 3 months with Skype classes from http://www.121spanish.com.
They have most of the popular E books used in US schools for free as part of their classes, so I do not need to purchase them.
Also their website has many videos and learning activities for free.
Have you checked out http://lingohut.com/ ? This website helps me with pronunciation. It is free and super easy to use. They have lessons in a whole bunch of languages. I learned Dutch with my daughter. We call it our secret language.
At my church we have several members that have limited English skills and this website really has help them.
I am a French teacher, so I have reviewed a lot of different things! I love petralingua.com. They have subscriptions for 3 months, 6 months, or a year at very reasonable prices. They offer Spanish, French, and a few more. I think it is great for kids maybe as young as 5, but you might have to sit with the child to help them figure out the directions to some of the activities. I also love Mango languages, which many libraries offer for free. It is online but some libraries have a way you can access it from their homepage for free if you sign in with your library card number and PIN. Many libraries also offer Pimsleur CDs which are AWESOME. Little Pim is a line of DVDs created by the daughter of the man who created the Pimsleur program. They are geared towards very, very young children and might be a tad boring for kids over the age of 4. Depends on the kid, I suppose. Professor Toto DVDs are great, but I would not buy them new. They are too pricey for what they are. I think they work best as a review after the child has been learning for a while because otherwise they go too fast. Duolingo is great, and free. Digitaldialects.com is a free site with vocabulary activities. Ecoutez, Parlez is a book with CD and a workbook published by kaleekapress in Canada. I like it for ages 6 & up (as long as the 6 yr old is a solid reader.) Hooked on French and Hooked on Spanish are great programs, if you can find them. HOF is no longer being produced, I think. If you find those, use them first with your youngest kids because they are the most basic (good) curriculum you’ll find. As supplements, “Hide and Speak” books are great vocabulary boosters. Languageguide.org is like an audio picture dictionary. BBC “primary languages” has free foreign language lessons and games. And I just found out that the makers of “Spot it!” have made Spanish and French versions specifically designed to help American kids learn Sp / Fr vocab! I think that’s awesome! More toy and game makers should do this! I think that’s all I’ve got for now but I hope that is helpful for some people!
Hello thank you what would you suggest for a child 13 who has been learning French since she was 6 Her new school doesn’t offer so looking for some curriculum Thanks Anne apower10@yahoo.com
Pimsleur Spanish uses a variety of audio techniques to help you learn new vocabulary, create an understand phrases, and perhaps most importantly, understand real native Spanish speakers. The audio program that you received has been scientifically sequenced so that you are able to quickly learn Spanish and retain as much information as possible, even after listening to the CD lessons one time.
The fact that you can learn a new language without reading, writing, or even using your computer means that you can focus on just what is important – speaking and understanding.
Who has experience with a foreign language class for homeschoolers that is provided at someone’s house by a native speaker of that language (German), in a small group, say only 2 or 4 children of same/similar grades? What would you consider a reasonable tuition to pay for a 45 minute lesson once or twice a week? The teacher has Waldorf Education teaching experience so it’s an immersion method, based on cultural activities, songs, stories, poems, games, festivals, short conversations & role play.