warriormom Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Ok, I am totally confused about which spanish curriculum to use for my 5 year old (and my 2 year old through osmosis:)). I originally thought I would use learnables, but he may be too young for it. Then, I considered Getting Started with Spanish, but the author and a fellow forum board member said he may be too young. The author mentioned that I can teach him through rote memorization with GSWS. My dh is spanish speaking (bilingual). EVERYONE tells me to have him just speak to them in spanish. He does but the kids need something more (since he does not speak exclusively to them in spanish...he wants for his kids to understand him). Any suggestions? I do not want to get a curriculum that goes in one ear and out the other. :) We want a good program that they can retain since they will be speaking spanish with dh and in-laws. Of course dh will reinforce and follow up with review. FYI, cost is an issue! Here are the options I am looking at: 1. Learnables Spanish 2. Getting Started with Spanish 3. Risas y Sonrisas 4. The Easy Spanish Junior 5. La Clase Diversitad 6. Puertas Abierta Please tell me your EXPERIENCE with the program. :tongue_smilie:FYI, I loved Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. If I could find something like that in spanish, it would be GREAT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 We use GSWS and I think a five year old would be too young. I looked into Espanol para los chiquitos at one point and thought it looked good. Honestly, if you want your kids to learn Spanish your best resource is your dh. If he speaks to the kids exclusively in Spanish, they will learn to understand him. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 We are getting the complete book of spanish for our two, and I am going to try using spanish in 10 minutes a day maybe once a week to go with it. Ours are 7 & 5, I just want a gentle approach at first so I figured I would go cheap lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warriormom Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 :) bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 EVERYONE tells me to have him just speak to them in spanish. He does but the kids need something more (since he does not speak exclusively to them in spanish...he wants for his kids to understand him). Any suggestions? Dh and I both speak Spanish, in fact, we code switch constantly when we speak to each other. You would think that at least dd would have learned to speak Spanish, but it just doesn't work that way. When our sons were dxed with autism, we chose to speak to the kids in English since it was vital that they learn to communicate verbally. Although ds2 and dd do understand quite a bit of Spanish (we can't use it to keep things from little ears) they can't speak it well at all. They just haven't had enough exposure to internalize the grammar. We've done Puertas Abiertas and La Clase Divertida. Of those 2, I'd pick PA for its more professional production quality, but LCD covers more material because it has 3 levels. Neither teacher is a native speaker, the woman on PA has a very good accent, the guy on LCD is okay, not great. If you don't mind an online resource, Salsa is very good and free (but you only get the small video screen). None of these programs will get your kids speaking Spanish although they will build their vocabulary. I haven't found a good grammar based program for elementary kids. The best I've found is Espanol para chiquitos y grandes, but it would be best for at least 3rd or 4th grade. My current plan is to go through LCD's 3 levels and then use an adult program (Destinos) with a video component and do most of it orally. I hope that ds2 and dd will learn enough grammar to feel comfortable making sentences but I don't know if they will or not. OTOH, all dh's cousins kids who didn't grow up speaking Spanish at home did eventually learn it once they learned the grammar in middle school or high school. So there is hope! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warriormom Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 I am glad to know that I am not alone with trying to get dc to speak spanish. Thank you for your recommendations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 I feel like I might have come across as rather snotty in my previous post, so I wanted to expand a bit. My sister is married to a man whose native language is not English. Although they wanted my nephew to be bilingual, BIL was not consistent in speaking to him in the target language. They read him stories in that language, showed him children's shows in that language, and had him interact with relatives who only spoke that language. He picked up some of the language and understood a fair amount, but he never became fluent. They then sent him to language school. He learned some more but didn't become fluent. They finally realized that unless BIL spoke to him exclusively in his native language, and required him to respond in that language, dn would never become comfortable with the language. He's seven now and BIL has been speaking to him exclusively in the other language for about a year. He's fluent now, and the added benefit is that my sister has picked up more of the language than she ever did taking classes. There's really just no substitute for speaking the language every day. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warriormom Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 You did not come across as snotty at all. Thank you for telling me about your dn. I want to build up some of my kiddos vocabulary before my husband starts speaking almost exclusively in spanish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Did you see the free video based programs? There is Salsa Spanish and Knowitall.com. If you do a tag search for free spanish you will find them. Then there is also the spanish program from discovery streaming. I think that with a 5 year old I would use one or all of these. My nephew was forced to learn spanish in order to communicate with his step-mom. Different situation, since he had to adjust to the marriage at the same time, but it was definitely a bad thing for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poke Salad Annie Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 At one time, homeschoolshare had a lapbook for beginning Spanish that might be fun to do with a 5 y/old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
give_me_a_latte Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I have tried multiple times to access Salsa. I get nothing. The site sends me to a directory to view the videos, and I look up ""Salsa"....but then I can't get any videos to play. ? Anyone else have trouble with it or is it just me? It looks like a great resource and I'd love to use it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I have tried multiple times to access Salsa. I get nothing. The site sends me to a directory to view the videos, and I look up ""Salsa"....but then I can't get any videos to play. ? Anyone else have trouble with it or is it just me? It looks like a great resource and I'd love to use it... I just got it to work, from the "Digital Library" I clicked the play button on the thumbnail and then waited. A long time. It took me 3 tries before I waited long enough. :) I watched one (Salsa 204) and it was good, but tiny, and it seemed to stop before the actual end (although it was long enough that my little look-ee-loos learned that angry is "enojada" in Spanish). I think teaching kids Spanish needs to be a multi-pronged approach. We don't have a native speaker in our home so we watch Muzzy and Adentro y Afuera (and now Salsa), we have a tutor come once a week for an unstructured lesson, and I read them Spanish picture books from the library. Susan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmarango Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 We are also a bilingual family with my dh being the Spanish speaker. I really love Speekee as a way for my dd to see other children speaking spanish. Plus, it is an immersion program. The only downside is that there are only 10 episodes to watch, but my dd seems to enjoy watching them over and over. We have La Pata Pita for reading and Coquito Clasico (both available at Amazon I believe) for a workbook type of activity for my dh to go over with dd. I have found that this combo is great for getting beyond the simple language (Vamos a comer) that life is filled with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warriormom Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 If you live in GA, you can get salsa on channel 8. Do a search for your area. I love using it and the kids love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
give_me_a_latte Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 If you live in GA, you can get salsa on channel 8. Do a search for your area. I love using it and the kids love it! I'm not sure what channel 8 is....but I just searched our local PBS schedule and it's on Wednesday's at 4AM!:001_huh: I wish I had a DVR!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warriormom Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 See if you can get a DVD recorder or vhs recorder. I use my DVR to record at 4 am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lotemp Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Just want to respond so I can find this thread again. Great resources! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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