Foreign Languages

[mom2boys030507]

my middles son just turned 9. His idea of a great school day would be:

 

- work on Greek - he is currently in Level 5 of Hey Andrew and loves it

- work on Latin - he is taking a beginning course at co-op

- start learning Spanish and French and a computer programming language

conitue with Beast but is quickly out pacing - next goal is to get to AOPS Pre-Alegebra as soon as posible

history and science are okay. but his love seems to be languages and computer progamming.

 

I am planning to continue Greek and add Spanish and a computer language.

 

any suggestions for programs. I have looked at Spanish for Children and KidCoder and just saw Clever Dragons tonight. Has any one used any of these. Any words of advice for a mom who only knows english teaching a kid that wants to learn many languages

 

sorry this might be hard to read i am learninv to type more onnmy kindle

[Dmmetler]

Does your library have Mango Languages? That's been something my DD can play with to her heart's content and fool around with languages that doesn't necessarily involve me. She likes Mango better than DuoLingo, although she uses DuoLingo as well.

 

 

[mom2boys030507]

I will check with the Librarian about Mango - I have not seen them and don't see them on the website but I know things are not always easily found. 

 

any other suggestions?

[EndOfOrdinary]

Clever Dragons my son (age 9) found far too elementary. He thought it seemed very shallow and babyish.

 

We use a few apps. One specifically called Learn Spanish is quite good where you are timed on choosing the correct picture to go with various vocabulary. Speed Latin is well worth the $1.99. Mainly we use workbook style texts from the 80's before everything became conversational. He likes a highly grammar based approach. Workbook in Everyday Spanish has been a good one. As well as Spanish Fun! Both provide lots of practice and he likes doing a couple pages a day. We read lots of library books. Our library also had the Spanish for Children DVD's which he enjoyed. I don't know how much he actually got out of them, but he did ask to watch then frequently.

 

Much like your son, mine wants to learn multiple languages. Currently he does Latin and Spanish, but is adding Ancient Greek in September. We might start memorizing Japanese Kanji next year as well, since that is the next one he wants to learn and I have heard advice about memorizing early.

 

Duolingo was a bust here. So were Rosetta Stone and Transparent Languages. Visual Latin was great, but it moved too slowly. He was cranking the lessons out almost faster than he could retain it all. We use Jenney's Latin along with the app mentioned above. Cannot say enough good things about Jenney's.

 

What do you use for Greek? We are trying Athenaze next year, along with quite a few web based games which accompany it, but I am leery of thinking it will be an instant success.

[Dmmetler]

We have been inching through Athenaze at a snail's pace. I think it's a combination of the fact that the text is just plain harder and that the reading selections simply aren't as personable as Cambridge (although DD does enjoy it when the characters curse or call on the Greek Gods). I found audio files and extra materials on a college professor's site somewhere. I'm considering Galore Park for next year if I can find someone who sells it. DD whipped through the first several Hey, Andrew books, but like part-whole Latin focused on memorizing vocabulary, it simply didn't stick the way that reading it does for her.

 

Spanish has worked well for us simply by reading. Our public library has a good selection of kids' books, from board books for babies through novels in Spanish, so she's simply worked through those. I may turn her loose on French next, although it will be harder to find books in French here (amazon will end up getting more of my money).

 

One thing your language-lovers may want to consider for next year is the National Classical Etymology Exam. It's a high school level test, given by the NJCL, but there is a division for middle school kids taking Latin/Greek that they allow younger students to participate in. My daughter really enjoyed it, and managed to medal this year on her first attempt.  If you can find multiple people in your area to do it with, it drastically reduces the cost, because the school registration is fairly high, but the individual registration is cheap.

[acurtis75]

We haven't used Spanish for Children but we use Latin for Children by the same publisher and have been happy with it for dd9. The programs look very similar so I would think our experience with the book would translate to the Spanish book.  For Latin we did Song School Latin, Prima Latina and then LFC A. We're almost done with A and will be starting Latin For Children B in a few weeks.

 

Things I like about LFC A:

 

DD can do it independently 

It is challenging but with the website and little stories on the dvd it has just enough of a fun element to appeal to dd who is young and enjoys cartoons

She likes that there are kids doing the chants on the dvd and cd

 

We are doing the next book online and I think she'll probably move a little quicker without having to write. There is a lot of writing for a young student. Early on we did some pages orally.

 

When we start Spanish formally (now we use mind snacks and duo lingo apps very informally) we will probably use the same publisher because dd enjoys the way the material is presented.

[mom2boys030507]

 

We haven't used Spanish for Children but we use Latin for Children by the same publisher and have been happy with it for dd9. The programs look very similar so I would think our experience with the book would translate to the Spanish book.  For Latin we did Song School Latin, Prima Latina and then LFC A. We're almost done with A and will be starting Latin For Children B in a few weeks.

 

Things I like about LFC A:

 

DD can do it independently 

It is challenging but with the website and little stories on the dvd it has just enough of a fun element to appeal to dd who is young and enjoys cartoons

She likes that there are kids doing the chants on the dvd and cd

 

We are doing the next book online and I think she'll probably move a little quicker without having to write. There is a lot of writing for a young student. Early on we did some pages orally.

 

When we start Spanish formally (now we use mind snacks and duo lingo apps very informally) we will probably use the same publisher because dd enjoys the way the material is presented.

 

Thank you for your review of LFC A. It is helpful in making a decision to go with SFC. I will also look into him working on translating Spanish books. Our local library has a good selection of Spanish books as the Spanish Emerson School is near by. 

 

What do you use for Greek? We are trying Athenaze next year, along with quite a few web based games which accompany it, but I am leery of thinking it will be an instant success.

 

We use Hey Andrew for Greek - I tried adding in Elementary Greek last year to help solidify and slow him down and was very clearly informed that he likes Hey Andrew. My plan at this point is to finish Hey Andrew then look at something like Athenaze as that seem to be the program many use. 

 

One thing your language-lovers may want to consider for next year is the National Classical Etymology Exam. It's a high school level test, given by the NJCL, but there is a division for middle school kids taking Latin/Greek that they allow younger students to participate in. My daughter really enjoyed it, and managed to medal this year on her first attempt.  If you can find multiple people in your area to do it with, it drastically reduces the cost, because the school registration is fairly high, but the individual registration is cheap.

 

I will look into this. My son would love to have an Exam to take. He thinks tests of any kind are fun :)

[kiwik]

You can get Galore Park through Book Depository.

[Dmmetler]

OK-there's also an Exploratory Latin Exam for elementary school ages from the American classical league. I run a monthly Latin club that gives it (we had two kids take it this year, out of 6 in the club-next year I'm requiring that they pay for it as part of the membership in the club so that hopefully more will attempt it). It's a vocabulary-based exam, with a small amount of translation and Roman history/culture. It's very similar to the NLE foundations exam for middle school, and then there's an NLE exam for each year of high school Latin that are more grammar/translation focused.
He also would probably enjoy the National Mythology exam.

 

 

 

[Dmmetler]

You can get Galore Park through Book Depository.

 

The Greek? I've found the Latin and Spanish and French readily available, but not So You Want to Learn Ancient Greek.

[eternalsummer]

We like Athenaze (DD 8); I agree that it is slow.  It might be easier for your son, though, since he's part of the way through Hey Andrew (that's Koine Greek, right?) so he'll have some exposure and Attic Greek will be easier.  It is pretty dry, though.

[Saraswati]

The Greek? I've found the Latin and Spanish and French readily available, but not So You Want to Learn Ancient Greek.

Ray from Horrible Books sells Galore Park. He doesn't have all of them in stock; however, he sends in orders to GP at various times of the year, and he'll include your book requests in his order. He'll let you know when he'll be placing his next order if you email him. www.horriblebooks.com

[Gratia271]

Unless I missed it, I didn't see mention of Latin for the New Millenium.  My twins have really enjoyed this approach to Latin.  For Greek, we have used Athenaze. 

 

ETA: all three of my kids really enjoy Athenaze; they began at 11.

[Guest elizmarie]

For study of Koine/biblical Greek and Hebrew, I mentioned the 'biblical language center' under a different post (see Greek for elementary...). I'm really excited about their products and think that they'd be useful for kids too. They offer textbooks along with audio on CD, mp3 or mp4 format (as well as workshops in various locations). Rather than a dry textbook, their living audio recordings help the learner osmose the language relatively pain-free. They use a picture-book format for the beginner level for look & listen style learning.

 

The site is:  http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/