Are you teaching more than one foreign language? Advise me!

[Chrysalis Academy]

We're doing Spanish, and I'm committed to continuing with Spanish for practical reasons - it's the dominant 2nd language in our area, important for getting along in the neighborhood and for lots of different jobs.  Also, I speak basic Spanish.  ;)   We're not dropping Spanish.

 

But my dd8 is expressing interest in learning other languages.  I've kind of brushed it off up till now, trying to stay focused on the basics.  But, I actually want my kids to tell me what they want to learn, and to facilitate that, so it's important not to brush it off, as this is the first thing she's expressed a strong desire to do.  She has wanted to learn German for awhile - I know no German.  Now she wants to learn French.  I did study French in school and at one time had a functional literacy, so I could at least guide her through the basics.

 

I know I need to figure out if this is a "real" desire and figure out if this is something I can give the time and energy to pursuing, nobody can really advise me on that.  But I do have practical questions:  if you are doing more than one foreign language, how does that work?  Do you do both/all languages every day? Alternate?  Do you see bleedover from one language to another, or are the kids pretty good at keeping them separate?  I know that when I learned Spanish, it seems to have almost completely replaced the French that I used to know . . . 

 

Also, what's out there that is good for an 8 year old for beginning French?  Beginning German?

[MASHomeschooler]

I'm going to follow to see about the advice of doing 2 languages. We are also doing Spanish for sure, and I go back on forth on adding Latin at some point, and have one kid who sometimes expresses interest in other languages, although not in actually learning one yet. And I studied Spanish in high school, then German in college, then Spanish as a young adult, and I also found that the one I wasn't studying tended to "fall out" of my brain (with an occasional appearance when I was looking for the word in the language I was studying!). I think kids' brains are better able to handle it, but I would also like to hear others' experiences. 

 

But for materials, I would probably start her out with duolingo and videos from the library (if available) until I were sure she was interested - and knew which one she was more interested in.

[Vida Winter]

I would absolutely encourage an 8yo to learn multiple languages if they had the desire. The window of opportunity at that age is wide open. It's not that difficult to keep the languages separated. We do Latin and French.

[Jackie]

I'm only doing one language. I'll be listening to other replies on practicalities because DD wants to learn at least two more in addition to the Spanish we're already working on, but I want her to be at least basically conversational in Spanish before adding.

 

How about starting her out on DuoLingo? They have both French and German, it is a free program, and it is easy to use. Lessons on it are very short and approachable. She can explore the foreign language of her choice and if she maintains the interest, then you'll know she is serious about it and can seek out more structured materials to go further.

[Tress]

I wouldn't be worried about the different languages interfering with each other. In the Netherlands students start English, French and for those on the Classical track (=highest track) Latin and Greek in 7th grade. German starts in 8th grade (WW2 left over :D). There was never a problem with interference, in fact it was quite often helpful. When learning vocab, you could often relate a word to a word you already knew in another language.

 

I can't help you with specific curriculum, we use Dutch curriculum for English & Latin.

[Matryoshka]

I started all 3 dds with German and Spanish from a very young age (practically birth).  Older two dds have both reached AP level in both languages.  One is really not a language kid, so she'll probably rest on those laurels (or maybe not - after spending the summer in Germany this year, she's been asking about exchange programs to Spain...). 

 

The other one has developed a love of languages and is adding Icelandic and Dutch.  She'd already self-studied some Icelandic over the past couple of years, and now she's found herself a tutor (i pay of course ;) ), and Dutch she's just self-studying using Duolingo and a grammar book, but as a third Germanic language (or fourth if you count English) it's not as steep a curve as you might expect.  She also asked me to get her an Italian-English dictionary recently - don't know what's up with that, and says she wants to learn Arabic, but she hasn't gotten around to starting yet (found her some free online stuff for her to try out before committing $$).

 

Youngest dd is really not a language kid.  She convinced me to let her drop Spanish, but she's continuing with German.  I don't get the feeling she'll do much more than that...

[Chrysalis Academy]

Thanks for the encouragement to forge ahead!  We just talked it over, and she has agreed to stick with Spanish and I have agreed to add French for now.  I just put some stuff on hold at the library - videos, etc.  I will have her try out Duolingo.  It strikes me that it is a little hard to use if you are a complete novice - I've used it to brush up on Spanish, but I've never tackled a brand new language with it.  I'll have to do that myself, keeping in mind that an adult's experience and an 8 year old's experience might be very different. . .

 

 

So I would love to hear what you would use for French for an 8 year old.

 

I would also love to hear nuts and bolts of how you manage two languages - alternating days?  Both every day? 

 

[Guest]

I do both Greek and Latin, but the kids are in such totally different places with them that it hasn't been an issue. ds1 was learning basic grammar in Latin while he was learning the alphabet in Greek.

 

I got a lot of criticism about that, but he had a lightbulb moment when he asked me, "Mama, is alpha a? Is beta b?" and once I explained that alphabets were human constructs not immutable facts like rocks, his English skills took off.

 

Neither of my adult kids are able to read the classics in their original languages, but both have benefited immensely from what I was able to give them. For modern languages, one chose French and the other Spanish.

 

French is a romance language, so it will be easier for your dd to learn with her English and Spanish background but also similar enough to Spanish that she may get confused if you use similar curricula for both. German is a whole 'nother ballgame and would probably give her a better concept of what language IS.

 

[Laura Corin]

My boys studied Chinese, Latin and French.  The languages didn't get mixed up much - if they did, we just laughed and moved on.  In Europe it's very common for children in school to learn multiple languages.  We did every language every week, just scheduling as made sense.  The Chinese was taught by a tutor, so they had a lesson once a week and small bits of homework during the week.  I taught Latin and French, and tended to alternate days for lessons, with the boys having independent practice on the other days.  So it went something like:

 

Monday: Chinese lesson, Latin lesson, French homework

Tuesday: French lesson, Chinese homework, Latin homework

Wednesday: Latin lesson, Chinese homework, French homework

Thursday: French lesson, Chinese homework, Latin homework

Friday: other subjects

 

I used Galore Park for both Latin and French.  You could use GP French at age 8, but you should be prepared to move very slowly, taking at least two years for the first book and going over the contents several times as you go.  I used to have the boys do the exercises in writing once, then over again orally (without looking at their previous answers) at the beginning of the next lesson to really cement it.

 

L

[Vida Winter]

Getting Started With French will be out soon. Maybe you could use library resources for a while and then switch to GSWF.

[madteaparty]

So starting with French, Italian and English, I found German not as intuitive as I found the previous 3. I studied intensely for 3 months with a tutor, progressed well, but never clicked with the language, for lack of a better term. Each language has a logic, and I never internalised German's.

 

For my DS, we are studying French and Arabic. I hope to add Latin later on. We stagger them so he is not always a beginner. Foreign language is done daily here, much like math and reading. We don't have the attention span for very long study, but 20-30 min a day we can manage.

[Mnemosyne]

I don't have experience teaching kids language, but I've been learning languages on my own since I was 14. I am a bit older, but I'll let you know what my process is and hopefully you'll get some use out of it.

 

I am currently studying Spanish and Russian (fluent in Dutch and English) and am thinking of picking up another language - torn between German, French and Chinese.

 

I cycle my languages every three months. I have a focus language that I'm actively working on improving, and the rest (including the ones I'm fluent in) go into maintenance mode. The main language gets at least a hour a day, the others often just an Anki review, listening to the news, watching videos, that type of thing. Obviously, my English is always in use as I live in an English speaking country, but while I'm studying the whole house goes into immersive mode. Even the kids watch Russian or Spanish shows - I don't want to expose myself to any language at all other than my target language (TL). I actually have a separate laptop I use during these times that is set 100% to whatever language I'm focusing on at the time, so I get pretty serious about it. I try to listen passively to audio in my target language throughout the day, if I can. I also practice speaking out loud, and record myself to analyze my speech. I have speaking buddies on Skype that I can talk to in whatever language as well.

 

I personally think it's harder to actively work on multiple languages at once, especially if you don't have another language you already speak (probably partly because I do tend to lean towards immersive study). Not that it isn't possible, of course. When I do actively study multiple languages at once, I spend at least an hour on each language, with plenty of 'code switching' time in between the two - so, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. I personally don't get much bleed-over when I do that, and if I do, it's only with brand new languages (I've studied about 12, to differing levels). Once a language gets a little more ingrained in my mind, there is barely any bleed-over at all. You do have to flip a switch in your mind, though, but that is between target and native languages as well, not just target languages. Starting a second language, I'd recommend being at least at an intermediate level in whatever other language is being studied - that seems to help quite a bit.

 

As far as French resources for kids... are you planning to learn alongside or not? Many resources are do-able for kids if parents are able to help out as well. Duolingo seems good, though. http://www.french-games.net/ may be a decent introduction (haven't used it myself). Youtube videos, of course. Many movies are dubbed in French - that'd be great. Really the first part of learning a language is a lot of exposure - music, videos, etc. That's a great place to start. http://www.unilang.org/course.php?res=66 is an okay introduction. I've heard good things about http://swac-collections.org/overview.php?lang=fra for pronunciation. Once she's a little more advanced, side by side reading is great (like http://www.unilang.org/ulrview.php?res=394,401). I enjoy LingQ, but haven't used the French resources there personally. Most of the French textbooks I have are definitely for adults, but so can't really recommend any resources there.

 

I love www.unilang.org and www.how-to-learn-any-language.com for anything general language related, each one has a French section as well, if you wanted to ask them about resources for kids.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Ok, I'm pleasantly surprised at the recs for Galore Park even with an 8 year old.  I had thought that it would be too intense for this age.  I think it's very high quality.  I do plan to work on French together - I think the basics will come back to me pretty quickly!  I tend to mix up Spanish and French vocab sometimes but the grammar is so similar that it doesn't interfere at all, really.

 

I wonder if it would be worth it to do GSWF and then Galore Park?

[EndOfOrdinary]

Here is what I have previously posted about how we do all of Ds' languages. It is the basic way we add languages. There is always a more playful year to see if he is serious about the language because we do not drop languages. That is a big one for me. If both of us are putting in the time, he has to practice or at least read it every now and then.

 

Our timeline through the languages looks a bit like this:

Initially, the first year of any language has been more playing. Games, songs, basic vocabulary, simple silly sentence translating, kids picture books from the library.

 

Second year, more pronunciation, beginning to work with a curriculum, still going slowly.

 

Third year, conversational skills, actual textbook usage (normally high school level, though not necessarily that pace).

 

Fourth year, reading in the language, translation work, direct speaking in our lives

 

This year will mean that each day my son spends about two hours on languages. Monday: Spanish and Latin; Tuesday: Greek and Latin; Wednesday Spanish and Greek, Thursday: Latin and Spanish, Friday: Latin and Greek (He favors Latin so it gets one extra day, that one can also be dropped if he needs more time to finish something up)

 

YouTube is a wonderful resource for language learning. It obviously is not the entire program, but it really helps keep things light and fun, or gets me to better understanding when I am clueless. I am clueless a lot.

[8filltheheart]

Ok, I'm pleasantly surprised at the recs for Galore Park even with an 8 year old.  I had thought that it would be too intense for this age.  I think it's very high quality.  I do plan to work on French together - I think the basics will come back to me pretty quickly!  I tend to mix up Spanish and French vocab sometimes but the grammar is so similar that it doesn't interfere at all, really.

 

I wonder if it would be worth it to do GSWF and then Galore Park?

  Go with GP.   DD used it in 3rd grade w/no problems.   

[madteaparty]

Ok, I'm pleasantly surprised at the recs for Galore Park even with an 8 year old.  I had thought that it would be too intense for this age.  I think it's very high quality.  I do plan to work on French together - I think the basics will come back to me pretty quickly!  I tend to mix up Spanish and French vocab sometimes but the grammar is so similar that it doesn't interfere at all, really.

 

I wonder if it would be worth it to do GSWF and then Galore Park?

 

Re Galore Park, take all the time you need. With a 9-10 yr old, it took us over a full year to go through the little book.

[Reefgazer]

WE have DD in two languages at the moment.  Latin we do together (I am learning with her) with the DVD as teacher.  French is outsourced to a private teacher because I don't know enough to teach it.  If I knew enough, I would try, but I just had some in college. 

[maize]

Ok, I'm pleasantly surprised at the recs for Galore Park even with an 8 year old. I had thought that it would be too intense for this age. I think it's very high quality. I do plan to work on French together - I think the basics will come back to me pretty quickly! I tend to mix up Spanish and French vocab sometimes but the grammar is so similar that it doesn't interfere at all, really.

 

I wonder if it would be worth it to do GSWF and then Galore Park?

I'm glad you mentioned GSWF, I had not heard that this was in the works, but it may be just what I need. I have used and like GSWS.

[Grantmom]

If Spanish is your main goal first, I would probably stick with getting that in as the priority for now, just until she at least reaches a basic level of conversational fluency.  But if she also wants to learn French, give her the resources as time allows now and help her as much as she wants.  If you speak even a little bit of French, it will likely come back to you and you can help her a lot.  There are many French words in the English language, too.

 

Many videos can be switched to French or Spanish too, and that can be fun.  At 8 years old, she would probably still like watching Petit Ours Brun, which you can find abundantly on youtube:

 

 

I still get the opening song to this stuck in my head.

[happypamama]

My kids alternate Latin, which I do/teach alongside them, with modern foreign language, two days of each per week. (DD is doing Spanish, and DS1 is doing Italian -- their choices.). However, they do the modern languages via Mango and DuoLingo, although I could teach Italian, at least at the basic level. Once DD finishes DuoLingo Spanish, she and I are planning to work through GSWS together. For an 8yo I would look at Nallenart or GSWF (haven't seen GSWF or GSWS, but we LOVE GSWL).

[Miss Tick]

But I do have practical questions: if you are doing more than one foreign language, how does that work? Do you do both/all languages every day? Alternate? Do you see bleedover from one language to another, or are the kids pretty good at keeping them separate? I know that when I learned Spanish, it seems to have almost completely replaced the French that I used to know . . .

 

 

We've been doing Spanish for a while, coasting on what I learned in high school, but we do something 5 days a week. Last year we added in Latin with GSWL and various kinds of review also 5 days a week. When we learn new Latin vocab they also learn or review the Spanish word. Other than that, I try to keep the two language-learning times separated in the day. It is difficult to move from one right to the other and still do the second one justice.

 

We do see some bleed over from one to another, but it is usually a source of humor. They call it Splatin.

 

I would love for one of mine to express interest in studying a particular language! Until they do, we are sticking with Spanish which I am conversant in, and Latin which I'm learning along with them.

 

I've enjoyed mixing a variety of resources for Spanish up until now, but in both languages we are following a text this year to start filling gaps and explicitly discussing things they "just know".

[Tranquility7]

DS8 has made great strides in Latin over the last couple of years, so we are now beginning Chinese. I actually really wanted Spanish to be our second language, but it is just too similar to Latin and I don't want to deal with the confusion, so my plan is to start Spanish after we have completed all of the Latin grammar (maybe about 6th grade is what I'm hoping). Then we will keep building Latin vocab through reading, but also start studying Spanish formally.

 

In the meantime we are now two months into our Chinese study. I lived in southeast Asia for 8 yrs of my childhood, so I have some familiarity although I was never even close to fluent. I never studied any Latin until I began with DS 2.5 yrs ago.

 

As far as our schedule, we try to do some Latin and some Chinese every day, but I have discovered it works best for us to do something completely different in between, such as math, piano, or chores. It helps my brain change gears.

 

For us, there is not really bleed over in the languages per se, but there IS bleed over in the instruction. I work hard to conduct our Latin classes completely in Latin, so I often find myself then conducting our Chinese class also in Latin! It's like my brain is in "foreign language mode" so it just grabs whatever foreign language vocab it can when I am praising or correcting DS. We laugh about it a lot. I think as we learn more Chinese I'll stop doing that so much.

 

We will eventually add Greek also. And Hebrew and Arabic are also on my short list if DS ends up interested in them and we have time for them.

[The Governess]

We study Chinese and Latin. I started Chinese with my girls when they were reading well independently and were solid in their English phonics. The focus is mostly on vocabulary until they are able to jump into a text at least at a middle school level (I'm not a fan of intro-level language materials).

 

I started Latin with my oldest after she finished FLL4 (youngest isn't there yet). I wanted her to be able to understand the grammar right away. She started with a high school level text (LNM) and is working through it slowly. This timetable has worked really well for us so far. I will say that it is time consuming to study two languages at once and that I have had to cut back on other things to make room. But I do think in the long run it will be worth it.

[PhotoGal]

Love this topic!

 

My kids (and I) have been learning Chinese from before we were homeschooling. When they were fairly kid conversational level, I added very light Spanish study. We are starting to take it more seriously now (a couple years later). We do Chinese one hour each day, Spanish either 1/2 or 1 hour a day. Ds just asked to learn French and Latin - even though he earlier described himself as "not a language guy."  :)  We just added in GSWL and it is so quick and easy. He likes it and it is a nice introduction. For French, we are just watching a few kids videos online and other light things such as that for now. Maybe around January we will start something more.

 

Ds has a great ear for accents and I think it is great to expose him to different languages now.

[lewelma]

Rose, the biggest problem I am having is time.  Languages just take time, which means that something else has to go. Choices. Choices.

 

 

[mumto2]

Dd is my foreign language intensive child. She has done Latin and German from a young age. We also added in some Greek and Scottish Gaelic when she was younger. She has self studied French, which was far easier thanks to Latin. She just started doing Dutch and Irish Gaelic when Duolingo released them this summer. She is loving the Dutch and considers it to be easy thanks to the German. Gaelic, not much carry over because she doesn't remember much and only completed the first introductory course when she was 10.

 

I have to agree the languages take time which is the only negative for multiple languages. For dd they have become almost a hobby. She loves Duolingo and spends quite a bit of time on the site daily.

[MamaSprout]

Rose I'm glad you asked this!

 

Rose, the biggest problem I am having is time. Languages just take time, which means that something else has to go. Choices. Choices.

FWIW, I have a language- interested DD who wants to learn 3-4 languages. I've been trying to decide the best way to add in another language. Not sure if my thought process will be helpful, but here it is...

 

In preschool for French, we started off with some kid friendly resources, videos and such. DH reached his limit with kid's movies in French. I think it was Nanny McFee that put him over the top.

 

Dd was becoming confused with French beyond vocabulary, mostly because she didn't have grammar figured out. So we actually dropped French and started Latin, and spent last year focused on grammar, beginning Latin (which helped with grammar) and spelling in English.

 

To save time, this year we don't do English grammar or vocab separately but do Latin an hour a day + spelling (with this being our last year of spelling). I do use MCT's 100 Classical Words as challenge words for spelling and a four square sheet for the ones she can't already define for me.

 

Dd understands grammar better now than I did in High School. I think we will pick French back up next year, probably taking a spin through GSWF + Duolingo + maybe First Start French, and back to all weekday casual screen time in French. I work evenings. DH will be thrilled :0).

[maize]

Rose, the biggest problem I am having is time. Languages just take time, which means that something else has to go. Choices. Choices.

Yes, time, and the need to prioritize...

 

Some of my language plans have had to be cut back because other things have become a priority. I'm not abandoning languages altogether, but in educating my children it is very important to me to support their interests and passions, and so far foreign languages have not been among them...

[happypamama]

We do see done bleed over from one to another, but it is usually a source of humor. They call it Splatin.

 

 

Splatin, LOL! Yes, DD sometimes has them bleed together a bit too, but no big deal. Usually it's her making the connection between the two instead, which is cool. I studied French for five years in school and switched to three semesters of Italian in college, and there were a fair number of times when my brain automatically inserted the French word for something instead of the Italian. But it wasn't really a problem, just a giggle.

[MamaSprout]

Also, what's out there that is good for an 8 year old for beginning French? Beginning German?

We played with brainpop.fr when it was a free Beta test- it might still be- when I tried to pull it up on my iPad I was directed to the BrainPop Francais App, which looks like the movie of the day app.

[Penguin]

Rose, you have already received some great advice. I asked a similar question some time ago, and I recall a gem of a reply from Nan in Mass. i will see if I can dig it up.

[Tress]

Yep, and it not only takes a lot of time for the child, but also for me.....

 

I need to actively work with each child on learning  English, that's at least 3x 30 min a day = 1.5 hour.

1.5 hour I'm not available for something else. Add 45 min a day for dd10's Latin, that's 2.25 hour blocked off.

Next year I have to add French and Greek to my dd10's schedule, which will add at least another hour to my teaching time for languages.

But it's not like other things disappear, I'll have to do more than only English with dd6&dd8. Like math, or history :D. Or Dutch LA.

 

I'm trying not to think of next year :lol:.

[8filltheheart]

Yes, time is a huge consideration. Dd spends close to 4 hrs/day just on her 3 languages alone. Add in all of her other subjects, which are all at an advanced level, and her days are long.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Excellent food for thought here.  Time was exactly why we decided to drop Latin and just focus on Spanish for Shannon - she has other things she wants to focus on rather than multiple languages.  That is a concern for me as they get older.  At this point, though, Morgan has plenty of time in her day for the light/fun aspects of language exposure - but we'll have to see if she will be so interested in the actual work of learning another language.  And do I have the time and bandwidth to take this on?  French, probably yes, but beyond that we'll have to see.

 

I guess what I really want to do is to buckle down and spend more time on Spanish with both girls and get them to a more solid level, and then see if Morgan really wants to add a 2nd language.  Maybe we will do that for the rest of this year, with the fun exposure to French, and then if she is committed take up a more serious study next year.  I will introduce her to Duolingo for sure and see what she does with that.  I guess I'm still assessing whether this is a "this sounds cool but I don't actually want to do the work" or if this is actually going to rise to the level of a passion . . . . 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Rose, you have already received some great advice. I asked a similar question some time ago, and I recall a gem of a reply from Nan in Mass. i will see if I can dig it up.

 

Oh yes, do!  And if you could link your thread here too that would be great.

[Chrysalis Academy]

That is absolutely true!

And it is the reason why we after AoPS Intro Alg will change to a more regular math text. We won't have time for hours of math in the upper grades.

The Classical&Modern Languages track has only 3h of math in grade 11-12, and 3h of integrated science.

1h of History and 1h of Geography .

 

 (we also have tracks with 10h of math, no Latin, no Greek and no German. They also cover less literature  in every language    } 

 

Right.  Something's gotta give in high school, I'd think.  We spend a lot of time on science, math, and writing here.  If science expands into the main focus in high school, which I suspect it will for S, too soon to tell for M, then it's hard to see how you could do that plus a language heavy course of study, too.

 

Does anyone specialize in languages and something completely different too?  Ruth's older son, I know - Math and Mandarin. But he doesn't do intensive history or literature studies, I believe.   8fill, your 10th grader's focus is language and literature, right? But I imagine she's doing a full load including math, science, history etc. given what I've seen you post in the past.

 

This is just because I'm curious/interested, it has no immediate impact on what I decide to do with my 3rd grader!  :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Splatin, LOL! Yes, DD sometimes has them bleed together a bit too, but no big deal. Usually it's her making the connection between the two instead, which is cool. I studied French for five years in school and switched to three semesters of Italian in college, and there were a fair number of times when my brain automatically inserted the French word for something instead of the Italian. But it wasn't really a problem, just a giggle.

 

This is what I did when I started studying Spanish - I'd use the French verb stem with the Spanish verb ending - Spench? Franish?  :D

[madteaparty]

I can't answer the focus question because my DS does not show a proclivity for any one area now, but I do think about it and that is one reason for us to double down on languages in late elem/ middle school.

[EndOfOrdinary]

Right.  Something's gotta give in high school, I'd think.  We spend a lot of time on science, math, and writing here.  If science expands into the main focus in high school, which I suspect it will for S, too soon to tell for M, then it's hard to see how you could do that plus a language heavy course of study, too.

 

Does anyone specialize in languages and something completely different too?  Ruth's older son, I know - Math and Mandarin. But he doesn't do intensive history or literature studies, I believe.   8fill, your 10th grader's focus is language and literature, right? But I imagine she's doing a full load including math, science, history etc. given what I've seen you post in the past.

 

This is just because I'm curious/interested, it has no immediate impact on what I decide to do with my 3rd grader!  :)

 

Ds is not in high school yet; he's just starting middle school.  He is focused on languages and history.  His hobby (right now at least) is intensive political action/activism.  In with the history is the literature of the time, so it is more like cultural studies?  I don't know what to call it, but it is not a massive divide.  The language interest works in quite well because he can read the literature of the time in the language.  They blend a little bit more than say languages and math. So not completely different.

 

Anyway, I am digressing.  The whole point was to say that we are doing it now so that he is not overloaded in high school.  Rather than try to cover this huge bank of knowledge in one go during four years, we are spacing it out into more like 8 years.  It allows for us to have more time.  By the time my son is in high school, Latin and Spanish are not going to take nearly the amount of time.  The foundations of his history work are going to be extensive.  The ability for him to really begin to spend smaller amounts of time to cover topics is quite viable.  Likewise, the ability for him to get really specialized is just as viable.

 

If he decides in 10th grade to become a Chem major, then he can lightly study one or two of the languages, take an outside test or two and call it good. No need for hours a day. It provides a very solid foundation so the time commitment can be lessened if needed.  If we only lightly studied now, he would still have a lot of time needed to put in later.  It would magnify as he had other high school subjects which were needed to cover and almost be just like spinning wheels.

 

As a result, if we are going to do it, we commit to it after the first year of playing around with the language.  It is a very upfront conversation.  He can dabble all he wants here and there, but if we are really going to study then we study.

[8filltheheart]

Right. Something's gotta give in high school, I'd think. We spend a lot of time on science, math, and writing here. If science expands into the main focus in high school, which I suspect it will for S, too soon to tell for M, then it's hard to see how you could do that plus a language heavy course of study, too.

 

Does anyone specialize in languages and something completely different too? Ruth's older son, I know - Math and Mandarin. But he doesn't do intensive history or literature studies, I believe. 8fill, your 10th grader's focus is language and literature, right? But I imagine she's doing a full load including math, science, history etc. given what I've seen you post in the past.

 

This is just because I'm curious/interested, it has no immediate impact on what I decide to do with my 3rd grader! :)

She has long days. This is her 10th grade schedule:

French 5

Latin 4

Russian 2 (this is her 2nd yr, but I don't think it is actually Russian 2. I think it is more in line with 3rd semester college Russian.)

physics

pre-cal

literature (Coursera's Fantasy and Science Fiction this semester. We will be doing a Russian lit course in the spring.)

Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition (for comp)

Russian history and culture for the next 4 weeks and a study of political systems, communism and fascism, for the rest of the yr

Apologetics

[Penguin]

Oh yes, do!  And if you could link your thread here too that would be great.

 

Here you go:

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/481385-more-than-2-foreign-languages/

 

Nan in Mass wrote replies #2 and #8. 

 

Our plans have changed since then (no surprise), but Nan's advice is still awesome.

 

[KrissiK]

We're doing Latin and Greek. It's fine. Although DS got a couple of answers wrong on a recent English Grammar test. The question was about "conjunctions" (list 6) and he thought it said "conjugations" and conjugated "moneo". But other than that, we're doing fine.

[Kfamily]

We're doing Latin and French. The girls wanted to study Gaelic/Irish too, but we just can't seem to fit it in the schedule. I'd like to add German, as that is the language I could actually feel more comfortable teaching, but, again, we can't seem to make time for it.

 

My older daughter's time is too narrow with her only having a couple of years of high school left, so we'll stick with French and Latin only for her.

 

I've been teaching French to both girls for a couple of years now, and so my younger daughter has that as an advantage. She's currently doing Breaking the Barrier with my older daughter along with other supplements. I'm going to put her in First Form Latin later this year, because she wants to finish Our Roman Roots first. I would love to add another language this year or next for her. She has a great ability with decoding...I see it in her theory/piano work and in her language abilities too. Time is not our friend though! :)

[Roadrunner]

We have been using Galore successfully for a year. My younger wasn't yet seven when we started, so yes, absolutely go with it d take us slowly!

[Chrysalis Academy]

What is it that makes Galore Park so great? Can anyone tell me what it is specifically about it that you like so much?  I'm wondering if I should be investing in SYRWTLSpanish . . . Shannon is finishing up GSWS and has been doing Easy Peasy's 7th grade thing online, which may be giving her some vocab, but I don't know if it's worth the time investment.  I have Madrigal's and Easy Spanish Step by Step, which I really like the looks of.  But I'm wondering if the grass is greener, of course!

[RootAnn]

Eldest is doing Latin & Spanish. We made sure to have a pretty good base in Latin before we started Spanish as I didn't want her to be at complete beginner level in both at the same time. We'd been alternating one language heavy one year & the other one light & then switching. (So, say, at 4th grade level = 45 minutes/day x 4 for Language 1 & 30 minutes/day x 3 days for Language 2. 5th grade would be 40 min/day x 5 Language 2 & 30 min/day x 3 days Language 1. It allows you to 'tread water' in the lighter language while moving forward with the heavier language. The time/day and # days increases as they get older, of course.) This year, dd#1 is doing a "heavy year" of both languages, but I agree that time becomes a factor.

 

I think Getting Started with French will be great when it comes out if it is like GSWS & GSWL. Until then, perhaps some Youtube tutorials or does Easypeasyhomeschool have a french track? Or just learn some vocab at this point? Listen to French songs & watch their favorite video with the French voice overs? Duolingo is best saved until you've been doing the grammar of a language program for at least six months, IMO. Great supplement, but I wouldn't try to start out that way.

 

... I'm encouraged by some of the posters here as my dd#1 wants to learn more languages eventually. She was goofing around on French Duolingo this spring... Strangely, the more she learns in her Spanish class, the more French that comes back to me. I find myself using French when I interact with the kids a lot more now that she is interspersing Spanish in her day to day life. My French accent is what has killed me being able to teach her to converse in Spanish. I can handle the vocab & the grammar, but the speaking component completely throws us both off... 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I agree with you about Duolingo.  It's also tough for a kid who isn't a great typist - Morgan has trouble with it for that reason.  Easy Peasy doesn't have French, unfortunately.

[lewelma]

Does anyone specialize in languages and something completely different too?  Ruth's older son, I know - Math and Mandarin. But he doesn't do intensive history or literature studies, I believe.  

 

You are right about older ds.  His focus is on the 3 Ms: music, math, and mandarin. So kind of a strange mix. Science is pretty standard, and History and English are definitely light.

 

My younger is putting time into Mandarin and Latin, and already I am finding that he is spending less time on math because of it.  I think that AoPS is definitely out, even though he is quite capable, basically to make room for languages.  He won't be behind or anything so his science studies won't be impacted, he just won't be doing the intensity of AoPS.

 

There is the benefit of languages that you don't really need to have a separate grammar program for English because you spend so much time talking grammar in the foreign language that English grammar is taught in context.  So you do gain back that time.

 

But Rose the main reason why I have made space in my younger son's schedule for the reasonably intensive study of 2 languages is because they are the *only* subjects he can do independently.  So I am using them to teach study skills, independence, goal setting, initiative, etc.  He doesn't really have any plans to be a linguist, rather he wants to follow in his daddy's footsteps and be an IT project manager. :001_smile:  

 

Ruth in NZ

 

 

[EndOfOrdinary]

Have you considered Breaking the Barrier?  We picked up the Spanish iPad edition which made the price reasonable (15$) and I will soon be getting the test packet ($20) as it is going far better than I expected.  They have French and Spanish.  It would be too intense to be the first thing a student used, but it is really nice for one who already has done a gentler introduction like GSWS or GSWF.  Everything is all embedded so it is very stand alone and really can be done incredibly independently.  The pace is honestly quite fast, and extra workbooks are nice for extended practice, but the program is very comprehensive and user friendly if you are working on independence.  When I say extra workbooks, I just mean the cheapo old ones on Amazon or at the library book sale.  Something that just gives the drill and kill of practicing conjugations over and over, or translating 15 sentences all about school supplies or grocery shopping.

 

If you do not have an iPad, then I don't think it would be worth the price.  As far as I remember, until the iBook it was set into the "wouldn't that be nice if we had $$$" pile.

[lewelma]

We will be starting GSWL to work synergistically with Cambridge Latin.  GSWL is really awesome, but I do agree that it moves very quickly.  I love the workbooks because they have point values for each answer, so it feels like a test.  My kids find that very motivational.  Plus, they really like write in books so there is not the constant copying over.  I think it is a great series!