We loved Sandra Boynton, but we also spent a lot of time reading Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge series, Winnie the Pooh, and Beatrix Potter stories.

This seems really helpful! I’m going to try to find some too. It was hard to figure out goals this year.

In the iOS app, if I tap on the Section heading, it will show me a list of all of them.

Yes, that is also true. Ukrainian has 2 sections of lessons, Welsh/Scottish Gaelic has 3, German has 5 and French has 7. They might not all be the same length, but the more popular languages do have more lessons and resources like Stories. I think the more unusual languages are developed by volunteers, so it’s great they have as much as they do.

It is easy to use the app consistently but I haven’t found that it gets me to the point where I can jump to other resources. However, that could be because I didn’t just focus on one language, so that breaks up my Welsh consistency even though I’m using Duo consistently. I started a new language impulsively a few times, and this is very likely not the best way to make progress in one…Duo has more languages available than most other programs and I find that very appealing. I have the paid version because the ads were really annoying me. I use the review features regularly.

It works for learning vocab and grammar but only up to a point, at least in the languages with medium amounts of lessons. The two languages I could actually have a basic conversation in or read Harry Potter in I didn’t learn on Duolingo. I’ve probably been doing Welsh for 5 years now and finished all lessons and I tried to read Harry Potter and couldn’t. So somehow it seems to reach a lower level than I need to take the next steps with other resources. But, there are no Welsh speakers or readily available resources in my area, and I don’t have time for a Gaelic night class, so it’s way better than nothing but doesn’t replace learning by talking with people.

What I do to reduce confusion is to not try to do all of them in each session. Usually I’ll choose 1 per session. I could do 2 sessions a day, morning and evening, and do two languages a day, but not switching between them in the same session. It probably helps that none of my languages are very similar, and I don’t have a opportunity to speak any of these, so I don’t have to struggle with under-pressure recall in a conversation. This is more of a problem for German and French, both of which I can speak to some extent with actual people. I tend to inadvertently substitute German words in a French conversation, which confuses everybody!

I use Duolingo daily for Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Ukrainian, though not each of them every day. It would be easier to focus on fewer languages! I read twitter posts in each of these as described by @Ausmumof3, by reading it as best I can and then using the translate feature. I am reading a children’s book in German and then translating it with my 10 year old, so that gives me some practice for German. I also listen to the Duolingo French podcasts sometimes. They are very well done and have interesting topics. I wish they had them for more languages.

My least shelved book is The Two-headed Whale by Sandy Winterbottom (shelved 134 times). It was a follow up to Moby Dick, and showed how much more destructive whaling in the Antarctic became in the 20th century as technology improved. I thought it was really interesting, but there were a lot of different threads to follow, which sometimes made it jumpy.

I had a look at this today and it is really impressive! Thanks for sharing. Our library has this, but I'm not sure if it will seem too young. On the other hand, the adult Indigenous short stories that I found so far don't seem like they would be the right age range either. I'll have a look at it, thanks for suggesting. Thanks! that is quite a commitment in time, but explains the cost of the course.

How many hours was the Beowulf course that you did? And would you say it's accessible for someone who has read the poem but doesn't have a lot of other background? Thanks!

Thanks, I was looking at that yesterday, but wondering whether I was interested enough to pay that much. I enjoy her podcast. Have you seen her course on Beowulf, a comparable book, and thought it was worthwhile?

I've been pre-reading some of my list for this year. Beowulf was really enjoyable, and I think that will work well. There are a number of places where more historical and literary context would be interesting. Do any of you know a good study guide for this poem? I also read The Hate U Give, and it has a lot of swearing in it, which I am not all that comfortable with reading aloud, though it sounds like how I would expect the characters to talk. Did anyone change the way they covered some books on account of this? A friend who has a current university student who was home-schooled throughout says there were some books that worked better not done as read-alouds, and he thought this was one of them. Other possibilities are reading it anyway (though others could overhear, and this is not language that I feel comfortable using, I think it has more shock value that way compared to reading it silently and then discussing), or substituting "frig", etc., or portraying it a la Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey: That d--- horse! We could watch the film version only, apparently it has less swearing, but possibly is more graphic? I am leaning toward both of us reading it silently and then discussing, but I'd be interested in how others have handled this. Romeo and Juliet is already finished (thanks, @Rosie_0801 for the Veer Zaara recommendation, this was a hit).

Thanks, @Lori D., I had heard those ones were well done.

I read this one last year and sent me right down a Richard III rabbit hole for about a month. It was really well done. I think she would like Wodehouse, and probably also I, Robot. It’s a good point about seeing the mindset and culture in sci-fi. That’s great that it worked well. It could still have a lot to do with the background preparation you did, but good to know that it can be clear enough and be effective.