We are a bilingual homeschool family (Spanish/English), following the OPOL (one parent/one language) method. I speak Sp, DH Eng. The children (5 boys, 1 girl - ages 6 to 16) respond to us in our specific language. They also do book work in both in order to be biliterate as well as bilingual. We study Latin and Greek daily with exposure to other languages. It's crazy at our house quite often (and loud, loud, loud!). Although Spanish is not my native language, it is my "first" in that I speak it almost as well as I do Eng. I'm following a form of Dual Ed. that I observed while finishing up my M.Ed. in Bilingual Education. I'm pleased with how the children have turned out, but it has required consistency on both parts to achieve the level of fluency we now enjoy. We also live (south Georgia) in an area with thousands of migrants (Hispanic and Haitian), and we're in the camps during the week to interact with the workers and practice. www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

I'm Tonya, wife to Poppins (who's practically perfect in every way). We have six children (ages 6 to 16: 5 boys, 1 girl), live in south Georgia, and have homeschooled them from the beginning. We encourage multi-language development, manual labor, independence, and hard work. I'm been a lurker here for quite a few years, and I post every once in a great while. DH drives cement truck, and I teach English in the evenings at the local college. We're simple folks with complex lives. www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

Hey, Georgia on my mind! We're in Bainbridge, which is only about one hour from you. It's a small world. Praying for you all! Tonya www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

We have a very busy, interesting, challenging life. We're not perfect, but we're peaceful and productive. My kids are really neat people, and my husband is incredibly well-balanced, fun, and visionary. Perfect combination. Of course we have our weak spots and hard days, but generally it's just a daily rotation of balancing precariously and hanging on for the ride of our lives. Chris in VA: As per causing controversy, I like the following thought: You have no enemies, you say? Alas! my friend the boast is poor- He who has mingled in the fray Of duty, that brave endure, Must have made foes! If you have none, Small is the work that you have done; You've hit no traitor on the hip; You've dashed no cup from perjured lip; You're never turned the wrong to right- You've been a coward in the fight! Charles Mackay, 1814-1889 I'm so glad you enjoy the blog, Chris. Thanks for your kind words; I would love to be on your team, too, when we make our foes! Tonya www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

www.meanolmama.blogspot.com just a journal of our journey. perhaps i'm not the one for whom you seek, but third world foods is one of our family goals, listed among others on the blog. Tonya

We're down here in Bainbridge with a fairly active group of really neat people. I'll be glad to help any way I can, but we may be a wee bit far away. Tonya www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

I'm tired of the fact that my College students are sooooo miserably undereducated and without any vision for their lives. Meanwhile, my 6 darlings at home don't yet seem to grasp the concept: "bad attitude = dismal future". Fortunately, they ARE beginning to see how poor grammar/writing skills will influence a person's future much more negatively than...[...ahem...] lack of "socialization". Thank you, dear College students, for that painful, sad lesson... Tonya the Mean Ol' Mama www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

We're a bilingual (Eng/Sp) family working towards multilingualism. The kids and I speak only Sp to each other, Eng to everyone else. They do their subject areas in both Eng & Sp, which takes double time because the books are different in each language (eg: the Eng science for 4th is different subject matter than the Sp science for 4th). They also are working through Henle/Wheelock, Mounce/Hey Andrew, and French (of a sort...). It's hard to juggle sometimes, but I think it's going to pay off in the end. Tonya www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

We have a bit of a problem here in our home. The kids will sometimes put a Latin verb ending on a Greek verb, will add a Latin word to negate a Greek sentence, add a Spanish preposition to a Latin phrase, etc. I don't think that the languages are "running together"; rather, I believe that they're combining languages for sake of ease. Perhaps. Hmm... Anyway, any suggestions? We speak and school only in Spanish, but they will occasionally say something like, "No quiero hacer dividing esto con el". I know that's sheer laziness on their part, to avoid a more difficult word. Thoughts? www.meanolmama.blogspot.com

We live in south Georgia (USA), so we don't have much access to upper level Spanish except on-line, catalogs, etc. I have friends who could send me workbooks from MX, but I want to see them first, ya know? I think I have things figured out in terms of how I'm going to do 8-12, but I want to avoid re-inventing the wheel if possible... Tonya

Thanks for all of your replies. I'm looking for upper-level Spanish only materials (7th and up). I'd really like some high school grammar books. We already speak Spanish, and the kids have schooled 95% Spanish only from the beginning, so we're DOING Spanish, not learning it. I have about decided to purchase classic readers translated into Spanish and try to pull vocabulary/grammar from them, unless someone else on the board has another suggestion. I'm hoping to avoid paying huge shipping fees from out-of-country. Any thoughts? Tonya http://meanolmama.blogspot.com/

Sorry about that. I guess I must have done something incorrectly. Here's another try: http://meanolmama.blogspot.com/

sorry. the link didn't copy completely. http://meanolmama.blogspot.com/

Hi, just thought I would invite you all to our blog where we daily record what we're doing in school and life. If you look in my profile, you'll see the link for my old blog which has merged with this one. The older blog was specifically for academics and shows more of our approach to bilingual schooling. The new one combines the two. We'd love to have you visit us. Tonya http://meanolmamablogspot.com/

Hi, I haven't posted here before, but I enjoy reading what you all are doing with your kids. I'm in Georgia, we have 6 kids 2-12, and we are doing our best to become fluent in Spanish. I speak only Sp to the kids and they answer as well, but it's becoming harder to find good upper level material for their school work. Any ideas? Thanks, Tonya