I'm doing both and my kids don't seem to have any problem whatsoever. I like it because if they forget the word for something in one foreign language, i can prompt them with the other one without having to fall back on English. I.e. if my son forgets how to say 'wall' in Spanish (muro) I can say 'in Latin its murus' and then that jogs his memory. Usually they complement eachother. I think the other day he said 'quid est tuum praenomen' when he meant 'como te llamas' but this almost never happens. I was worried about it but it has really been a non-issue. (Well, actually it is a bit of an issue because I am finding two languages to be such a large time committment--but i mean that language confusion has been a non-issue. :001_smile:) ETA: Also wanted to add that SSL is so easy and fun that i think you could add it to just about any schedule without it creating a problem. Elena

Would you mind elaborating on the work it takes? I was basically just turning it on and walking away :D. I think i recall there was some teachers materials though...are they worthwhile? I think my son is a lost cause, but I might try in earnest to get my daughter to like them. I agree that the immersion is great. I was getting so tired of finding videos that were 99% in English! Elena

I agree, there are a lot of great youtube videos. Also if you have cable, Sprout offers a lot of their kids shows in Spanish on demand and Univision has Dora and Diego and some other shows on Saturday morning in Spanish. For some reason my kids cannot get into the Salsa videos. I think they're too baby for my 7 year old, and he's very distracted by the sign language (and so am I, to tell the truth.) But they are great, and I WISH my kids liked them. Music has helped my kids learn a lot. We love anything by Jose Luis Orozco, and we like the Whistlefritz CD's. Whistlfritz also makes DVD's that look good, but I've never put the money down for them. (Same thing goes for Little Pim DVD's--though you can rent them through netflix.) My kids have also had a lot of fun with Usborne First 100 Words and then 1,000 Words. For some reason my kids love flashcards and have learned an enormous number of words that way, too. If you had money to blow you could splurge for Calico Spanish. It seems to be a great early elem. spanish curriculum. I've downloaded the sample and it looks great, but at $300 it is too much for me. Also if I remember correctly you need to at least be able to read Spanish. Que tengas suerte! (good luck!) Elena

GSWS is working well for us, but I would worry it wouldn't be substantial enough for your 6th grader. Maybe someone with an older child could offer their opinion. Easy Spanish Step-by-Step looks good. I think I might buy it for my husband who wants to learn Spanish, and keep it for when my kids are older. I have other McGraw Hill Spanish books and I like them a lot. They're very organized, straight forward and thorough. They aren't written for children though so you'd have to take into account whether a straight-forward grammar approach would work for your child. It looks like its geared toward the adult independent learner and might be a bit too fast paced for a child--very compact and dry. GSWS and Easy Spanish seem like they're at rather opposite ends of the spectrum. GSWS doesn't assume that the child knows what an article or noun is whereas Easy Spanish jumps right in. If you could adjust it to your child's pace it might work well though. Elena

You might want to look into AAS level 1 for spelling. I also though I had to wait until my kids were reading fluently but others on this board recommended not to wait to start AAS. It actually reinforces and helps with learning to read. You could also do Song School Latin if you were planning on Latin at some point. Elena

I don't have things all figured out by any means, but i schedule time more than i schedule actual activities or lessons. So for instance I see that you use HWOT...I schedule HW for 15 minutes. Then I just open up HWOT and keep working from wherever we left off. I don't actually look at it ahead of time or 'plan' it out. Same thing for MEP. We do 30 minutes in the morning, and 30 minutes in the afternoon. But I don't plan ahead of time beyond that.

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I just bought GSWS on my kindle two weeks ago and was very hesitant about it--but so far I'm very pleased! My kids are already conversant in Spanish and I thought it would be way too basic and slow. But it turns out to be perfect for us. The vocabulary of course is way toooo basic, and this is why I was so hesitant. But the gentle introduction to grammar concepts is very welcome. It has really helped my son to think more explicitly about what he already knows. As far as SfC, I had an unpleasant run-in with it a year or two ago. I found it so completely devoid of any organization or child-friendliness that I returned it immediately. I am a 2nd gen'er who is fairly proficient in Spanish--so I don't know that your extra knowledge will help you like it any more. ;) Elena

My mom is a high school Spanish teacher. When we were young, she homeschooled for a few years before being sued by the superintendent (this was before the legality of it was established.) Now she is looking to retire next year and I'm going to try to convince her to develop a homeschool Spanish curriculum. I have had a REALLY hard time finding anything that is great, and I know from reading these boards that others have had a hard time too. So I'm curious...what kind of Spanish program is there a need for? What approach would you like to see? Is there another approach or curriculum for a different subject which you love and that you would like to see for Spanish? What ages have you had the hardest time searching for? This will probably not go anywhere, but I like to fantasize about it and would appreciate it if you'd indulge me :D Elena

As a graduate of "the great books school," I must say that I don't find the distinction between good/great to be particularly useful in determining what to read and when. I think you're over-thinking it. If the book is of substance, intelligible to your child, and age-appropriate, go for it. If not, shelve it. I wouldn't worry about whether it is "great" or merely "good". That being said, most books on a Great Books list are not going to be intelligible to a younger reader unless adapted heavily. They're just too difficult. But some (Plutarch, Huck Finn, Homer or Shakespeare) might be. In other words, I would not discount a book just because it is on the Great Books list. But I would discount most of them because they are too difficult for young readers. Elena

I think the younger years are going to be harder for you because young children learn language best the way they are meant to--by interacting with a native speaker. For now one thing you can do is learn some phrases and then always say those phrases in Spanish. That way at least they are hearing vocab in context a little and learning a little of the structure of the language. One book I highly recommend if you take this approach is Kids Stuff Spanish. What I did when mine were younger was laminate a list of things that I commonly said in each room of the house. I did this mainly to remind myself to use spanish and to give me some confidence that i wasn't making a ton of mistakes. For instance my bathroom list says: Lavate las manos. Lavaste las manos? Apaga la canilla. etc. That might be a way to get the whole family using some phrases on a daily basis. I agree that you have a tough road ahead of you though. Take me as an example: my grandparents lived with us off and on when I was little. They spoke ZERO English, so I was forced to speak in Spanish to talk to them. I could speak fairly well when I was 2 and 3. I also took it in High School, have spent weeks at a time in Spanish speaking countries on my own, have taken a literature class in college, etc. My dad is a native speaker and my mom is a Spanish teacher who is completely fluent. But you know what? All of that exposure wasn't enough for me to get fluent, not by any stretch. Sure, I can hold up a conversation--but I'm not fluent. I also have friends who are both from Argentina. They speak to their daughter exclusively in Spanish at home, and don't allow her to use English at all. And even their daughter has some idiosyncrasies in the way she speaks and a slight accent. I also really want my kids to be fluent, but I don't know if they'll ever achieve this. My plan is to get them as far as I can and then hope that at some point the opportunity will present itself for them to go overseas for 6 months. I really see that as the only way to make the final leap. Good luck! Elena Elena

I agree with you. I definitely don't think this is what a parent *should* be saying to their child. I've even tried making a behavior chart for myself! But the problem with that is I'm not in the mood to give myself a demerit right when I'm losing my temper. :tongue_smilie:

Is there something that helps you get from the philosophical to the practical, i.e. HOW to actually institute it and HOW to get focused attention from a wiggly boy for five minutes? Elena

I have the same question...I love the idea of getting them to focus hard for a few minutes, but how the heck do you do that? (short of yelling harshly :D)

I voted daily. Most days it is very minor, maybe just a frustrated tone that I use when I get exhasperated. Some days (i.e. 1x/month) I am ready to loose it over anything. I've told my son during those times "Listen, I'm in a bad mood. We have to meet eachother half way. Neither of us wants me to yell at you. What I can promise is that the first time I ask you to do something, I can be sweet as sugar. What you need to do is make sure you respond that first time. Then no one gets yelled at. I can't make any guarantees about what tone I'll use if its the second, third, fourth time I've asked you to do something...." Another thing that has helped us in daily school is setting a timer for each subject. When the timer goes off, we move on to the next subject whether we are finished or not. This has helped me because often I was getting very frustrating if math was dragging on and on, and I was feeling more and more behind. Thanks for the poll! Its always good to reflect on these things and trouble shoot, and to hear that we are not alone. Elena

Yup, me too. I'll probably do a mix of written/oral. Thanks! That's what I was hoping! Elena

I just managed to score a copy of the Prima Latina Teacher's Manual for 50 cents at a library sale! Yay me! In flipping through it, it seems to include all of the exercises that the students book would have. So I'm wondering: does the student book include instruction or exercises that are not in the TM? Or could we get by with just the TM, using a notebook to do the exercises? Thanks! Elena

I skipped atleast half of 1b and haven't regretted it. It was interminable, and the beginning of year 2 is review anyway. But, my son was almost 7 and we were behind. Elena

I'm also using Rod and Staff and my son likes it. (You and your child would have to be fairly procicient in Spanish to use it.) Before we started using R&S I made a sheet of all of the silables with each letter (i.e. ba be bi bo bu, ca ce ci co cu,) and would have my son read those. Then start combining then (nido, rana, etc.) and then you're basically off and running. Othere than your c's and g's, there isn't much to it. But if you want a more systematic approach i'd recommend Rod and Staff. (My son's Spanish is very weak, so it works for us. If it were his first language I think it might be excessive/boring/unnecesary.) Elena ETA: changed 'daughter' to 'child'--I don't know why I assumed you had a daughter, sorry :)

I think the consensus seems to be that if you use it as a main curriculum, then you need to do the lesson plan activities (or at least read them every day and do the ones are useful) whereas if you are just supplementing with it then its fine to just pick and choose from the worksheets. If you are just supplementing I don't think you'd be missing much at all by just doing the worksheets. I've been very happy so far with it as a main curriculum, and then using Miquon to supplement when I need to. My son is totally average math ability wise, but he is definitely getting all the concepts and really thinking about things. Elena

This has made my night! (Yes, I lead an exciting life...) :D Elena

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I had no idea! So you mean it will show up in the 'books' section instead of the 'documents' and will open like a regular book?

I was wondering about that...is it a pdf, or does it show up as a book? I find reading PDFs on the kindle to be taxing...I like to be able to change the font size, background, etc. Getting Started With Spanish (by the same author who did Getting Started With Latin. Elena

Sigh...I guess you're right. Keeping me on the straight and narrow... Oooooh, thanks!!! I'd seen people reference them as being $5 before and just assumed the price had changed. Now I can get both of the ones I don't have for the price of one...AFTER Easter :D Elena