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Hello there! I wonder if anyone has experience in teaching Dutch in first grade? My parents and aunts and uncles speak Dutch, so I'd love to teach my children the language, but the resources I've been able to scrounge together are rather paltry. Even finding a Dutch-English Picture dictionary is difficult. Any suggestions aside from Pimsleur or DuoLingo? I'd prefer something that's not DVD based . . . Thanks!

Mostly, I'd love to hear from others who have used Abeka for Language for Grades 4 and up. I used it our first year of homeschooling for 3rd grade, along with FLL. That went well. Currently using CLE for my 3rd graders and have mostly used something else for my 6th grader this year. I'm considering Abeka for 7th, or possibly CLE. But I think I would have to start in the 600s with CLE for my DD. For her sake (having younger siblings), I would prefer something on "grade level." Workbooks for language work pretty well for us, I don't mind Christian content, and plan to supplement for composition. I know Abeka doesn't get a lot of mention here, but I know some have used it for grammar, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Anyone using the Flip Flop Spanish curriculum and could give me a detailed review of how it's working out for you? What you like and don't like about it, etc. Thanks.

My daughter just recently realized that the Words with Friends App now has the ability to play in some foreign languages so she has been challenging her brothers in Spanish and I have played in German against my son who is learning that. Any other ideas of games that can be played in other languages? I know you can get Bananagrams and Scrabble in foreign language editions.

I'm looking ahead a little to next year and trying to decide on a grammar/language program for my dd who will be 11 next school year. I can't decide between A Beka Language B or Essentials in Writing. I've tried to search on the forum, but almost nothing comes up or it says that the page cannot be found. So, I'm looking for input from those who have used one or both of these. I know that A Beka is very strong in grammar and diagramming and I like that, but I'm also drawn to EIW because of the strong writing component and the DVD teacher. A little background - my dd has done the JAG and Mechanics programs as well as Write with the Best Vol. 1. She is currently using Kilgallon Sentence Composing for Elementary, some coypwork and dictation as well as parts of ILL. My tentative plan for the following year when she is 12 is to do WWS (likely stretching it over 2 years). Soo, do I go with a thorough, really strong grammar or the seemingly more relaxed approach of EIW and focus more on writing? Any comments on aspects of either of these programs is appreciated. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I've posted a couple times about a boy I'm teaching, age 13. I noticed an interesting thing about him today. We've been working on naming dot patterns, matching dot patterns to numerals to tally marks, that sort of thing. We played Ronit Bird's "component flip" game where you take a number like 5, and try to make it with a 2 and a 3, 1 and 4 with cards that are in front of you. I did this game with him using dot cards only, no numerals. He did awesome! He was fast and accurate. Yet... when he sees the dice pattern for 5, he often says six or four. I THINK he is getting "5" in his head based on his successful subitizing, but he is having trouble finding the WORD five. Could that be it? If so, any suggestions or pointers to reading material would be so appreciated!

This week I found a new program online called "Gemiini". Here is the link: https://gemiini.org/ It is a subscription based program with videos (over 12,000) for children with autism or special needs to help with speech and language. It is research based (repetition, working memory, novel events, etc.) and so far my daughter loves it. It's hard to explain without watching one, but I would check it out. They have a $1 monthly trial to test it out. Jenn

I did a search but didn't have any luck-- In the Rhetoric Stage Grammar and Writing section of WTM, it lists 3 or more hours per week for time required (p.473), but then on page 475 in the "How to do it" section the total time listed only adds up to about an hour and a half of work for the week. Then on page 606, The "Rhetoric Stage at a Glance" chapter, for 11th grade Language it lists 45-60 minutes per day of formal grammar and reading Elements of Style, which adds up to 5 hours per week. Am I missing something here? None of the amounts of time spent seem to jibe. How much formal grammar/writing are your 11th graders doing?

There was an interesting discussion about learning other languages a few weeks ago (in the thread about international education). Just recently I came across this blog, Loving Language. Under the category multilingualism there are good posts about the experience of multilingualism in America and the monolingualism that America is known for. I found it very interesting, and sometimes quite eye-opening. In other news, my local library system got a subscription to Mango, and I already have 8 lessons completed! :thumbup:

We pulled our 3rd grade DD out of public school this school year (in October). In many ways, we're still trying to figure out what works best for us, and I can't for the life of me decide on what to use for LA next year! I'll have two 1st graders and a 3rd grader. So, for Grammar this year (3rd grade), we've used Abeka Language and a little bit of FLL 3. Abeka came highly recommended to me, and I figured we would continue it next year, but now I'm not so sure. I go over things with my DD, but many pages seem like "too much" for her in independent work (she gets a lot wrong on some pages). I'm wondering if grammar needs to be something that I do WITH her the whole time? I was wanting something more independent, though, as I'll also be working with two in 1st grade next year. My DD and language: She HATES writing! Says she "likes" Abeka Language, but some pages are "too hard." We haven't done much of the writing in Abeka. Instead, we've done narrations/copywork for history (SOTW) and a little science. We're just now trying a bit of WWE2. We're using Spelling Workout, which seems to be okay, but she's not a great speller (we're in book C). As far as writing, I'm intrigued by what I hear of IEW, but our budget is pretty tight. When using the WWE books, is other writing instruction necessary? Or is that enough for writing? It seems more like reading comprehension exercises? I've looked at MCT, which seems expensive. My DD doesn't LOVE language, so I'm not sure if that would be a good fit. Or does it help to instill a love of language? If I did try that out, is it very teacher intensive? What particular books (Island) would I need to get? I hear a lot of good things about R&S, but it looks a bit boring to me? Does MCT do diagramming? Or should I maybe just do FLL3 next year, since I already have that? I don't want to overload my DDs with "workbook" stuff, but I can't seem to figure out a good combo of curriculum. Sorry for the randomness and confusion of this post. I'm confused! Ha ha! I just want to figure out what LA would be best for a child who doesn't get super excited about language, and has trouble being motivated to "do her work." She's not real big on reading yet, either, but there's improvement as we continue to work on that. At this point, some of school seems too mundane and boring for her, although I'm trying to make it fun. :) What has worked well for your kiddos who may not be very excited about language? Oh, she DOES love to learn poems, although we haven't done a lot of that yet.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode2/index.html Watching this episode on youtube now. It even talks about brain seizures and dyslexia.

Our DS, 9, just had an auditory processing eval and we recently got report. One question I forgot to ask the audiologist was just so simple--does he have auditory processing issues? We did discuss the specific results, mostly normal but he didn't pass Auditory Continuous Performance Test (raising thumb for target word), or Memory for Sentences (repeating sentences w/o visual cues), or the RAN/RAS (perceiving visual symbol and retrieving name for it accurately and rapidly). Audiologist said sensory issues might well be a large part of it and also recommended ST evalu and language therapy for auditory working memory issues. Therapy to include things like visualization and chunking. Our son has sensory issues already (difficulty w/background noise esp), and does have an ADD diagnosis. Very, very bright but difficulty w focus especially in noisy or large environments like classroom. (Thus the HSing this year). If anyone can help me learn more about this, please, I'd so much appreciate it. Will definitely ask more ?s of audiologist. But I was wondering if these scores on a couple of tests constituted auditory processing issues or not. Just wondering if I'm trying to describe issues to someone new, would I mention auditory processing or not? Thank you so much for any help.... Amy

Hey Everyone, I'm wondering if anyone has had good or bad experience with this series? Also, did you do it with just your family or in a group. Thanks! Carrie:-)

My dd (14) attends an all-girls Catholic high school where she is expected to act like a young lady and be treated like a young lady. My daughter has experienced several things out our church that I find inappropriate. She has heard high school boys screaming the "f" word. This weekend she attended a youth Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange; the gift she received was a pair of used men's boxers and a bra--I view this as a totally inappropriate gift for a 14-year old girl to receive at a party for boys and girls. I have raised these issues with the youth director and basically got "don't be surprised" and teach your daughter not to be surprised when things like this happen. He went on about how he wouldn't apologize for the students who were attending because they needed grace extended to them. (At no point has he made any statement to the group about the inappropriateness or addressed my daughter's discomfort witht he situations.) My stance is that if I take my 14-year old daughter needs to be nurtured at church. She needs to be supported in standing up and saying this is NOT the way to talk/act anywhere, but it is definitely NOT OK in God's house. I would like any input or suggestions others might have.

What are some good ways to incorporate Italian into my daily life. I will be making flashcards to put up all around my room on the window, door, ceiling, etc., but what are other good ways? No one in my family speaks Italian. My only relative who knew Italian died when I was 8 and he never spoke it to me unless he got excited or I did something wrong. My area is a more Spanish speaking area so not much Italian going on. Any ideas?? I was thinking of watching movies I own with either Italian audio or Italian subtitles but I am pretty sure most, if not all, of my movies only offer English/French/Spanish audio and subtitles. Any suggestions on immersion? Thanks. :)

Anyone willing to diagram this sentence for me? "Manchmal fragte ich mich, ob ich mit meinen Augen dieselben Dinge sah wie der Rest der Welt." specifically "wie der Rest der Welt" Thanks so much!

My rising 11th grade daughter is going to be spending a month living with Swiss friends in the Italian section of Switzerland next summer. She's taken German I and II, which will help, but she needs at least an intro in Italian. We had Rosetta Stone- Spanish which she hated (I know lots of people love it, just not a good match for my analytical daughter) so I don't want to go that route again. Any and all suggestions would be helpful. Btw, I'm not worried about h.s. credit obligations.

My son, who will be in sixth grade next year wants to add French to his language studies. He is excelling at Latin and is set to complete First Form Latin and Begin Second Form before the end of March. So he has a fairly strong Latin background and he will continue with the Latin study. So we need a good introductory French curriculum... either that or I need Cleo Qc to move down here and teach him! We do live in a college town, so I am hoping I can find a student to tutor him. What are you all using?

I am helping my nephew to find a good Chinese language program that can both have help him with his credits in college and language learning in China.. please help me, thank

My middle kid will be six and a half at the start of first grade next September, and will already have completed Song School Latin. I plan to move on to Lively Latin with him... but not until he's eight. What do I do to fill the gap? I'm seriously considering Power-Glide Latin, with Minimus and Rosetta Stone tying for second place. I've ruled out Prima Latina, and I feel very iffy about Latin for Children. Are there any other options? How long does it take to complete a Power-Glide course? Does anyone have experience with their Latin program? ETA: Duh, Lingua Latina. Any thoughts on doing this with a 6yo? It has the advantage of already being on our bookshelf.

I'm starting to think of next year, and I'm pretty sure I want to start ds in Hebrew next year. My dh has been teaching himself some, so I have the teacher, just need the curriculum. Anyone have any suggestions? I would prefer to go with Biblical Hebrew versus modern Hebrew, but I figure it will probably be harder to find. And since they are similar, I'll take what I can get. I'm still very much in the planning stages, just would like to get a list going now so I have plenty of time to research. Thanks!