beansprouts Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 My neighbor is a native Spanish speaker, and is willing to teach my children. She has not done any tutoring (in the USA at least) but she is willing to give it a shot. I would like to find a curriculum to use as a guide (my daughter will be in 5th grade). Our plan is to meet once a week for an hour, then have "homework" that we do during our school time every day. Can anyone recommend a curriculum that would meet these needs? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 What a blessing to have a friend who speaks the language, natively even! Could your neighbor just help by speaking to your dd in Spanish a few days a week? Children will "soak up" the language by hearing it spoken frequently. I learned minimal Spanish in hs and college, but when I lived in Spain for 4 months, I REALLY learned the language. Having to use it every day, being immersed in the language was the way to go. Perhaps you could get a curriculum like Learnables or Rosetta Stone (if you can afford it) or some other curriculum, have dd do the lessons from it daily and then also have her spend time with your neighbor, speaking and hearing the language each day? Maybe you could give your neighbor a copy of what dd learned or is learning (vocab/grammar/verb conjugation, etc.) that week and then she could make it a point to USE those words in the conversations to solidify? Just a thought. Sorry I don't know of a curriculum she could use. I really think just having her talk to your dd in Spanish would do more good than a curriculum, KWIM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beansprouts Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 What a blessing to have a friend who speaks the language, natively even! Could your neighbor just help by speaking to your dd in Spanish a few days a week? Children will "soak up" the language by hearing it spoken frequently. Well, now you make it sound so simple! :o I actually live in a town that has a large spanish-speaking population. We even have a bilingual story time at the local public library which I will definitely be visiting :cool: I knew my little boys will be fine to just immerse in the language, but I was thinking maybe dd should have a more academic approach... ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 if you have access to such amazing bi-lingual "resources", USE them! She'll learn more, like I said, from listening and speaking than doing a "workbook". BUT, by all means, get a more formal curriculum to give her a "jump start". I probably wouldn't have learned so much in Spain had I not had the "foundation" from which to go on, KWIM? Another "curriculum" to try is Kimber's The Fun Spanish (available as a download on Lulu.com). My dd11 is doing this and loves it. It's not a whole curriculum, but it is fun and dd is learning a lot. We will start Learnables when it arrives. I just wish we had such immediate access to a native speaker :) Our church has a nice sized Spanish population and we do have friends who speak Spanish...but none near us geographically :( I have lost most of what I learned, but can still help my dd with pronunciations and verb conjugation. But conversation? It's bad...very bad :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beansprouts Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 Thank you, Sue, I will take a look at that link. BTW dd also has some Latin under her belt now, so I would guess she should pick up Spanish very easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusyBee Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Take a look at Spanish Now! I know several families that use this and love it. You can view the inside of the book at amazon.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beansprouts Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 Take a look at Spanish Now! I know several families that use this and love it. You can view the inside of the book at amazon.com. "Spanish Now" looks interesting. It is very simple, and reasonably priced. Some of the reviews mention mistakes throughout the text in grammer and spelling. Have other families found this to be a problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusyBee Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 "Spanish Now" looks interesting. It is very simple, and reasonably priced. Some of the reviews mention mistakes throughout the text in grammer and spelling. Have other families found this to be a problem? I have called a few of the families who use this. None of them have noted the grammar or spelling mistakes. I was told it works well if you are learning from someone who knows Spanish as their first language(which they all are). They use this as homework during the week. They do not recommend it for self-study or for parents to teach who do not have a background in Spanish. Bob Jones Spanish with videos and Hayes Spanish were both recommended to me for self-study. I am leaning towards using Rosetta Stone with my 5th grader in the fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I have an idea. I've often wished I could do Symtalk, but it requires a Spanish speaking teacher. Personally, I would get a curriculum rather than just have her chat with the kids. It's not that easy to know what to teach first and to remember whether or not you reviewed. Of course, they can chat too! But I would get her a curriculum to follow. Imagine if your neighbor wanted you to teacher her kids math without a curriculum (since you already know math). LOL! It would be hard to know how to proceed. At the very least, you could get some Spanish children's books at the library that she could read with them. Take a look at all the Spanish options here, but don't choose something programmed like Rosetta Stone or Elementary Spanish; choose something that takes advantage of having a native speaker! Lucky you! And that reminds me of Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish. I know little about it except that people here have raved about it occasionally over the years. Sounds very promising! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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