Spanish Curriculum Recommendation Needed for 7th gr & siblings

[Vanna]

My children had been doing Rosetta Stone Spanish up until 2 mos. ago when my old computer "died."

 

I was wondering if I should order the new RS (since my new computer has Windows Vista and is not compatible w/ the old RS) or go w/ something new? The novelty of RS wore off years ago.

 

My dc checked out Visual Spanish's demo online and liked it. Any of you use it? Any other recommendations for a 7th gr. and his siblings?

 

TIA!

[Harriet Vane]

I'd love to recommend an online tutoring service called 121Speech. It's based in Antigua, Guatemala. My family took lessons there in early December, and have continued with them via Internet. We are sooooo pleased.

 

We meet via Skype with a Guatemalan tutor for $10 per hour. Curriculum is available through GoogleDocs. As the tutor talks to the student, they also keep a Skype chat window open in order to type some of the words or sentences as needed. It's simple and works well. The teachers are trained and organized. I cannot praise the school highly enough.

 

Here's a link:

 

http://www.121speech.com/

[Cindyg]

Strider, thanks for the recommendation.

 

How often do your kids take lessons? $10/hour is certainly reasonable, but if you take a daily lesson (as mentioned on their website), it's going to add up fast! Can you take a lesson weekly? Monthly? Is the curriculum what we'd expect, or is it more casual conversation? Can both of your kids listen in to the same lesson? Can I listen in? What's the homework like? Can my writing-averse kid get away without much handwriting? If you do weekly lessons, is there enough to keep you busy for a week in between lessons, or would we use something else with the weekly lesson for conversation? (Conversation is certainly what we're lacking.) How can you type the Spanish characters? (You mentioned Skype.)

 

I'm really contemplating trying this when we finish what we're doing now.

 

Thanks for any info.

[Tohru]

We use Visual Link Spanish and it runs fine on XP, Vista & Windows 7.

My son likes it. It starts off with "I want/need to go to ______" and then moves on to other pronouns. He hasn't gotten past that section yet. I think there are vocabulary games too.

 

It is much different than RS.

 

They are always having sales, so if you do decide to go with it, just wait for a sale coupon.

[Vanna]

Strider, thanks for the recommendation.

 

How often do your kids take lessons? $10/hour is certainly reasonable, but if you take a daily lesson (as mentioned on their website), it's going to add up fast! Can you take a lesson weekly? Monthly? Is the curriculum what we'd expect, or is it more casual conversation? Can both of your kids listen in to the same lesson? Can I listen in? What's the homework like? Can my writing-averse kid get away without much handwriting? If you do weekly lessons, is there enough to keep you busy for a week in between lessons, or would we use something else with the weekly lesson for conversation? (Conversation is certainly what we're lacking.) How can you type the Spanish characters? (You mentioned Skype.)

 

I'm really contemplating trying this when we finish what we're doing now.

 

Thanks for any info.

 

Thanks for asking all the right questions, Cindy!

[Vanna]

We use Visual Link Spanish and it runs fine on XP, Vista & Windows 7.

My son likes it. It starts off with "I want/need to go to ______" and then moves on to other pronouns. He hasn't gotten past that section yet. I think there are vocabulary games too.

 

It is much different than RS.

 

They are always having sales, so if you do decide to go with it, just wait for a sale coupon.

 

 

Thanks for your review, Jade. Will I need to periodically check the website for coupons?

[Harriet Vane]

Strider, thanks for the recommendation.

 

How often do your kids take lessons? $10/hour is certainly reasonable, but if you take a daily lesson (as mentioned on their website), it's going to add up fast! Can you take a lesson weekly? Monthly? Is the curriculum what we'd expect, or is it more casual conversation? Can both of your kids listen in to the same lesson? Can I listen in? What's the homework like? Can my writing-averse kid get away without much handwriting? If you do weekly lessons, is there enough to keep you busy for a week in between lessons, or would we use something else with the weekly lesson for conversation? (Conversation is certainly what we're lacking.) How can you type the Spanish characters? (You mentioned Skype.)

 

I'm really contemplating trying this when we finish what we're doing now.

 

Thanks for any info.

 

My kids take lessons twice per week. You have total control over how many hours of lessons you choose to buy--it's all automated through the website. You buy however many hours you want and those hours are kept for you in an account. When you sign up for an hour, that hour is taken from your account. When you run out of hours you are unable to sign up for more lessons.

 

I do not know if they will interact with more than one person at a time, but it's worth asking. I sit in on the lessons but do not participate--I'm just in the room and can hear everything. They would have no control over who is in the room or not, only over who they choose to actually interact with.

 

The homework is mostly worksheets from their curriculum and expectations for memorizing vocabulary. My daughter, who is more proficient in Spanish than my ds, is also assigned either translation or writing. The teachers are very, very responsive to my requests--if you want more homework, just ask.

 

I think that once a week lessons might be difficult, but you would have the freedom to do that. If you expect a week of homework from them in this scenario, keep in mind that that would be a lot of stuff to go through in class and eat up a fair amount of class time.

 

Their curriculum is basic vocabulary and grammar. Our classes have been a good combination of using the curriculum and just conversation. My dd, who is more advanced, has class entirely in Spanish. At least half the class is spent in conversation. I consider this a real strength.

 

My ds' classes are much more oriented to using the curriculum because he has no ability to converse if it's not scripted for him. Conversation tends to be along the lines of using specific vocabulary (like talking about what vegetables he likes or doesn't like, or what color things are).

 

Homework has to be typed so that you can email to the instructor. Dd does this independently. Ds works with dh to do his homework--he is still very much a beginning typist, and it's a bit much to both type and work with Spanish. He does okay with this in class, but is only expected to type a word here and a word there in class.

 

We haven't yet figured out typing Spanish characters. I keep meaning to ask dh about that. I'll have to get back to you on that one. We've had only a couple weeks of lessons since returning from our trip. We had formerly taken internet lessons through SpanishLuna but they used a special software--for that we were able to type in the words/sentences and then use the mouse to write in any accent marks.

ETA--Just asked dh about this. He doesn't know how to do this. I'll try to follow through and get this figured out and let you know.

 

Finally, I think it's not only fine but really wise to supplement outside of class. I recently bought several workbooks from a series called Practice Makes Perfect that are just wonderful. Each unit contains a short, succinct explanation followed by pages and pages of worksheets. These are not childish or cartoonish either--these are oriented to adults, so the worksheets are meaty. I have both my kids working with these. Another option would be to use RS or LiveMocha or some such for reinforcement and help with memorization.

[Matryoshka]

We haven't yet figured out typing Spanish characters. I keep meaning to ask dh about that.

 

Do you have a Mac or PC?

 

On a PC, make sure your numberpad has NumLock on, then hold down the alt-key while typing three numbers:

 

alt+130 é

alt+160 á

alt+161 í

alt+162 ó

alt+163 ú

alt+164 ñ

alt+168 ¿

alt+173 ¡

 

On a Mac it's easier - I think it's alt+e+character you want an accent over for any accented character and alt+n for ñ, but you can check the KeyCaps feature to make sure.

[Harriet Vane]

Do you have a Mac or PC?

 

On a PC, make sure your numberpad has NumLock on, then hold down the alt-key while typing three numbers:

 

alt+130 é

alt+160 á

alt+161 í

alt+162 ó

alt+163 ú

alt+164 ñ

alt+168 ¿

alt+173 ¡

 

On a Mac it's easier - I think it's alt+e+character you want an accent over for any accented character and alt+n for ñ, but you can check the KeyCaps feature to make sure.

 

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!!!!!!!!!!

 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

:thumbup1:

[Maytag]

I would be interested in buying your RS Spanish. I've been looking for a long time for it and if you do want to sell I really need this. My son has Autism and is highly functioning. He is a very visual learner and I believe it will be the best solution for us.

 

I hope you will consider this. thanks and God Bless!

[Vanna]

Sure, Maytag. I'd be happy to sell to you. It would be a blessing to pass this along to someone who can use it. I'll PM you.