Favorite Spanish curriculum?

[profmom]

I see that The Potter's School uses BJU. Is that what you've found to be the best too, or do you have other suggestions?

 

:bigear: Thanks!

[fischerl]

I teach Spanish in our co-op and I use BJU. I've never used any other curriculum for Spanish, so I can't compare for you. But I've been very pleased with it. It moves along at a moderate pace and the Teacher's Edition has a lot of great helps. I've read some homeschool moms don't like it because it's hard to teach from if you don't know Spanish, but it seems to me any language would be hard to teach if the teacher is not familiar with it, regardless of the curriculum!

 

Let me know if you have specific questions.

[profmom]

Thanks! Is it grammar-focused or more conversational?

 

If I had 3 years of Spanish in high school about...24 years ago, which pieces of the set would I need to teach it? We're in TX and see Spanish around us frequently. I find that I can usually read signs and the Spanish announcement section in the church bulletin, but, sadly, I couldn't understand much of the spoken Spanish on a TV show set in Mexico the other day.

 

Do you also know Latin or have students that study both Latin and Spanish? When I studied some Latin a few years ago, I kept mixing in some Spanish, and I wonder if my dd would do the same (only opposite, since she's only had Latin).

[fischerl]

I'd say the lessons are more grammar-focused, but the T.E. has a lot of ideas for conversational practice. I think you'd do fine with just the student text and the T.E. They do sell a test packet if you want to incorporate that. I prefer to make up my own tests. I think there's a DVD with skits that go along with some of the lessons, but I haven't used it.

 

BTW, Standard Deviants has some good Spanish DVDs that are a fun addition (not a substitution) to a Spanish curriculum. They move fast, but they're entertaining.

 

I don't know Latin or have Latin students, so I can't speak to that issue—sorry! But since Spanish is a Latin-based language, I'm not surprised there would be some cross-over issues...

[emubird]

We've used Destinos and Pimsleur. (Pimsleur seems pretty good for Spanish as Spanish spelling is so intuitive, but I'm not sure it would work for French...) Destinos has a good amount of grammar in the workbook and textbook. Pimsleur has some grammar introduction, but it's kind of on a need to know basis for the conversational skills. And Pimsleur has no writing or reading.

 

I see that the people who did Destinos also have a new program out called Sol y Viento. I know absolutely nothing about it, but I'm intrigued. It's another video type course.

 

We used the old Rosetta Stone for awhile but didn't find it did much for us. I don't know how the new one is.

[stephanier.1765]

Not a complete course but my son loves these videos. I do too! Sometimes we can't help ourselves and will do more than scheduled just to find out what happens next. So whatever you choose, you might want to fold these into it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/syllabus.shtml