Haiku Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 We have been doing Elementary Spanish for a little over a year now. Our progress is agonizingly slow. Spanish is the first thing dropped if we get busy, and I feel like there is so little to do aside from watching the videos. The worksheets take us about 3 minutes. Our schedule thus far as been watch the video one day, do the worksheet and play some review game another day, and do a review of some sort a third day. I just feel like there is not enough there, but the kids love the videos. Can anyone give me some tips on how to expand upon Elementary Spanish, some supplemental books/workbooks we could use, or another program entirely that we could try? I was at my German teacher friend's house the other day and I picked up a copy of the high school text she uses in her classes and read through it and, aside from being pleasantly surprised by how much I remembered, I was struck by how orderly and organized it was compared to ES (and yes, I know there is a difference between materials for high schoolers and materials for 7 and 8 year olds). Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2cents Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 Haven't tried this because we like our Spanish program but I noticed that Curr-click has added live web homeschool classes for French and German. http://www.currclick.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=394 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 I'm curious what German textbook you picked up. Do you remember? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted November 7, 2010 Author Share Posted November 7, 2010 Komm Mit Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 (edited) I use the Complete Book of Spanish Gr 1-3 (which I found for about $8 at Walmart), Scholastic News Bilingual 1st grade, and Lets Find Out Spanish edition in addition to Elementary Spanish. Both the Scholastic magazines also have printable pages online. This gives some reading practice (but since both are designed for kids just learning to read, the vocabulary is simple and it's possible for DD to use the context to figure out unfamiliar words), additional worksheets, and just plain MORE to add to the videos. We also don't do all the videos, because there's so much repetition. We do a couple to get the vocabulary, the ones which have interesting cultural information, and the ones towards the end of each unit which have stories in Spanish and the games, but do the worksheets, whatever corresponds to that unit in the Complete book of Spanish, and a magazine (there are two Scholastic News, two Let's Find out magazines, a mini-book to make for LFO, and a special poster each month, so it comes down to a magazine a week, plus some extra stuff each month from those two together). One added bonus of doing the Scholastic News/LFO in Spanish is that it gives a little bit of current events-type stuff which we don't have in our History cycle. I'm thinking that at 3rd we'll go to Spanish for Children. Edited November 7, 2010 by Dmmetler2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted November 7, 2010 Author Share Posted November 7, 2010 Wow! Thanks! I must say that you rock! I had no idea those resources existed. I will definitely be ordering them. Thanks again! Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennefer@SSA Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 We love Elementary Spanish but we do it at an accelerated pace because I want my kids to learn at a much quicker rate than this program schedules. Ds9 started 1/2 in first grade and we pretty much did two lessons per week for the first 2 years. Starting in 3rd grade ds watched a video 4 days a week along with the intended worksheet each day. That way he finished the entire 3/4 unit in one year and this year he will complete the entire 5/6 grade unit in fourth grade. This has been a much better pace for us. My boys also watch videos in Spanish 3-4 times a week as well. It may be programs I recorded on Spanish PBS (V-Me) or one of the regular videos they have put on the foreign language track. We have several Spanish games/activities they can do as well although lately I have been really bad about getting to them. I did 2 blog posts on all our supplemental Spanish goodies if you are interested. I think ES is an excellent introduction to Spanish but the pace is just too slow if you want any serious language acquisition imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted November 7, 2010 Share Posted November 7, 2010 Wow, if you thought Komm Mit was orderly and organized, then I don't want to see Elementary Spanish! That thing must be all over the place! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Thought I'd bump this up in case anyone else wanted to know about the Scholastic bilingual magazines. :) Regarding the Scholastic News Spanish version Now, how do I order? Can someone give me an exact link? I'm a little confused on their website. I can see the Spanish versions, but no order button. I see the English version and it says that Spanish version is online. Is it only available online? Is it really only $3.99 per year, or is that per issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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