How many languages do you plan to teach?

[kristinannie]

OK, I am a language buff. I spend my spare time learning new languages (or whatever spare time I have now which is almost nonexistent :tongue_smilie:). Anyway, I am not going to push languages onto my kids (except for Latin) unless they share my love of languages.

 

I am starting with German because I speak it well and have a passion for it. I am definitely doing Latin starting somewhere around 3rd grade). I was also hoping to do Spanish at some point.

 

I would love to hear what you all do in regards to foreign language!

[FairProspects]

Right now we plan to teach 2, Latin and Spanish, but we are hoping at some point to spend a year in either Europe or Asia with Dh's company, so if that comes through we may add a 3rd depending on where we are going. As the kids get older and have more interests, I wouldn't be opposed at all to them learning an additional language if they had the desire, but I don't have formal plans to teach others.

[boscopup]

One for sure - Spanish. Maybe more, depending on time and kids' interest. I'd love to do German and Greek also. I probably won't do Latin, unless my kids want to. I think the benefits of that can be obtained in other ways, and I'd rather spend time on languages that would be really useful (Spanish for conversing with local Hispanics, Greek for understanding the Bible better).

 

So far, we're doing zero, but I'll add Spanish at some point in the next couple years. DS wants to learn it.

[kchara]

3 for sure, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. We might open it up to more, if they want to learn them. Our next priorities after those three are Spanish, then Mandarin, and DD has expressed interest in Irish Gaelic, but we'll see. If they have the ability to learn languages as adults (a skill I never acquired :tongue_smilie:), I'll be happy. Then, they can learn whatever they want.

[DragonFaerie]

My DD seems to have a knack for language and reading so I've definitely got plans for her. :D She's going to start Latin next year (4th grade). She'll do that for two years before adding Spanish. She'll do Latin for 5 years and when she's finished with that (and still working on 5 years of Spanish), she'll add a third language of her choice. My goal is to five years of Latin, five years of Spanish, and four years of something else, working on two at a time. Now I don't know if I'll be this ambitious with DS as words are NOT his favorite thing. He's more my mathy/science guy but we'll see...

[mom2boys030507]

Two possibly three.

 

Currently, we are doing Greek. I wait to start until my boys are reading chapter books well. The goal,for us, is to be able to read the New Testament in the orginal language. I plan to start a modern language in the next few years French or Spanish. We may do Latin if the boys are interested.

[lionfamily1999]

I'm doing Latin with the oldest two. Dd just started German. Ds wants to go back to doing Greek. He wants to tackle German with dd (I said he could, but on his own time and it wouldn't be official :lol:). I don't know what modern language he'll choose for high school yet. Dd wants two years of Japanese in high school too.

 

For German and Japanese the programs look for reading and listening fluency, which is something I'd never heard of separate from speaking fluency.

 

My youngest will definitely do Latin. Greek if he wants to and he gets to choose his modern language.

 

Oh, and we all dabble in French, but I stopped making it official, because it was too much for me.

[newbie]

2

[Homeschooling Again]

Definitely Latin and Spanish (now -- Latin formally, Spanish informally) and I would love him (and me) to start to learn Greek in HS. I'd also love French, but who knows ....

[pgr]

Ours is a bilingual home, and in addition to our native language and English, DD has started a very basic intro to Spanish in her Montessori K this year, as well as some informal Latin (SSL) at home.

 

We plan to continue with Spanish and Latin, and add in French as well.

 

These are all languages that I have had considerable exposure to myself, so that's partly why I feel compelled to share that with my kids. It helps that both my kids really like languages :)...

[Kristiana]

Latin for sure--my oldest is just finishing up LC I this year and will start First Form next year. My 7yo is finishing up Prima Latina, but I haven't decided whether he'll continue Latin right now or come back to it later. But we are going to start German with all three next year as that is the language DH and I both have familiarity with and they've all expressed an interest. My 6yo has just informed me that he'd like to do Italian the next year :glare:, but we'll see! After that and beyond Latin, I'm willing to let them choose any modern language they'd like.

[Embassy]

We are learning Koine Greek, Mandarin, and Arabic right now. Direct French instruction will come later (about middle school age) although they are exposed to it now. My kids will be starting another language next school year because we will be moving to a country where they speak that language.

[Chelli]

I am teaching conversational style Spanish to my dc while in elementary, around 6th grade we will begin Latin, study Latin for about 5 years, and then the last two years of high school study Spanish again with a more textbook conjugation approach. Hopefully after 5 years of Latin, learning Spanish the second time around will be really easy for them.

If they want to learn Koine Greek, then I will let them. My dh has already offered to teach it to them (he's a minister) if they want to learn, but it is a very difficult language and of no real use, unless you want to read the New Testament in the original language.

Any other languages they want to learn would be fine, just leaving the rest up to them.

[*lifeoftheparty*]

At least 3.

 

We started Latin this year. (1st grade)

 

Next year, we will start Chinese. (We'll do Chinese 3 days a week and Latin vocab. 2 days a week.)

 

In 3rd grade, we'll keep doing Chinese and start Latin for Children. At that point, we'll keep both of them going for..... ever?

 

Around 5-6th grade is when we'll add in Spanish. Unless DS wants to do a different language. Then he can choose.

 

I majored in Spanish, minored in French in College (only 1 year, LOL) and DH and I were both Chinese linguists in the Army. We see everyday how speaking a foreign language, especially an uncommon one like Chinese, can get you the big bucks. They are not optional in this house and taken very seriously ;)

[Aquinas Academy]

Another language buff here. :D

I teach languages in the order I think they are most important to learn. We start with French in 1st grade. DH is half French and we live in Canada, so French seems to be a good choice for us. I also think it's very important to speak a modern langauge.

In 4th we start Latin. Since we're Catholic, Latin has religious importance to us. I also want my kids to be able to read Roman literature in Latin.

My oldest two DD have started Greek in 7th. I hope my other kids will do so as well, but if they aren't interested in languages I won't make them. I want my kids to be able to read both religious and ancient Greek literature.

If my children want I'll let them start another language in 9th. My oldest DD chose Icelandic. Not necessarily the most useful language, but I love Scandinavian languages so I couldn't say no. ;)

Anyway, my kids will learn somewhere between two and four languages depending how interested they are.

[Aurelia]

Right now, just Latin and Spanish, though we may dabble in French and Greek. It depends on Ariel's aptitude for languages.

[regentrude]

My kids are raised bilingually English/German. My first priority is that they develop proficiency not only in English, but also in German which they only hear spoken at home. Each will learn one modern foreign language - DD started in 6th grade with French. Goal is proficiency, which requires 6+ years of continuous instruction. I rather have them speak, read and write these three languages well than dabble in several and never get beyond vacation speak. Each will get some Latin, as far as they are interested.

[Kfamily]

For us, our main focus languages are French and Latin. I have started a little German with my younger dd, but we haven't been very consistent. I want to renew this attention while she is still young.

Any other languages will be added if either of my girls ask for them. My older dd has a fascination with languages and so may learn some more. She is very interested in Anglo-Saxon right now along with Welsh and Finnish.

[crazyforlatin]

DD is learning Spanish, Latin, and Mandarin now, although she does speak Cantonese already, so I'm not sure if that's really another language. We were trying to learn Greek but that has been dropped temporarily as we focus more on Spanish.

[Just Robyn]

2 for sure - Latin and Spanish. Those will be required. At this point the plan is to start Latin in elementary school and add in Spanish in middle school. When my dc get to high school I'm thinking they could choose to continue with Latin and/or Spanish or try something new.

[linguistmama]

We're bilingual Spanish/English. We're also doing Portuguese and I don't plan to add anymore unless the kids ask for it.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

We are a language oriented family. I personally study French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and have had some exposure to Latin and German.

DD has shown great interest in language learning (and traveling/learning about other cultures). By graduation I hope for her to have 5 languages other than English. (Not all at a fluent level of course)

 

We have been doing French for awhile now. Next year is first grade and here is the plan as it stands now for languages:

1- continue French, start Spanish

2- French and Spanish

3- French, Spanish

4-French, Spanish, Portuguese

5- French, Spanish, Portuguese

6- French, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese

7- French, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese

8- French, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese

9- French Spanish, Latin, Portuguese

10- French, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, lang. of her choosing

11- French, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, lang. of her choosing

12- French, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, lang. of her choosing

 

Somewhere in there we will hopefully reach a level with French and Spanish (and eventually Portuguese and Latin) that study of the language can shift from a language-learning course to literature and history courses. We will also (hopefully) spend a significant amount of time in Brazil for me to do research, so Portuguese will get a lot of practical use.

[Aspasia]

I'm so interested in this thread. Right now we're planning on doing Spanish for sure (like everyone else). We'll add Latin later, not for religious reasons but because I think it's great training for the mind and for learning other languages, not to mention the leg up it gives for studying history or science.

 

Other than that, DH and I can't really agree on anything. I come from an Italian family so I know conversational Italian (also studied it extensively at the university level), but DH thinks it's useless. :( I've tried to sell him on French but he's hung up on Mandarin and Arabic (languages that I KNOW I can't have a hand in teaching). Hmmmm....

[Satori]

We started Spanish and Latin, which will be our two main languages through high school. I majored in Spanish, so that's been easy to teach.

 

We'll add another modern language in a few years. My husband and I would like her to learn Mandarin, but we'll see how things go. We'll be emphasizing languages in our homeschooling and take opportunities to travel and attend language camps. I used to do these as a child and I figure we can start with family camps.

[Diana B]

3 for sure, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. We might open it up to more, if they want to learn them. Our next priorities after those three are Spanish, then Mandarin, and DD has expressed interest in Irish Gaelic, but we'll see. If they have the ability to learn languages as adults (a skill I never acquired :tongue_smilie:), I'll be happy. Then, they can learn whatever they want.

 

:iagree:

 

This is us. Only my DS hasn't expressed an interest in learning any other language.

 

We are working on Hebrew now, will add Latin in the next couple of years and probably Greek after that. I don't really plan on any of these being 'fluent' unless he really enjoys learning them. So far that doesn't seem to be his thing.

 

btw - we are doing Biblical Hebrew, not modern.

[Matryoshka]

We've been doing heavy-duty German and Spanish all along. I'd love to see them trilingual.

 

They've dabbled in Mandarin (a couple of summer courses), and one dd has dabbled in Latin as well (but that's on her - I don't have much interest in Latin past roots).

[mamakimberly]

Spanish because we live in Florida.

 

Chinese because we lived in China for the last 3 1/2 years.

 

And that's where we're at for now. We've dabbled in Korean some and can read/write (very simple alphabet in Korean) but don't have any intention to study Korean more formally at the moment.

[enviromommy]

OK, I am a language buff. I spend my spare time learning new languages (or whatever spare time I have now which is almost nonexistent :tongue_smilie:). Anyway, I am not going to push languages onto my kids (except for Latin) unless they share my love of languages.

 

I am starting with German because I speak it well and have a passion for it. I am definitely doing Latin starting somewhere around 3rd grade). I was also hoping to do Spanish at some point.

 

I would love to hear what you all do in regards to foreign language!

 

I also adore learning languages. (I majored in French and also studied Italian in college, and lived in France for many years.) Right now, my kids are learning French (for obvious reasons) and Hebrew (for religious reasons). I am studying Spanish myself now, and if the kids get to a point where I feel their French and Hebrew are good enough that it wouldn't be a distraction to add another, I might add Spanish for them. Realistically, I can't see how we'd do more than that.

[Elisabeth in IL]

My boys have been taking Spanish for a couple of years now. I'll have them choose another language that they want to learn for high school.

[warriormom]

Spanish is important since DH is Puerto Rican. After that, I would love for them to learn Latin. I would not be opposed to them learning French or Mandarin when they are older.

[warriormom]

:bigear:

[Rosie_0801]

In theory we're bringing them up bilingually in English and Auslan, but in practice, you can't teach people to sign when they don't want to look. We're only using Auslan as a home language so we're not particularly concerned about the nitty gritties.

 

Also in theory, we'll start playing with Latin as soon as they are speaking English fluently, Arabic in grade one, and French in high school.

 

We'll see what happens when reality has her say.

 

Rosie

[Hedgehog]

Currently: DD11 and DD9 - Latin and French, DS5 - Latin

 

Overall plans: Latin, French, Koine Greek, Biblical Hebrew.

[Ester Maria]

I come from an Italian family so I know conversational Italian (also studied it extensively at the university level), but DH thinks it's useless. :(

You must realize that the poor fellow did not grow up with the most beautiful language in the world, does not understand and might never understand that particular sensitivity. Sigh.

(And we could seriously dispute the "useless" thing too. It is not, if you know how to make it useful.)

 

Even if you only speak a home dialect or "disapora Italian", it is still your culture and your heritage, and you still have a moral right to share it with your children (though in that case I do suggest outsourcing it a bit, making sure they learn "proper" Italian too, preferably with an italianist, etc.). And especially if you actually speak Italian, as in literary Italian, educated Italian, I would absolutely not give in the slightest. Plus, your children are small and there is still time to switch to regularly speaking with them Italian as well and incorporate it into your studies or even partially as the language of instruction, thus making them fully bilingual.

 

In any case, do not give up. :001_smile:

[Ester Maria]

Our first foreign language is English :lol:, though there is not much sense in 'counting' it as such, as it has meanwhile become al pari with Italian for kids. Both languages are thus studied on a native language level, with literature, and used as languages of instruction, communication and daily life.

 

That being said, we teach both classical languages and Hebrew (where we mostly focus on modern, spoken Hebrew, though we have been increasingly studying religious texts and scholarship too, incorporating Biblical and rabbinical Hebrew into our studies). Latin is a sine qua non in our homeschool :D, while I might even allow the middle kid to drop formal Greek in high school, having reached a sort of minimum proficiency. As Greek bears no religious importance to us, nor the supreme cultural importance of Latin, it is the least important of the three.

 

Ideally, I would love all of them to be proficient in one more modern foreign language. Our eldest has chosen French for her five-year high school sequence and, due to some previous exposure via travel and due to its proximity to Italian, quite soon that will turn into literary and history studies.

Our middle might "get away" with using English as her only high school foreign language (along with Latin, of course, and Hebrew outside of the framework and formalities of the official subjects), though I will encourage her to learn one more foreign language too, especially if she does drop Greek. However, I will not require that of her, as this child's interests lie in some other spheres.

 

For the baby we cannot plan yet, as God knows where will be living when she will be school age, whether she will even be homeschooled or what the circumstances will be like. However, knowing Italian on a native language level (whether living in Italy or abroad) is non-negotiable, so is a solid knowledge of Latin and Hebrew. She will probably somewhere, somehow, learn English too, even if she might not have the relationship with it that the older kids have, but for the rest we will see.

[HootyTooty]

I would like my kids to learn French and Spanish.

 

Right now he is doing LfC A and Sign and would like to continue those two and add in Japanese. Trying to figure out how to incorporate it all. :lol:

[Bloggermom]

We are planning on Latin, Greek, Hebrew and a foreign language of their choice. My DD wants French and my DS wants Italian.

[Mom0012]

Well, I only intend to do one unless one of my kids has a real desire to do another. I started Spanish this year with my 5th and 3rd graders and I have to say I wish I had waited with the 3rd grader because I don't have access to a native speaker and now I feel I'm going to drag something out for 6+ years that would have taken her one year in 9th grade.

 

I am feeling it was a good choice to start with my 5th grader since he struggles with language, but I wish I had picked something that just focused on vocabulary building at this point. We're using La Clase Divertida because I thought it would be fun (and some of it definitely has been), but we have spent a lot of time doing Spanish and have learned very little vocabulary. Of course, I have already purchased levels 2 and 3 because there was a big sale and my kids were still in the novelty stage where they were so excited about learning a language, I couldn't imagine I'd have any regrets.

 

The funny thing is, I started Spanish as enrichment for my daughter because she gets her work done so fast and then just added in my son because he was interested. I always thought I would do Latin with him starting in middle school, but now I think we'll just stick with Spanish.

 

Lisa

[Luckymama]

I let dd choose which modern foreign language she wanted to learn. If she wants to learn a second after a few years, we'll do so.

 

If I had started homeschooling earlier, I probably would have started on Latin in 3rd or 4th grade, then added a modern foreign language after a few years.

[Spock]

OK, I am a language buff. I spend my spare time learning new languages (or whatever spare time I have now which is almost nonexistent :tongue_smilie:). Anyway, I am not going to push languages onto my kids (except for Latin) unless they share my love of languages.

 

I am starting with German because I speak it well and have a passion for it. I am definitely doing Latin starting somewhere around 3rd grade). I was also hoping to do Spanish at some point.

 

I would love to hear what you all do in regards to foreign language!

 

All 4 have been required to study Spanish K-12 (K-11 for my second son), because their father is Guatemalan and we believe they should learn it since it is part of their heritage.

 

They have also learned a smattering of sign language (because I majored in special education of the hearing impaired), German (just because it seemed fun), Chinese (a few words and phrases picked up because my college room-mate was from Taiwan), etc. My second son is studying Biblical Hebrew this year, also, with a focus on reading rather than pronunciation.

[MeaganS]

My currant plan is a minimum of two, with a probable third depending on the child. First Latin (playful Latin in early elementary and then start LfC in 3rd and Henle in 5th -slowly). Then we'll start Spanish in 5th grade. They will continue with both of these and if they are interested in a third language, I would like them to do Mandarin, but I may leave it up to them.

[kristinannie]

I'm so interested in this thread. Right now we're planning on doing Spanish for sure (like everyone else). We'll add Latin later, not for religious reasons but because I think it's great training for the mind and for learning other languages, not to mention the leg up it gives for studying history or science.

 

Other than that, DH and I can't really agree on anything. I come from an Italian family so I know conversational Italian (also studied it extensively at the university level), but DH thinks it's useless. :( I've tried to sell him on French but he's hung up on Mandarin and Arabic (languages that I KNOW I can't have a hand in teaching). Hmmmm....

 

 

I have to say that I think you should teach the kids Italian if you are of that descent and can already speak it. That is the same dilemma I have been having. I would love to teach my kids German, but it isn't that useful of a language. My DH would rather me just stick with Spanish from the outset and do German later, if time permits. However, I have ZERO passion for Spanish. I have studied it on my own and just could never get excited about it. I love German, I love their culture (aside from the Nazis :lol:) and I speak it fairly well. I say teach what you love. Once kids learn to speak several languages, they can pick others up much more quickly in high school (with a tutor) or in college.

[iwka]

Latin, Greek, Polish and maybe Russian.

[Jennay]

So far, older DS has had 2-3 years of Latin with a friend of mine who majored in Latin but due to scheduling conflicts the class is on hold. I need to figure out what to do with him now. Younger DS just started a class in our co-op with her.

 

Learning Spanish seems to be the most practical. We've done a bit of ASL and I would like to continue with that. I also love Russian and want to learn it myself. Maybe Arabic.

[boscopup]

I have to say that I think you should teach the kids Italian if you are of that descent and can already speak it. That is the same dilemma I have been having. I would love to teach my kids German, but it isn't that useful of a language.

 

You know, the usefulness of a language probably depends partly on what your kid decides to do with it. My brother took German in high school, continued to take it in college, did a Junior Year Abroad in Germany in college (attending a German university and thus having to speak German for everything), did a Fulbright year in Germany (teaching English to German kids, IIRC), and while he was working on his PhD in history, with a focus on German Jewish history, he worked for an institute that does a lot of translation work of German Jewish documents. So his German has been incredibly useful to him. :D

 

So if you want to teach Italian or German or whatever (or your child wants to learn them)... Go right ahead! Your child may find a use for it one day. :)

 

ETA: I just remembered that when I was working, my company had a commerical division that did a lot of automotive work. Some of the guys working on some Chrysler products had to speak to German engineers regularly. Another use for German!

[kristinannie]

You know, the usefulness of a language probably depends partly on what your kid decides to do with it. My brother took German in high school, continued to take it in college, did a Junior Year Abroad in Germany in college (attending a German university and thus having to speak German for everything), did a Fulbright year in Germany (teaching English to German kids, IIRC), and while he was working on his PhD in history, with a focus on German Jewish history, he worked for an institute that does a lot of translation work of German Jewish documents. So his German has been incredibly useful to him. :D

 

So if you want to teach Italian or German or whatever (or your child wants to learn them)... Go right ahead! Your child may find a use for it one day. :)

 

ETA: I just remembered that when I was working, my company had a commerical division that did a lot of automotive work. Some of the guys working on some Chrysler products had to speak to German engineers regularly. Another use for German!

 

 

Thanks! I'll show that to DH next time he complains about the language not being useful. :tongue_smilie:

 

Honestly, I think that knowing a language like German or Italian would set kids apart from the pack when applying to college or applying for a job. Someone on Hive Mind told me that there are plenty of native speakers of Spanish in this country for all of the job requiring Spanish so it is helpful to know other languages. That made a lot of sense to me!

 

I love the people who want to teach Russian. I took some Russian in college. It is a really great language...I just didn't want to start out with something with a different alphabet!

[Giraffe]

DD is learning English and Turkish. I hope to teach her French once she's older, and DH wants to teach her Japanese.

 

So - 4, but we'll see where we end up!

[HootOwl]

We are presently doing Latin and plan to add Greek in the fall. My kids love studying languages and asked to add Greek all on their own!

[Ohdanigirl]

I plan to teach at least 3. We are a bilingual family (Spanish/English), and hear both languages from the start. We start formal Spanish reading lessons around second grade, or basically when my dc are reading fluently. In third grade we begin Latin with PL. Next year my now 6th grader will begin Greek. He will begin slow, using A Greek Alphabetarion: A Primer for Teaching How to Read, Write & Pronounce Ancient & Biblical Greek and A Greek Hupogrammon: A Beginner's Copybook for the Greek Alphabet with Pronunciations.

 

I am not sure if I will begin Greek earlier with my other dc. My second born seems to be a natural. My youngest wants to learn Mandarin. Since he has continuously asked for almost a year, we may get him a Skype tutor this summer. I just don't think I am up to learning another language.

 

Danielle

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

We are also a bilingual family, and speak English and French at home from birth. I plan to start Latin during the logic stage, and possibly do the Greek decoding, but not much more besides roots. I hope the kids will both also have the time/energy for Spanish in high school, as we plan to move to CA and it'll be helpful there. So modern languages- 2 minimum, hopefully working knowledge of a 3rd, and Latin grammar plus Latin and Greek word roots.