How do you teach 3 Foreign languages a day?

[mom2agang]

My kids are going to learn Spanish, Latin and sign language. How do you teach it all in one day? How do you schedule so you are not spending 3 hours on just foreign language?

[Meriwether]

My kids have been learning Latin so it is already in our routine. I am adding Spanish this year. Spanish will be thirty minutes with the kids all on the same level (Latin is taught separately). I am not teaching sign language independently, but I always intended to use sign language to reinforce the words they use once we started multiple languages. So they will do the signs as they learn the Spanish and Latin vobabulary. As we add languages they will continue to use the signs. It will -hopefully!- help them learn and remember.

[Amira]

My boys do Latin and French or Latin and Spanish every day (while my husband does Uzbek and I do Russian). I think it's necessary to spend at least two hours a day on a language to really see much improvement. I can't spend that many hours a day on their languages and mine, obviously, so they spend about an hour total a day on their languages. It's not enough, but it's a lot better than nothing.

 

My oldest will be in 8th grade in the fall and I'll give him one more year of doing two languages and then I think we will pick one (either Latin or Spanish, or a different one if he wants) to focus on in high school. By that point, I'd rather put the two hours in on one language than spreading it out among several.

[rdj2027]

I cheat :-) Our school week runs Monday through Saturday year round. They attend the German Saturday School on Saturdays and I partly teach in German since it is my native language; it is not really a subject in itself Mondays through Fridays. Art and Music are also taught over the weekend which leaves more time during the week.

[Violet Crown]

There's a difference between teaching dead and modern languages, too. A language that's going to be spoken takes a serious time investment; one that's only read, not so much.

 

We do ours like this:

 

Attic Greek: Daddy, before he leaves for work, for about half an hour. He plans to double the time when we finish the intro program and move to Athenaze.

 

Latin: Me, for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on when dd's brain is full.

 

French: Dabbling lightly at the moment, but expecting to move to 1+ hours (plus class) in the fall. This is the one that will eat up the time.

[stripe]

My kids go to a class twice a week for one language. ;)

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Some people designate a different language for each room. What is the room you wish you had the most quiet in/do the least amount of talking? Communicate only in sign language in that room. :D

Maybe the bathroom could be the Latin only room.

Perhaps the kitchen or dinning room (if you don't do school there) could be the Spanish-only room. I know some bi-lingual families do this.

 

Right now I wish the hall & stairs were sign language only. :glare:

[rieshy]

My kids are going to learn Spanish, Latin and sign language. How do you teach it all in one day? How do you schedule so you are not spending 3 hours on just foreign language?

 

I prioritize because I have different goals for each language:

 

We spend an hour on German but only 30 minutes a day on French. My rising 5th grader spends about 15 minutes on Greek. He's the only one currently doing 3 languages.

 

When my younger children get to high school age they will have to increase their study time for French. Greek will have to be done as Summer studies with their Granddad.

[Allearia]

We're doing four, and during the week plan to spend a full academic segment on three of the four each day. We also spend time on the weekends, especially vocab review and some homework for online classes, and plan to add in more conversation and reading and movies in the modern languages as we gain more fluency. Right now we are just dabbling in the modern languages, though, so we will see how it works as we ramp up.

[garddwr]

My kids are going to learn Spanish, Latin and sign language. How do you teach it all in one day? How do you schedule so you are not spending 3 hours on just foreign language?

 

I agree with the poster who said a living language like Spanish, where you want to learn to speak and carry on a conversation, needs more dedicated time than a language you will not be speaking (Latin). If I were doing these three, I would prioritize Spanish (most time) and then either Latin or ASL depending on your purposes in learning each. Of course, if you have a particular need for ASL (such as a family member who is deaf) that might take higher priority than Spanish.

 

I've been intrigued by the idea of using ASL signs to reinforce foreign language learning--i.e., if a child knows the sign for "apple" they could use that sign while saying the Spanish word "manzana" to help build the connection in their mind. This would work best for fairly simple concepts, especially nouns, as the grammar and structure of the two languages are very different. But it might be possible to use a sign language and a spoken language to reinforce each other in this way, with the sign language adding both a kinesthetic component and possibly a direct link to the meaning of the foreign word without going through an English intermediary translation.