Spanish and Latin - Would you do both?

[Mom0012]

I've been doing elementary Spanish with my kids for the last couple of years. My dd and I are going to take a high school Spanish class this year and I will continue to teach my son at home.

 

Is it worthwhile to add in Latin as well?

 

Someone made the comment to me not all that long ago that they are both romance languages, so there would be no point in doing both.

 

I had definitely intended to do Latin with my dd since she is a very strong student. However, before we jump into it next month, I want to make sure this makes sense. Or, would we better to invest all our time in Spanish? I am a little concerned about confusion between the languages. I also wonder if we wouldn't go farther with Spanish if it was our sole focus.

 

Thoughts?

 

Lisa

[Dmmetler]

We do both, but we didn't start Latin until DD was reading on her age/grade level in Spanish so we could do Spanish LA as opposed to a Spanish as a Second Language program. This year she'll be doing 2nd grade Spanish Language arts using McGraw-Hill Lectura and Cambridge Latin (finishing stage 1, moving to stage 2).

[Mom0012]

We do both, but we didn't start Latin until DD was reading on her age/grade level in Spanish so we could do Spanish LA as opposed to a Spanish as a Second Language program. This year she'll be doing 2nd grade Spanish Language arts using McGraw-Hill Lectura and Cambridge Latin (finishing stage 1, moving to stage 2).

 

You know, I like that approach, but boy, I don't think my dd is going to be reading on her age level in Spanish any time soon. She's taken some elementary Spanish and will begin high school Spanish 1 this year (spread over two years). She should finish Spanish 3 in 8th grade, but would she be able to read at her reading level at that point?

 

I see your dd is very young. How did you manage to move her so far along so quickly?

 

Thanks!

Lisa

[librarymama]

:bigear:

[Dmmetler]

I think you have to start from the beginning in order to work that way. In our case, we had an early reader who was infatuated with languages in general, so it made sense to start early, and we were in an area where she could easily find Spanish-speaking playmates (actually, when she was a toddler, it was often easier to find Spanish speaking playmates than English-speaking ones, because the only kids who were out on the playground during the day tended to be out there with Abuela-the English-speaking kids were mostly in daycare). When she was 5, and was school age, we got reading materials in Spanish and did grade level-reading in Spanish, and integrated it into other subjects as much as possible. It's a lot easier to stay reading on grade level in a language when you start at kindergarten :). She's more advanced in English than in Spanish (by a lot), so I wouldn't call her bilingual, but she code-shifts pretty well.

 

We started Latin at age 5 when she wanted to learn it, and discovered that the reading-based, Cambridge curricula worked better for her than Grammar-based ones, so after she went through Minimus, we moved to CL.

 

DD really hasn't confused Spanish and Latin much at all (or Greek, which she also wanted to start early). I, on the other hand, often end up with DD correcting me because I put in a French or Italian word without realizing it.

 

(I'm a musician, so I studied a lot of languages for the purpose of singing in them and SOUNDING fluent-but without actually BEING fluent).

[Amy Jo]

I do both. We approach them VERY differently. Spanish we are only listening and informally speaking right now. I hope to start the older 2 boys on reading/writing it soon, then we will study some Spanish grammar.

 

Latin, however, is formal & academic: workbooks, vocabulary, grammar. It's not that we don't enjoy Latin, but my goals for Latin (reading, grammar, critical thinking) are different from Spanish (speaking & reading).

 

They are both important to me for different reasons, I don't even see them in the same category.

[Alte Veste Academy]

This year she'll be doing 2nd grade Spanish Language arts using McGraw-Hill Lectura

 

Hold the phone! Is this a traditional elementary LA program in Spanish...for native speakers?! Where did you get this? Can you talk about the components? I have been looking for this for a long time! There was a thread a while back seeking traditional a LA program, something to teach Spanish grammar, writing, etc. as if my kids were native speakers. I researched a few and contacted publishers and was de-NIED! I was ticked too. :tongue_smilie: I think it was Destinos that sent me tons of teacher preview materials but then wouldn't sell to me. :glare:

 

Anyway, I would love to hear more about this. Pretty please. :D

 

ETA: OP, I'm planning to do both Spanish and Latin. We already do Spanish and will add Latin. I was planning to add it this year but have reconsidered, thinking it might be wiser to wait until my youngest is a bit older and see if it's something we can do together. For now, I doubt it, but we'll see.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Alte Veste Academy

[librarymama]

Considering that the study of a Latin seems to lean toward grammar/reading/translation and is a bit more formal for most, would it be wise to wait until we are completely finished with our English phonics program before beginning?

 

For my 5 year old right now we are doing through OPGTR and he can read on probably a 1st grade level, and we are just doing oral introductory Spanish.

[Dmmetler]

Lectura is the prior version of the Lectura des Tesuros, which is the current Spanish LA program designed for classes for Spanish speakers. I've been able to find the student books used on EBay and Amazon affordably, and then there are a lot of teacher websites online with support materials, and the parent support website is still online (or was last year). I can't get the TE's, but I've been able to get the rest. I've got a searc set up for the 3rd grade so I can get them stockpiled. I'm not sure if it goes above 3rd, but I'm hoping that at that point we'll be able to go to Spanish literature. I like the Lectura reader-it's a nice, leveled set of illustrated stories and poems, mostly featuring children in Spanish speaking countries. So many of the early readers in Spanish are English books translated and are just plain harder to read in Spanish, so having it set out for me is very, very helpful.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Lectura is the prior version of the Lectura des Tesuros, which is the current Spanish LA program designed for classes for Spanish speakers. I've been able to find the student books used on EBay and Amazon affordably, and then there are a lot of teacher websites online with support materials, and the parent support website is still online (or was last year). I can't get the TE's, but I've been able to get the rest. I've got a searc set up for the 3rd grade so I can get them stockpiled. I'm not sure if it goes above 3rd, but I'm hoping that at that point we'll be able to go to Spanish literature. I like the Lectura reader-it's a nice, leveled set of illustrated stories and poems, mostly featuring children in Spanish speaking countries. So many of the early readers in Spanish are English books translated and are just plain harder to read in Spanish, so having it set out for me is very, very helpful.

 

Thanks! So what grades do you already own? If you get a spare chance at all, and no pressure here of course, but I would be your BFF for ISBNs. :D I wonder how hard it would be to find workbooks that haven't been used up... Any luck there?

[Clear Creek]

My oldest does both. She started Latin in 3rd grade and Spanish in 4th. She has not had any confusion with studying two languages concurrently (I, on the other hand...:lol:). So far it has worked for us, I just have the rule that new languages aren't started the same year. So my second child will be starting Latin this fall (her third grade year), and in fourth grade she can choose to start studying another foreign language.

[Dmmetler]

Here's the teacher website, which includes a lot of support activites. I've found that many of the stories are the same in the older textbooks, which are MUCH cheaper

 

http://tesoros.macmillanmh.com/national/teachers

 

Here are the grade 2 readers (2001 edition. I think there's been one more in between them). I don't still have grade 1 around. Grade 1 is 6 little books.

 

0-02-184840-8/2 (book 1)

0-02-184841-6/2 (book 2)

 

The Tesoros site goes through 6th grade, so I'm hoping now that I'll be able to find Spanish readers through those grade levels-most of what I've found online is K-3.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Here's the teacher website, which includes a lot of support activites. I've found that many of the stories are the same in the older textbooks, which are MUCH cheaper

 

http://tesoros.macmillanmh.com/national/teachers

 

Here are the grade 2 readers (2001 edition. I think there's been one more in between them). I don't still have grade 1 around. Grade 1 is 6 little books.

 

0-02-184840-8/2 (book 1)

0-02-184841-6/2 (book 2)

 

The Tesoros site goes through 6th grade, so I'm hoping now that I'll be able to find Spanish readers through those grade levels-most of what I've found online is K-3.

 

Thanks!