Spanish Help!

[sixtimemomma]

I was wondering what everyone is using for Spanish.  We have used Rosetta in the past but don't really care for it.  Anyone have a Spanish curriculum favorite that they are seeing their child make progress with?

[sixtimemomma]

bump

[pitterpatter]

What ages are you looking for?

[Mom0012]

I like La Clase or Homeschool Spanish Academy for Elementary.  Getting Started with Spanish is great as well.  I am really liking OK State University's online self-paced Spanish course for high school level Spanish.  I think if I had to do it over again, I'd use La Clase 1 & 2  in K or 1st (skipping the workbooks) and then move them to GSWS.  Then I'd follow up with HSA until I felt they were ready for a high school level course and move on to OKU.  This is actually what I did, I guess, but I didn't start until my dd was older, like 9.  I say that because it seems like La Clase would be really well-suited for younger children and I wish my dd had had some immersion and listening when she was very young.  I would have stretched things out and added in lots of Spanish dvds when she was at an age when she liked to watch the same things over and over again.  As it is, she is still starting Spanish 2 with OKU this fall in 6th grade, so I wouldn't have started younger to get further faster, but more to be able to take advantage of that language learning ability young children have, especially with the listening and the speaking.

[Jennefer@SSA]

Not sure about the ages of your kids but we use Elementary Spanish on Discovery Streaming for my youngers and Educación Española (their middle school program) for my oldest, which is also available on Discovery Streaming. These programs were developed at the University of Arizona (if memory serves correctly) and we have been very happy with the program. I have my boys do it at a much accelerated pace though. My oldest is just about to finish the program (the middle school program on Discovery Streaming only has lessons 1-50 and not 51-100 for some reason) so I'm about to be researching again, too. :) 

[sixtimemomma]

Thanks so much for everyones input.  

 

The child in question is 10 years old.  Is the Discovery Streaming Spanish class free?

[Haiku]

You have to pay for the Discovery Streaming service and, personally, we found Elementary Spanish to be a complete bust. My kids learned almost nothing during the two years that we used it. Each unit focuses on one subject, such as body parts or rooms of the house, and then when it's over, that's it. There is no review.

 

We moved on to Getting Started With Spanish, which has worked much better, and now we are using DuoLingo, too. We also read from some OOP books called Fun With Spanish and More Fun With Spanish by Lee Cooper.

 

Tara

[Space station]

I second DuoLingo.  Kids (d9, d12) love it, it is independent (no work for me) and free!

[StephanieZ]

For the first Spanish lessons, I loved Getting Started With Spanish.

 

After that, I love, love, love Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn Spanish. It is ideal for about ages 11 to 12 and up, but I used it successfully with my 10 year old last year (though she had many years background in Spanish). 

 

 

Also, FWIW, I found that investing in a native speaking tutor a couple hours a month (30 min per child twice monthly) makes teaching Spanish a complete breeze with the right program. If you can afford it, I urge anyone to hire a tutor for languages just to practice, solve problems, explain tricky ideas. (Unless, of course, you are fluent.)

 

[CrunchyGirl]

Check out www.homeschoolspanishacademy.com. Good people and a fantastic service. Also very affordable. I did lessons last year with them myself (before my pregnancy, children, and job overwhelmed my life) and I'm planning to enroll LegoMan this fall. We will supplement with reading Spanish books (DH can read Spanish at least), Rosetta Stone for extra vocabulary, and hopefully a baby sitter a few afternoons a week who is fluent to play games, read books, and have basic conversations with the kids. But we are going for full fluency (reading, writing, and speaking). Just working with HSA is probably sufficient for most cases and far more effective than most other programs because you get to interact with a native speaker over Skype video.

[TarynB]

Another one for you to consider:  VisualLink Spanish.  My DS11 really likes it, better than anything else we've tried, and this is his second year using it.  It is entirely independent, on the computer, and the combo of visual and audio teaching works really well for him.  It has improved his pronunciation due to the "listen and speak" feature, done with a headset and microphone.  It recognizes his voice and guides him to speak correctly.  This program is clearly not as good as a local, live native-speaking tutor, but way more affordable for us.  (And DS has some anxiety that precludes Skyping with a tutor he doesn't know.  We might invest in a local tutor if he continues studying Spanish into high school.)  VisualLink has no books, no hardcopy lessons, no writing involved, but we supplement with Spanish readers and a workbook called Practice Makes Perfect:  Basic Spanish.  You can also do a free trial of VisualLink.  (If you decide you like it, I recommend buying the download saved to your computer vs. using it entirely online - we had issues with loading/speed using the online only version.)  The various levels go on sale frequently, so if you sign up to try the free trial, you can get email notices of their sales.