Jump to content

Menu

Starting Spanish - Where to begin? GSWS, SYRWTLS, VL


mirabillis
 Share

Recommended Posts

We're planning to start our first year of Spanish this year. I speak Spanish well, and the kids hear me in our home speak it daily with an employee of ours. They have picked up all the very basics, but not so much more.

 

I have researched and researched and here is what I have found that seem to appeal the most to me. My main target would be for my 11yo 6th grader & 9yo 4th grader. Whatever my youngers (age 7 & 5) glean, that will just be the gravy, but they are not the target per se.

 

Getting Started with Spanish - looks like an awesome get-your-feet-wet program. Short, easy and to the point.

 

So You Really Want to Learn Spanish (Galore Park) - looks like an amazing upper middle to high school level course. We're not quite there yet, reviews have said we should have some vocab down before delving in.

 

Visual Link - I came across this by happenstance b/c my oldest ds (11) is soooo into anything computer-driven. I think this is right up his alley. I like the free lessons they have, they look like they would work well - but reviews seem to indicate many users are high school and above.

 

So I'm very confused.

 

I also came across DuoLingo and think this looks great for me to brush up on my Spanish, but is this appropriate for the middle-school and late elementary crowd?

 

 

Anyone with any advice?

TIA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My DS11 uses Visual Link Spanish level 1 with no problems.  I don't think it is inappropriate for a middle schooler nor too hard for a motivated beginner.  DS started it last year as a 5th grader.  Prior to that, we dabbled in GSWS (I like it but DS didn't appreciate the format) and he also uses Duolingo sometimes for a fun supplement.

 

As a sidenote, if you decide to use Visual Link, consider buying the download version rather than relying on the web version.  We have pretty decent DSL service but experienced lots of issues with lag time and slowness with the web version.  I've seen others mention the same problem too.  The downloads go on sale fairly regularly and if you're subscribed to their emails you'll get the sale notices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...