bethben Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 I'm starting to think about high school and requirements for college. I'm not sure any of my children will attend college, but I would like to make that an option and will do a college prep for high school. That being said, foreign language is something I cannot teach at all. Everyone has their weak skills and that is mine. How can I have my children satisfy the foreign language requirement? Would Latin be an option? It's either that or Spanish. I'm open to on-line classes. Let's just assume for the sake of argument that there are no community college options available. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 I grew up with three languages. I grew up speaking and reading both Spanish and English, and I took formal German classes from 7th grade through a minor in German in college. I also had a summer job where I gave tours in German. We tried Spanish early on, but because my Spanish wasn't learned by formal methods, I had huge gaps and found that many constructions I had picked up were incorrect according the materials we used. That said, we did three years of Spanish in grade school. I wasn't good at it though IMHO. And wouldn't you know it, my kids wanted to do Latin. So we tried, but I had to outsource past the first year of high school Latin. I even taught the second year of Latin for several years through a local group because I was the only one with any background in the actual language (i.e. not roots), and frankly I wasn't good at it. The only reason I did OK was that I was slightly better than my students there, but my oldest read my lesson plans each week and helped me with grading. So when my second one hit high school with two years of middle school Latin from me, I decided to completely retire as a Latin teacher to my own kids and other people's kids. Unfortunately neither of mine are interested in German, so that was out too. My conclusion? If you want to get anywhere in a language, hire a professional. I did OK, but at a certain point I couldn't go on. For the majority of us, teaching languages ourselves doesn't work well in the long run. My oldest will take the Latin AP this year, and then do online Spanish through the community college. The next one is taking high school Latin 1 online. And I'm so happy I'm no longer teaching languages! Bottom line, I'm a believer in online languages. It has worked very well for us. Even with a strong background in languages, I couldn't do it all. YMMV... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa B Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 My eldest is meeting that requirement with Latin and my second with American Sign Language. The Latin through FLVS isn't bad (but we only use it as a filler during semesters my dd isn't dual enrolled.) My third will do high school Latin through Lukeion instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 My daughters have used Rosetta Stone and A Beka. They are completely different in their approach to teaching, but both are excellent, computer based programs that can be used independently by the student. My oldest is finishing her third year of Rosetta Stone Spanish through an online charter school. My second oldest used Rosetta Stone for one year and felt like she wasn't learning anything. We switched to A Beka's video based instruction and plan to continue with it next year. Hope this helps a bit. Best wishes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 There are tons of online classes available. For Spanish, a relatively low price option is Oklahoma State's online high school classes. They go all the way up to AP Language level and cost just under $400 a year. Landry Academy offers something like 10 languages. They're very inexpensive if you buy their Christmas or back-to-school specials (about $150 a semester). MP offers self-paced Latin classes for $50 a semester. Good luck! ETA: If almost free is all you can swing, look into Destinos videos at learner.org. You can pick up the textbook and workbooks very cheap on amazon.com and the audio is also on line if you google it. It's better if you speak Spanish, but you might be able to scrape up enough for 2 credits of high school Spanish even without a fluent speaker. The program itself teaches all the grammar through the subjunctive (which I learned in Spanish 4). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 We're doing online Spanish through Spanish Clicks with Krista Croghan. www.spanish-clicks.com She offered a Spanish 1 class through the Virtual Homeschool Group this year for just the cost of materials, and we plan to continue with her next year for Spanish 2 through her regular classes. Her full price classes are $399 for the class with a live online classroom meeting once a week ($339 with early registration) or $299 for an asynchronous class ($254 with early registration) and includes online materials (you can buy a print copy of the text for an extra fee if you want that in addition to the online version). She uses Descubre, which is the same text used in our local high schools and by several other online providers. I don't believe she offers AP Spanish, but does do 4 levels of high school Spanish (I only see info for Spanish I on her website currently, but she is definitely offering at least Spanish 2 as well this fall). My daughter finds it challenging, but doable. We are very unlikely to go all the way to AP in this, so that's not an issue for us. Unfortunately, Oklahoma State's online high school program closed in 2011 http://cidl.ou.edu/ouhigh.cfm In the past we've tried different approaches for Spanish, but this seems the most successful. Duolingo is free and can work as a starting point, but I don't know if it is enough on it's own. TellMeMore is nice, with video-based instruction, seems to include grammar, has a way to check speech against recorded samples, but my daughter does better with an actual live teacher. She also responds better to a synchronous rather than asynchronous class. I'd like to find a local in person class, but one that is not religiously based probably won't be available until she can access dual enrollment as a junior. If you think a dvd-based program may work, check out www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org to see if you can get a discount on it. I would keep checking with the Virtual Homeschool Group, a free online co-op, www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com. The courses are all taught by volunteers, so the selection differs from year to year, but they've had Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. Some of the classes are religiously based, but not all. Also, check with your local public library to see what they offer. I know ours offers an online language program (I think it's Transparent Language). It may be enough to get you started then perhaps pursue a tutor or class as they advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Rosetta Stone doesn't have formal grammar instruction, which makes it unacceptable in the eyes of most colleges, or so I've heard. In my opinion Tell Me More is a much better program, includes grammar, and you don't need to know the language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Unfortunately, Oklahoma State's online high school program closed in 2011 http://cidl.ou.edu/ouhigh.cfm The link is to an announcement from University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma State University (OSU) still teaches Spanish (Spanish Online) and German (German Online) at the high school level. My sons are in level 2 German. It isn't as good as a daily in person course, but it is far better than Rosetta Stone. There are weekly phone conversations with a German speaker (in our experience either a native speaker or one of the college's German majors). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I second using online classes for Latin. I took Latin in high school and am able to support my students to a certain level. Once they hit the second half of Wheelock's, there was no way I could keep up. If they were going to put the time into studying Latin, I wanted them to have the most efficient and effective way to do that... and I wasn't it. LOL For "living languages," using a native tutor via Skype is another option out there. This probably works better if you have a fairly good grasp of the language and are able to work through most of the text and exercises with your student during the week. Then the tutor can review, drill, and extend the material when she meets with the student on Skype. My 8th grade boys are doing this now with an excellent, experienced French tutor, (thanks for the recommendation, Julie!) and it's working well. We opted to go with a tutor via Skype instead of an online class (which we used for French I) because 1) the boys end up having more speaking time and direct interaction with the tutor, 2) the tutor is a native of France, 3) we were able to choose the text and set the pace, and 4) our tutor is willing to correct the boys' work, which is esp. useful for things I'm not sure of. The tutor has been wonderful, and if we continue home schooling in 9th, the boys will continue to work with her via Skype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 The link is to an announcement from University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma State University (OSU) still teaches Spanish (Spanish Online) and German (German Online) at the high school level. My sons are in level 2 German. It isn't as good as a daily in person course, but it is far better than Rosetta Stone. There are weekly phone conversations with a German speaker (in our experience either a native speaker or one of the college's German majors). Thanks for the correction! Glad I was wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Rosetta Stone doesn't have formal grammar instruction, which makes it unacceptable in the eyes of most colleges, or so I've heard. In my opinion Tell Me More is a much better program, includes grammar, and you don't need to know the language. Yes, a local private school uses Rosetta Stone exclusively for their foreign languages, and some parents have been up in arms because the local 4-year schools are throwing out those credits when making admission decisions. Where a school requires foreign language credits, that's a problem. One school we're considering requires an SAT II foreign language test as validation of homeschool foreign language. And Rosetta Stone won't prepare you for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 We have a mixture of approaches. Dd has learned French with a combo of French in Action and Breaking the Barrier. For Russian, she hs a private tutor that teaches her via Skype. For Latin, we have been ok on our own via Latin 3. But we are going to have to find something for Latin 4. Check out signum universities coursepacks for Latin 1 and 2 using Wheelock's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 The link is to an announcement from University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma State University (OSU) still teaches Spanish (Spanish Online) and German (German Online) at the high school level. My sons are in level 2 German. It isn't as good as a daily in person course, but it is far better than Rosetta Stone. There are weekly phone conversations with a German speaker (in our experience either a native speaker or one of the college's German majors). Thank you so much for this. My ds is taking Spanish 2 at the local high school and is finding it to be pretty easy. He loves studying languages and this would give him the option to get a fifth year of Spanish in by taking Spanish 3 over the summer. A perfect answer for a problem we have been puzzling on for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I had a really nice chat with the rep for their k-12 online courses this morning. I discovered they also have an ap calculus course that I'm going to keep in my back pocket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavender Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 For Russian, she hs a private tutor that teaches her via Skype. Care to share the tutors contact info? Pretty please? My son was enrolled in Russian 2 for this fall at Landry, until they cancelled it bc they couldn't find a replacement teacher for it. Now I am scrambling trying to find other options. 😟 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie Q Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 We are using the Learnables series for high school German (they also have programs for Spanish, French, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Russian). We've tried Rosetta Stone and a private tutor. DS did not like Rosetta Stone at all and did not seem to learn much at all, either. The tutor was great but not something we could keep up for four years (we are doing a half-credit course each year, rather than cramming it all into two years). Learnables has been a pretty easy curriculum to fit in to our schedule, and it does not require that I know the language. DS has a fairly good grasp of conversational German at this point, and I expect him to obtain a better grasp of German grammar with college courses beginning next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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