Does anyone do spanish before latin? OR at the same time?

[bnwhitaker]

Could I get your experiences with this?

[dsbrack]

I'm curious too.  I'm contemplating Spanish first and then continuing Spanish as we start Latin.  Does anybody have experience with this?

[MommytoFour]

We are new to homeschooling (my kids are all PreK and K level) but we started Spanish this year. They do Little Pim plus have a Spanish tutor for 3 hours a week. We are going to start Latin gently next year with Song School Latin, and keep up with Spanish too. I'd love to hear from more experienced moms who have done two languages at the same time.

[Halcyon]

My boys have been doing latin for a few years and we started Spanish last year, although this is really the first year we're getting any headway in it. My siggie shows what we're using. It's been great so far this year--kids are learning Spanish FAST and I think that is partially due to their Latin exposure. 

[Miss Tick]

We've been studying Spanish for a few years and started GSWL this year. We do Spanish 5 days a week, and Latin 3 days a week. I plan to bump up our frequency of Latin, and, if necessary, ease up on Spanish, over the next year. We will move to Lively Latin next. For Spanish we use a mix of resources that I've put together.

[Chelli]

I started with Spanish first. My plan is to do Spanish for most of elementary: K-5, then study Latin for 6-8. At that point they can choose their high school foreign language of choice.

[JenniferLynn]

We were able to do Latin and French at the same time. We started French in kindergarten, then Song School Latin in 1st. My 2nd grader now does them in parallel and doesn't mix it up. I used to try to space the lessons out so they weren't the same day or back-to back but now we can do that and it is not a problem.

[ddcrook]

We used Latin for Children for a few months before adding Spanish for Children.  My dd9 doesn't confuse the two.  

[duckens]

Dd is 7yo and in First Grade.

 

Languages this year:

Chinese:

We take a parent-child class from the local Chinese School (which normally teaches Chinese to the children of local university students that are from China).  Our teacher is very good and very dedicated to us.  Today is the beginning of our second semester.

Spanish:

We watch Oh, Noah or Salsa videos for free online on the laptop at lunchtime.  After a month, I added FlipFlop Spanish, which covers a lot of the same vocabulary as Salsa (which any children's beginning curriculum would do).  The two (FlipFlop and Salsa) reinforce one another.  I also create games to support the FlipFlop curriculum.

French:

Dd7's K-1 Enrichment teacher is teaching the kids a few French phrases this spring.  (Last semester, she taught a couple of Spanish phrases).  I have purchased "Teach Me Everyday French" for in the car.

 

Latin:

Song School Latin is on the shelf.  We may get to it yet this spring. 

I hope this doesn't sound more impressive than it is.  We are just dabbling in a couple of languages.  Mostly, I hope my dd understands that there are other places in the world than just Iowa. 

I am also hoping with a smattering of English/French/Spanish as a triad, the importance of Latin and comprehension of word roots will be natural and easy to co-opt when we get to it.

ETA: fixing and awkward and unclear phrase

[crazyforlatin]

We did Spanish first when DD was a toddler, and began Latin a couple of years later. I had difficulty understanding Spanish grammar as an adult when I took courses at a local college (I'm just not very language-oriented or I learned it too late as an adult) but as soon as DD and I began Latin, it all made sense. Anyway, I've really increase our time with Spanish during the last year and knowing Latin has made it much easier to grasp Spanish grammar. We have two tutors who converse with DD, one locally and the other via Skype.

 

We use Practice Makes Perfect workbooks and other books like Breaking the Spanish Barrier.

[Steven]

Yes, we do both Spanish and Latin. We actually started with German when DD was 18 months, since both my wife and I speak German. She is quite fluent in German, and we have traveled there with her several times. 

 

At some point, Kindergarten or first grade, I had her start watching the Salsa videos but did no formal instruction. On an irregular basis I would speak a little Spanish with her. Last spring, at the end of third grade, she and I went to a language immersion school in Mexico for 3 weeks. Her accent is great, she has a small but reasonable vocabulary for the amount of instruction we have done, and good listening skills. Since early November have been working through Spanish for Children Primer A from Classical Academic Press, trying to figure out where the her gaps are (she seems to have mastered present tense and some past tense. I don't think she knows subjunctive). 

 

When she was in first grade I tried Song School Latin (which I did not like--it just seemed like random vocabulary) and Minimus (which was fun, but not comprehensive). Finally in second grade we tried I Speak Latin, which we loved. It treats Latin like a modern language and emphasizes speaking. When we finished I Speak Latin, we moved on to a more demanding book, Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars 1, Familia Romana. It emphasizes reading over translating skills, and meshes well with I Speak Latin. We are on chapter 8 now, so we are not moving super fast, but we make steady progress. 

 

One reason I took her to Mexico for Spanish was to help her general speaking skills with Spanish and Latin (we are using ecclesiastical pronunciation), and I was hoping that she would make a bit more progress on the Spanish verb system, which parallels the Latin verbs. Unfortunately, we did not stay in Mexico long enough to get beyond present tense and a little simple past tense. 

 

We have not had a problem with mixing. I am more likely to mix than she is, since I am learning Latin with her. 

 

I should also note that we are using KISS Grammar, which has worked great for us. She can confidently identify subjects, finite verbs, direct objects, indirect objects, etc. This helps with Latin, since both I Speak Latin and Lingua Latina teach more by example than grammatical explanation. 

 

 

[RootAnn]

DD#1 does both Spanish & Latin. Her Latin is much better than her Spanish, but I can't speak Spanish with her because I do so with a French accent.  :ohmy: (Spanish for Children was a flop in our house!)

 

I'm looking for an online option to help with the listening/speaking for next year. At some point, I'll try to hook her up with someone locally, but want her more conversational before then. (We are actually fairly good friends with the local high school Spanish teacher, but he's anti-homeschooling. I want her to have a decent base before I set her up for tutoring with him.)