Feedback on these Spanish options

[Faithful_Steward]

DD 5th is highly motivated and skipping Latin, so we have at least an hour a day to devote to Spanish study.

 

We will be reading familiar picture books and memorizing Bible passages in Spanish. I would appreciate your feedback on the following options:

 

(top picks)

Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and Francois

Getting Started with Spanish

Rosetta Stone

Elementary Spanish on Discovery Streaming (I remember Jennefer at SSA used this and she was a former ps Spanish teacher)

 

Pimsleur

Berlitz

Speedy Spanish

BJU Pasaporte (expensive and likely difficult to use?)

Spanish for Children (bad reviews)

La Clase Divertida (looks cutesy and fun...not sure that is what we need)

 

I'm not fluent but I can help and learn with her. I had 4 years of Spanish in hs and 3 semesters in college. I quit when the conversational aspect became too difficult for me. I plan to get her a tutor at some point but I'd like to go as far as we can at home first.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[zenjenn]

A couple added Spanish resources:

 

Duolingo - (Free iDevice app)

Mi Vida Loca - BBC immersive television show designed for people learning Spanish

 

I have an 8 yr old studying Spanish out of personal interest, and this is ALL she's using, and I feel like she's getting good exposure and is learning quite a bit. Sounds like you are gearing up for a more serious study than she's tackling, but these items might be nice supplements for you.

[Erica in OR]

I'd say not La Clase Divertida. We did all three levels and enjoyed them, but it's more for language exposure and culture/craft activities. The amounts of grammar and vocab is not huge for the time you put into it. It's more learning vocab and present tense than working on listening and conversational skills.

 

Erica in OR

[Faithful_Steward]

ZenJenn: Thanks! I forgot about Duolingo. I'll have to take a look at that again. Would you say it is more similar to Elementary Spanish or Rosetta Stone?

 

Erica: That's what I thought. I'll cross that one off the list. Thanks for saving me some money :)

[zenjenn]

I only did a trial of Rosetta Stone, and didn't really want to shell out the money for it. I'm not familiar with Elementary Spanish.

 

Duolingo seems VERY similar to Rosetta Stone, with the advantage of being usable on the ipad and being FREE. My daughter will often do a Spanish lesson or two in the car or at bedtime just for fun.

 

I've actually been using it too some.. she enjoys 'competing' with me each week (she always wins!).

[73349]

I'm going to use La Clase Divertida 1 for first grade, and it looks (I bought & opened it) like that's about the right level. I would not use it with a serious student past mid-elementary.

 

I am using Pimsleur for myself and it's good for conversation. You'd have to do the written part for her yourself, but I think it would be a good choice.

[EndOfOrdinary]

Rosetta Stone is great for later because it works on accent and pronunciation. When younger the retention is slim to none. The program works on a listen, repeat process so it is completely passive with no grammatical instruction. My son did three years, and has been learning Latin. He can pronounce Spanish with an almost native accent and flow (according to two separate native speaking instructors) but cannot freely speak or have any semblance of a conversation. His vocabulary was also minimal unless given multiple choice like Rosetta. It is not with the money by any means.

 

I have been encouraged to go back and use it when we have done an in depth grammar study of a couple years as a practice platform and to keep his speech going.

 

We switched over to vocabulary focus, Spanish children's books from the library, and work texts.

 

I am very interested to hear what others have to say. We have gone through many curriculums and are having trouble finding one that works well. I have heard good things about Galore Park.

[Dolphin]

Tell me more is similar to Rosetta Stone at a fraction of the cost. We are looking at that one for when dd is a little older.

 

Here are some reviews on it.

[curlygirlzx2]

My 10 yr. old dd recently started Duolingo and loves it. 

[zenjenn]

Rosetta Stone is great for later because it works on accent and pronunciation. When younger the retention is slim to none. The program works on a listen, repeat process so it is completely passive with no grammatical instruction.

 

With Duolingo there is embedded grammar instruction but it's not overt.

 

I can say my eight-yr-old figured out concepts like verb conjugation, implied pronouns, and feminine and masculine words without having to be specifically told those things by the app. She learned them through context (which is how it's designed, I think.) She was able to explain these concepts in her own words to me, which I found extremely interesting. 

 

I don't know if it still works for complex grammar, but for beginner level, it seems to work for her.

[...................]

My son finished half of gsws and is now flying through Duolingo! He will use Galore Park or a local co-op next year.

 

Rosetta Stone only works if you use it as a very long term commitment and actually study the book and workbook on the side which nobody does. My dd did ok with it but I don't think it's worth the cost, now that Duolingo is on the scene!

 

My dd is starting gsws today and I'm helping her do the Spanish spelling in Duolingo.

 

I don't know why Spanish for Children gets bad reviews, but it looked very very thorough to me. I was overwhelmed by the time commitment but if you have a full hour it seems like the best option IMO.

 

However if you can't get past the bad reviews then go with GSWS. It's great.

[Renaissance Mom]

I'm curious what bad reviews you have seen for Spanish for Children. While every program has its pluses and minuses, I've been very impressed with SFC. We are currently halfway through SFC B and my younger two have learned an enormous amount of vocabulary plus a solid foundation in grammar ... As a matter of fact, I think the amount of grammar and vocabulary in SFC A&B exceeds most high school Spanish 1 courses. Yes, it isn't cutesy like other junior programs. But the teacher on the DVDs is fun and very thorough. The biggest drawback I see is that there isn't a lot of guided conversation built into the program to routinely apply what you learn. However, I just chat away with them for a couple of minutes at the beginning of each lesson. That really annoys them, but gets them to use it. ;) they also go on Headventureland.com daily for fun vocabulary drills, grammar chart practice, reading spliced books, watching spliced videos. They particularly love the TinBot stories. We spend about a half hour daily five days a week, and can finish a level in a year.

 

My greatest challenge now is what to do after we finish SFC B this year. They will only be in 5th and 6th grades so not yet ready for high school curricula. There is no SFC C. They have learned far more vocabulary bad grammar than most elementary programs, so it's hard to plug in somewhere. Sigh. As a matter of fact, that's why I logged onto the forum today -- to ask for suggestions for what to do next.

[RootAnn]

I'd definitely start with Getting Started With Spanish. There are free audio files that go with many of the lessons. You can find them on the website.

About halfway through or so, go ahead & let your kid loose on Duolingo. It will add vocab and he'll already have much of the grammar basics that Duolingo tries to give you through the flow. 

 

After that, if you want to try Spanish for Children, go for it.  :crying: We were definitely one of the negative reviews. (Too much, too quickly, not enough practice. Throwing all those tenses at us for each verb and throwing all those stem-changing verbs at us at once - Yikes! We got lost about halfway through SfC A.)

 

Your biggest issue will be what to do AFTER GSWS. At an hour a day, you'll blow through it quickly.

[RootAnn]

*bump*

[Chrysalis Academy]

Another option to add to the mix: Allinonehomeschool's Easy Peasy Spanish, which is free.  My dd11 is using this independently, and we're doing GSWS together.  It's a nice (and dirt cheap!) combo to start with.

[maize]

Another option to add to the mix: Allinonehomeschool's Easy Peasy Spanish, which is free. My dd11 is using this independently, and we're doing GSWS together. It's a nice (and dirt cheap!) combo to start with.

Do you have a link?

[MEmama]

We tried Rosetta Stone off and on over several years but just couldn't get into it. Somehow it seemed really cumbersome. DS recently started Duolingo (which I found about here on this board) and he *loves* it. Not sure how it will work long term, but for now he's newly re-motivated to learn Spanish so it's a win to me! :). He can't bear to make the owl sad (those reminder emails are pure genius), so he's been working on it every day.

[RootAnn]

Do you have a link?

 

Here is the program Rose is referring to, I think. 

And here is the generic link to the homepage for Easy Peasy's All-in-one-homeschool. There is a sister site called All-in-one-High School.

[maize]

Here is the program Rose is referring to, I think.

And here is the generic link to the homepage for Easy Peasy's All-in-one-homeschool. There is a sister site called All-in-one-High School.

Thanks!