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Outsourcing High School Foreign Language for Credit


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After homeschooling my now 14yo all but 1 year of school, we decided to enroll him in a classical high school this year. Unfortunately, I did not keep up with the Latin and he cannot catch up to the freshmen who are in Latin 3. I have the option of enrolling him in an outside foreign language course as long as we can track progress, grades, etc. and they will help me include it in his transcript to get a foreign language credit. He is restricted to taking it at the same time that he would normally be in the Latin class. I've begun looking into Rosetta Stone Homeschool (we are going to do Spanish) which some other kids have done. I just want to find out what else is out there that has a good reputation and will be relatively easy to track for credit.

 

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I'd look at TTUISD or one of the other colleges that offer high school distance learning classes. TTUISD is primarily used (and was originally developed for) small high schools that don't have enough students to offer X class, so they're set up for exactly your son's section.  I believe BYU has a similar program.

 

 

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I wouldn't do Rosetta Stone.  It's more of a (very expensive) supplement.

 

How about Homeschool Spanish Academy or Spanish 121?  They offer live Skype classes and will probably be able to do something at a time you specify (since the classes are 1:1).  They are also fairly reasonably priced.  You'd just need him to have an internet connection, but that would be true of any online class.

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Unfortunately, OSU has discontinued the online Spanish course, but, I am still looking at the other options listed above. I agree about Rosetta Stone. In fact my son had taken the regular Rosetta Stone Spanish (2 or 3 levels) a couple of years back and I'm not sure how much he retained. I definitely want something high quality.

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He is in school and will be allowed to take a course during what is normally the Latin class time (and only about 50" long). I am hoping to find an online course that he can take.

 

I would find a course that meets your needs and then have him work on the class *homework* during the school's Latin class time. Surely the school would accommodate that. Limiting to classes that meet at 10:10am (or whatever) is going to be very restrictive.

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Unfortunately, OSU has discontinued the online Spanish course, but, I am still looking at the other options listed above. I agree about Rosetta Stone. In fact my son had taken the regular Rosetta Stone Spanish (2 or 3 levels) a couple of years back and I'm not sure how much he retained. I definitely want something high quality.

Sorry missed that you specifically wanted Spanish.

Does your state have a state recognized virtual school?

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Cosmos, you're right. I think they would be open to doing that.

Julie, what is MFW ? Have you used La Clase Divertida? If so, how was it? Any feedback or comments would be appreciated.

Sebastian - I need to look into that too. We just moved and I am not yet familiar with what is offered here.

 

Lots to do this weekend! I want to choose something soon since the school year has already been going for a month.

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Julie, what is MFW ? Have you used La Clase Divertida? If so, how was it? Any feedback or comments would be appreciated.

MFW is My Father's World, their Rosetta guide here, if you click on the underlined portion you should get a sample page:  http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/100/0/0/1#plans

 

I used the elementary Divertida program and liked it.  It was well thought out, with the vowels first, and grammar in year 3.  However, none of my kids chose Spanish for high school.  I've heard several posts on this board about how well it went, though.  He uses a textbook but seems to have his same enthusiasm, knowledge, and good relation with the kids.  Try searching the board for "Gamache" - for instance, this post:  http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/512426-spanish-at-home-vs-in-a-class/?hl=%2Bgamache&do=findComment&comment=5698293

 

HTH,

Julie

 

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My son is in Sr. Gamache's Spanish 3 (after taking 1 and 2 with him as well),  He's doing very well and enjoying the class more than he admits (since he didn't want a foreign language at all).  I don't think a class goes by where he's not laughing and smiling about something.  He also recently had a multi day e-mail conversation going with one of his classmates conversing in Spanish for fun.  All that said, he knows far more spanish than I did after 3 years of high school spanish and a semester of college spanish.  I do plan to have all my kids take this class assuming Sr. Gamache is still teaching that long (I have a 1 year old so that's a long time away yet)

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We outsourced for foreign language.  Even during periods when some of my kids were taking other courses at the high school, they still mostly used other outsourcing programs because our local high school is very small and doesn't offer much.  The high school would allow our kids to go to a computer room in the library during a class session and do their foreign language work there.  We did it through a state virtual high school.  (In our state it's called IQ Academy, and I know they are in different states as well.  Actually, they may have changed their name.)  My kids were able to do that for free.  I was really impressed with what they could accomplish in an online foreign language class.  IQ offered Spanish, French, and German at the time.

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Our eldest studied his high school language requirement with a bilingual teacher whom we paid monthly. They used a college level Russian textbook because there really were no suitable high school level materials. From the textbook author I obtained access to the corresponding online audio and video files.

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