Need help choosing a language-what's best for 1st Grade?

[happyWImom]

I really wanted to have my kids learn languages early, and have gotten sidetracked.:001_huh: Originally, I thought spanish, but I see a lot of you do french. Also, what about latin, what about greek??? I would love to learn along with them, but want them to get whatever will help them the most.

 

What's the best curriculum for your pic? My dd is 6. She is learning to read, but isn't doing much past short/med words yet.

 

Thanks!

[Michelle in MO]

spoken exposure to a language, I'm sure there are many programs out there, like Muzzy and probably some better programs.

 

However, if you're interested in Latin, I'd recommended holding off until your dc is reading well, generally around 3rd grade. Then, I would start them off on a program like Prima Latina which leads into Latina Christiana I and II, then Henle (in the logic/rhetoric stage years), or Latin for Children or Lingua Latina. I'm sure there are others, too.

 

At any rate, in those early years I would focus on their English reading skills, learning to write well (i.e., holding a pencil/pen well, good penmanship, knowing how to form sentences, etc.), simple spelling, etc. The learning curve is so great at that age that, although they can definitely learn languages inductively at that age very well and very easily, actually studying the language at that age could slow down other key skills, IMO. In other words, you want them to be comfortable with the mechanics of their native language before starting really studying another language.

 

If your dc is reading well by 3rd grade, or perhaps even by the end of 2nd grade, then I would start one of these programs. Latin is easier than Greek because of the alphabet, plus I believe Greek has a few more verb tenses/moods and even more noun cases than Latin does.

 

In a sense, I guess it depends upon your goal. If your goal is for early exposure and for the child to become familiar with spoken phrases, then there are plenty of languages CD's for children that you can purchase. If your goal is for study, then I would hold off until their reading skills have solidified.

[fshinkevich]

My first suggestion would be Spanish with French as a close second.

 

I tried to do Japanese, because DH's family is Japanese (DH only knows a few words though, is not fluent) and could help him practice. However, it didn't work out that way, I am terrible with learning new languages myself and was having a hard time, and there are not a lot of resources for the Japanese language.

 

So we made a switch this year to Spanish. DH took Spanish is HS and college, so he can help out a bit, it's a little easier to speak than Japanese so hopefully I can learn as well, and there are a TON of resources for Spanish. I can find any book, movie or language program in Spanish, there are classes and tutors all over the place for Spanish, and he could easily get a lot of use out of it. French comes in a close second, I think.

 

So we plan to do Spanish a few years, and then maybe we will try Japanese again, or move onto Latin.