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I've read here in the past that some have enjoyed Visual Link Spanish. More of an interactive way to learn spanish on the computer. They run sales quite often, sometimes even 50% off.

 

They also have free trials you can download and see if you like that format. I purchased level 1 for my ds for next fall. We haven't used it yet, but have enjoyed the free trial quite a bit. :)

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Breaking the Barrier - I like my kids to have the books to write in, but they do have an iBook for $15 that would let you see if you liked the program. 

 

We've been using BtB Spanish for about a month now. I would not be able to hand this to my son and have him work independently (though some kids might - my oldest would have been fine). There are no daily lessons, not quite enough review, and they use words in exercises that are not on the vocabulary lists. Honestly, I think that's great because he is almost always able to figure out the meaning because it is similar to a word in English, or from the context, but he tends to work things out better when he has someone to work with. I wish that they had every exercise read aloud on the CDs so we can check our pronunciation more often. And they have no recommended method for review. I am having him make and use online flashcards and I set up a vocabulary notebook for myself. I guess that is obvious, but if I had just handed him the program, he probably would not have thought of it and would be even more overwhelmed with the amount of words he needs to memorize.

 

I do have a background in Spanish (my parents wanted us to speak perfect English so they only spoke Spanish to each other privately and made sure that our home was about 95% English speaking and that our relatives spoke English to us as well) so I know a lot of vocabulary and my accent is tolerable. If I knew no Spanish at all...I would have had him take French (which I took in school and did with my oldest) or totally outsourced it (like I did with German for my 2nd).

 

We are actually having a good time with it. He likes figuring things out, so long as it is not too far above his abilities and he knows that doing the minimum is not going to get him more time on Minecraft!. BtB seems to be just right for us. I did spend the extra $ and bought the TM - much easier to use than the answer key for my middle-aged eyes!

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Dual enrollment at the local community college was a super option here:

 

- actually learned to read/write/speak the language

- good instructor who taught verbal pronunciation, written grammar and language structure

- regular live conversation/practice in class

- learned/practiced classroom, and study/time management skills

- opportunity to "dip a toe" in the water of college classes to practice

- counted as both high school AND college credit

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Dd was able to audit foreign language classes at a local private university. The professors were happy to have her in class and graded all her work. 

 

Wow, you are super lucky! Few schools allow auditing without a fee anymore, even if the work isn't graded. 

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