Runningmom80 Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 DS wants to start Spanish. I have no idea where to begin! I'm not opposed to getting a tutor, but I'd like to try to DIY if possible at least for the first year. I took a ton of French in HS and college, but do not speak Spanish. My husband does but he's not available to teach on a consistent basis. I'm sure I could get DS through beginning Spanish, but we'll prob go through it quickly. Any tips or recommendations? *i had hernia surgery this morning, so I'm feeling a bit Studio 54 if you know what I mean. My apologies if I stop making sense. 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 How old is he? What grade level is he? Does he have the maturity to not let dry get in the way of learning something that he wants to learn? The materials that we use are a mishmash but it can be summed up as: use and master the basic vocab that is often featured in childrens books and move on to highly effective/useful adult learning materials. Be very consistent and work very hard at Spanish for a couple of years, speak at every opportunity. We've been actively on Spanish for about 2 years now and my kids can speak and understand as well as some people who have graduated with a Spanish major. But they can't pass for natives. They wont even be mistaken for a native at this point. We did Spanish vocabulary from toddlerhood and learned many nouns, then we learned some very basic grammar from simple Childrens readers and childrens books. Then we took our time working on Adult learning materials--Learning Spanish Like Crazy and Madrigals Magic Key to Spanish. Its been slow going. We watch Spanish cartoons on YouTube and watch movies on DVD in the Spanish language as much as we can. Some popular kids movies they have not even seen in English, but they've discussed them in English with other kids and been able to talk about favorite parts and laugh at jokes etc. Weve dabbled in an out of a college level Spanish textbook. They are weak writers and their grammar isn't any where close to perfect. This coming school year, our "Spanish studies" are going to comprise of going through a 1st and 2nd grade curriculum from Mexico--they'll be doing Spanish reading, (Mexican) history, art, science and social studies in Spanish using a Spanish language curriculum meant for Mexican children. We're going to be doing highschool level mathematics in Spanish also using a textbook written in Spanish, by a Spanish fellow and watching supplemental math videos in Spanish from YouTube. We are reading through a bunch of 1st-5th grade Spanish readers that I got through a teacher friend of mine. I hope to get through Mexicos 1st grade in 1 semester and Mexicos 2nd grade in 1 semester, but we'll see. In the 2nd semester I hope that the boys will begin doing a weekly presentation in Spanish. They still won't have had a lot of formal grammar. I'm thinking well tackle formal grammar next summer, before we start the Mexican 3rd Grade curriculum. I hope that they'll also be able to accelerate through grades 3 and 4 of the Mexican curriculum, but I don't expect that they'll get done in only one semester. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 Oops! Sorry, 8.5, asynchronous, but I'd say we need something middle school level, language is his strongest subject. Thank you for that post! I love the idea of using the Mexican curriculum, that's great. Perhaps we can start with children's books in Spanish once he learns som vocab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 Getting Started With Spanish: http://www.gettingstartedwithspanish.com/index.php 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 My daughter is doing DuoLingo. She preferred to do Spanish independently, DuoLingo is what I use for myself, it's a good introduction before more formalized study. As a bonus, it is free. While DuoLingo is aimed at adults, my daughter is 5yo, highly asynchronous, and doing fine with it - though certainly going through much more slowly than I do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrafirma Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I second Duolingo as a resource. I don't think I'd recommend it as the sole resource -- as you move further down the tree, new and more complicated grammar is introduced without much explanation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaConquest Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I'd probably do GSWS then Galore Park. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 Thanks for the suggestions! I was just looking atGalore Park, I like the idea of GSWS first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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