Spanish or Latin for littles

[NatashaBrady]

I was planning (aka already bought) to use Song School Latin with my first grader. However, today she specifically asked me to teach her Spanish. What would you do? Why? I think may as well go with Spanish if she's asking to learn it. She did not know I planned on Latin.

[Slache]

I'm planning to do Spanish from birth to 5th and then Latin Alive!

 

Check out Salsa for starters and Duolingo for you.

[Jackie]

I went with Spanish because I could find many more resources for teaching it and more opportunities to practice it.

[desertflower]

Since she's asking for Spanish, I would do Spanish.  If you have the time, why not both?  I'm doing both.  :)  SSS and SSL

[Miss Tick]

We started with Spanish because I know a bit, but mostly because I found a LOT more kid-friendly resources. Our library has board books and some kid-oriented learn Spanish videos, in addition to Salsa there is Muzzy and lots of kids shows on the internet. There are a lot of websites with worksheets, first Spanish dictionaries, and translated familiar stories. There aren't any formal, grammar-based Spanish progressions that start young and continue to proficiency, but you can put together a variety of resources so that you have something interesting to do everyday and build a really solid vocabulary base, without spending much at all.

[Laura Corin]

It's good to start a living language when children are small, receptive to language, and not yet so embarrassed about making mistakes speaking a foreign language.  If you start Latin at age 10, there's plenty of time to be reading Classical texts by the middle of high school.

[Roseto27]

I agree that you could I both at this age. Be sure to separate them (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and have a distinct visual cue for each that you put up during each session. We live in Texas, and we've done both with success. The focus has been on Latin, but they have a good base understanding of Spanish and quite a bit of exposure to the native sound differences (which is what is important to get into them young ;) ).

 

SongSchool Latin is very light and child friendly. I haven't personally used SongSchool Spanish, but would assume that it would be similar. If you use both, you could have a copy of the books' covers laminated at half size to serve as the visual cue. They're different colors with different animals so that would be enough distinction to separate the two.

[TheAttachedMama]

Charlotte Mason, who advocated teaching many languages to children, often started with a living language when the kids were younger.   Latin is more of a written language, so she started it around 3rd or 4th grade once the child was reading fluently and had the foundation to fully grasp the grammar.   Charlotte started with French probably because of the closer proximity to England and ample opportunity to practice.  She started when the kids were very little and got them used to hearing and speaking the living language (French in her case) using songs, "finger rhymes", etc. when the children were very little.   Eventually, writing and reading were introduced.   (Similar to how kids learn their 'mother tongue'.)   

 

Soooooooooooooo--------That is a long winded way of suggesting that you start with Spanish first....and work on speaking and listening skills at this age.  hahaha

[stine]

Since she's asking for Spanish, I would do Spanish.  If you have the time, why not both?  I'm doing both.  :)  SSS and SSL

Can I ask how you do both SSL and SSS? I am considering doing the same for 1st and would love to know how you schedule the two.