Foreign Language Planning Gr 1-12; need input

[Ummto4]

Okay everybody !!

 

I need input for our homeschool foreign language planning.

 

My children's mother tongue is English since they live here in America. My husband's and my mother tongue is Indonesian. All my children understand colloquial Indonesian passively. We want our children to know Arabic too. At the moment my oldest (6 year old) knows how to read Arabic letters and I'm teaching him vocab (while I'm learning as well).

 

In my household, we've decided to prioritize Arabic (passive and active) and colloquial Indonesian as foreign language. However, I would like to expose my children to other widely-spoken languages.

 

Please give me suggestion on time line I could use for other languages. Here are the languages we've been thinking of exposing our children to:

1. Spanish (Latino Spanish, preferably).

2. French. My husband is very fluent in French, having lived in French for 6 years and got his undergrad + master there.

3. Latin. We're on the fence on this since I'm afraid of overload.

 

My tentative schedule is this:

- Indonesian: get my ds to speak by third grade. Included in this plan is a prolonged trips to Indonesia (4-5 months) to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Many Indonesian friends go to Indonesia on summer for approx 2-3 months, and by the time they got back to the US, their children are fluent in Indonesian. By fourth grade, I'd like to teach him to read Indonesian (not difficult. It's like reading Latin and very very phonetic. English is more difficult, IMHO). I really want him to be able to read Indonesian books, so that we can cover Indonesian history on junior high. It's difficult to find Indonesian history book written for children in English.

- Arabic: At least grade 1-8 and would like to get him to the equivalent of 3 or 4 year of Arabic (college level, I suppose).

- French: may be starting with First Start French on fourth or fifth grade, and would like to get him to the level of French II by 8th grade. He's interested in French also and often asks my hubby the French words for many things (toys, baby, etc). My hubby also has a collection of French comics (silly, I know) and French children book which he bought when he first went to France to study. I knew some French because I learned it for two years at college.

- Spanish: When ?? High school ? 8th grade ? He's interested in this too because of the exposure to Spanish on TV and DVD.

-Latin: not sure yet how to fit Latin in our study.

 

Any input ?

Thanks

[Laura Corin]

I think by staggering the starting dates you can fit in a lot. I also think that you are wise to be thinking about living languages first, then Latin (possibly) later. FWIW, this is Hobbes' projected timetable, as he is likely to study at least one more language than Calvin (by his own choice):

 

Age 4 onwards, by immersion plus classes: Mandarin

Age 7 onwards (his choice): Ancient Greek (old text from Galore Park; we are waiting for Greek Prep, due to be published by GP next year)

Age 8 onwards: French (studying with his older brother, using So You Really Want to Learn French - Prep - from Galore Park)

Age 9 or 10 onwards: Latin (Latin Prep, Galore Park)

 

I don't intend for him to drop the two modern languages until he is at least sixteen, but if he wants to drop Latin and Greek after a few years, that's fine. We expect him to go to school from age 16 to 18, when he will also have the option of studying Spanish. But he keeps saying he wants to study Arabic......

 

Laura

[magistramom]

I don't have a specific answer. The vision you have is amazing!

 

While I do believe the best way to learn is through immersion, during the times you do not travel, could you pick up books in the languages you will be immersing in each year, and use those for their basic education?

[Ummto4]

Well, I schedule Indonesian, Arabic and French on primary grades because either I or my husband knows some of those. So it makes sense we prioritize those.

 

Also, some of the resources we would like to use for later grades are difficult to find in English, but are abundant in Indonesian or other languages, especially Eastern culture. I grew up in Indonesia, and I am actually an Indonesian native. When I was at school, I was not exposed to a lot of Roman-Greco and Western culture. But I know a lot of Eastern culture and enjoy reading the story of those, notably middle eastern stories, Indian epics (Mahabharata and Ramayana) and Indonesian stories. I would like my dc to be able to enjoy those as well. Indonesia is kind of unique because we have strong influences from China, India and Arab. So it's natural that I want my dc to know those things, in addition to the Roman-Greco culture.

 

Plus, each language is unique.

E.g.

Indonesian = a very simple language. No male, female, tenses and plural. Very easy to read as well.

English = slightly more difficult. No male/female, but it has tenses, plural and noun-verb agreement.

Spanish and French = more difficult with male/female and all those rules.

Arabic = mind stretching. Different alphabet. Full of rules. Sometimes, the end (inflection ?) changes, sometimes the whole word changes from singular - plural.

 

I don't know which one is more difficult: latin, or arabic. But Arabic is sooo mind streching. I guess Chinese is difficult too. It's funny, my late grandma learned Chinese when she was 60 (that was years ago). She never spoke it, but she enjoyed the exercise for her brain I guess. She liked languages, though. She knew Indonesian, Dutch, English, some Chinese and some French. She was educated by Dutch colonialist.

 

Anyway, any more input ? I would appreciate more input, as I need to know how y'all space out the foreign language instruction, and when to start one or stop the other.

 

Thanks

[Ummto4]

One more thought ....

 

If you study two languages at once, how do you achieve it ? By the way, my nephew in Indonesia learns AArabic and English at the same time. His mom (my sister) said that he's doing okay. He's now at third grade and can read and understand both fine and can also write from dictation. Those two languages are different enough so they don't get mixed up. I still feel I'll be overwhelmed if I decided to start two languages from scratch at the same time.

 

I would appreciate if y'all can share your foreign language plan, especially for veteran who BTDT.

[sagira]

I would like to do the same. I am originally from Aruba, and Papiamento is my native language. Dutch is the official language in Aruba, and it's taught in schools -- including math. Spanish is taught starting in 5th grade, and English starting in 6th grade. In 8th French is started, and everyone takes it until 10th, when you can drop it together with all other foreign languages (except Dutch which the main language of course).

 

I kept all and graduated high school with Dutch, English, Spanish and French. I really like languages. In college I took Portuguese and aced it. I also took Advanced Spanish for Native Speakers.

 

A little background: I've spoken Papiamento to ds since birth. I continue speaking it to him, reading it to him. I teach him math concepts in English, as I remember how hard it was to adjust to math being in English when even in Dutch math was hard for me! :001_huh:

 

I want ds and dd to possess a solid command of the English language as well as be conversant and fluent in speech, reading and writing in Spanish and at least one other language (depends on their interests and abilities). I will be teaching Latin for 3 years or so to help them with English vocabulary, etc.

 

Now here's my plan for ds (and dd when she's older :001_smile:):

 

Birth-K:

 

Exposure to Spanish through videos, songs, Mama chatting with neighbors and store clerks and a friend

 

Exposure to Papiamento by simply being at home with me all day hearing it from me and books that we read (albeit not very often, as most of the books were for a long time a bit advanced for his age)

 

K-1

 

Continue Papiamento everywhere but in most school subjects. I find it easier to speak in English when all the material is in English. I see words in my head in English :tongue_smilie: I do explain a concept again in Papiamento if he doesn't get it the first time. Will be reading books in Papiamento.

 

Keep up Spanish language and culture exposure and KidSpeak Spanish, a computer language immersion program where ds learns while playing. He enjoys computer games and I can reinforce what he learns.

 

2-4

 

Reading in Papiamento, books, writing to Grandmother in Aruba, visit to Aruba

 

The Easy Spanish (in three years)

 

5-7

 

Reading books independently in Papiamento, writing stories, Pen Pal in Aruba, conversant with me, visit to Aruba

 

Spanish for Children (also three years)

 

Latin's Not So Tough!

 

From 8th-10th

 

Keep up Papiamento, including reading the newspaper, books, Pen Pal, visit to Aruba

 

Either Galore Park So You Really Want to Learn Spanish at least Level 2 onward, or Nuevas Vistas AP Spanish. Depends on abilities, of course.

 

Latin's Not So Tough!

 

11th

 

Keep speaking, writing, reading books, being exposed to Papiamento, visit to Aruba

 

Spanish Literature (from Spain ;))

 

12th

 

Spanish: South American Literature

 

I love planning too :D

Edited October 4, 2008 by sagira

[sagira]

Oh, and if ds and dd want to learn another language in 11th, they can do so, a language of their choice. If it's French, I would be using either Rosetta Stone or Tell Me More French.

[Laura Corin]

One more thought ....

 

If you study two languages at once, how do you achieve it ? By the way, my nephew in Indonesia learns AArabic and English at the same time. His mom (my sister) said that he's doing okay. He's now at third grade and can read and understand both fine and can also write from dictation. Those two languages are different enough so they don't get mixed up. I still feel I'll be overwhelmed if I decided to start two languages from scratch at the same time.

 

I would appreciate if y'all can share your foreign language plan, especially for veteran who BTDT.

 

Greek/Latin and Mandarin are very different, so I can't see getting confused. I think you are right that it is better to start one language, then move on to another at least a year later.

 

Our normal schedule is for Hobbes and I to do Greek slowly, just two half-hour sessions a week. Mandarin is more intensive: he has a two-hour class on Saturdays, and does about fifteen minutes of homework each day of the week.

 

When we start French in January, I hope to do half an hour a day.

 

Laura

[Kate in Arabia]

We are doing Arabic and English at the same time. English is their first language/main language at home, but there is strong Arabic exposure; obviously, now, because we are living in an Arabic-speaking country, but also because we're Muslim there is a lot of tie-in with our day-to-day religious activities.

 

Dh's first language is actually Urdu. The kids can understand some, common vocab, words they pick up from listening to dh talk to his family, or when we go to visit. They pick up words very quickly, and don't have the shyness others (like myself :( ) might in trying to use whatever they know.

 

We'll see as they get older how we add in more languages. I have already bought several Latin curricula (that we're not using :blushing: ), but really I don't feel comfortable starting it until they are more fluent in Arabic, which is a priority for us.

 

However, I will say that I think there should be as much language exposure as possible, even if you are not actively teaching the language as a subject. Even though my oldest ds could only speak a handful of Urdu words when he was younger, simply by hearing it spoken around him he was able to distinguish some of the different sounds that we just don't have in English. For example, there are, like, six different letters in Urdu that to me all sound like /t/. Even though ds couldn't speak any Urdu, he could hear the difference between all those letters; it's something I still have a problem with, I envy my ds' ability here.

[yoda]

I personally don't think it is confusion so much as just plain old time, there are never enough hours in the day for every thing you want to do.

 

I was raised bilingual dutch/french and languages are very important to me as well. I am fluent in several other languages which I would love to teach to my kids. I really wanted to raise my kids fluent not only in English, living in Alaska, but also fluent in Dutch and French. However I soon felt I had to concentrate my efforts and decided that Dutch was my first priority after English.

 

I felt it was really important to get at least 2 completely fluent before adding a third one, or fourth one etc. So I taught my kids to read first in Dutch before English and then when they were both able to do that last year when dd was in 2nd grade and ds in K we started on French. They are definitely not fluent in French, neither of them can read it, or really speak it, but we are working away at it and hopefully they will become fluent eventually. I would love to spend more time on French and add Latin and other languages, but we already spend 1.5 hours a day on different Language Arts and there just is a limit to how much time we can devote to LAs. If you are already bilingual, I would really recommend focussing your efforts on a couple of things at a time, and only when that is going good, at whatever age that happens to be, adding something else.

 

Anyway just my 2 cents

 

Marie-Louise

[alpidarkomama]

Here's our plan:

 

PreK/K: learn Hebrew alphabet; oral Hebrew "immersion style"

K: learn to print letters of alef bet (Hebrew alphabet); start reading at the end of K

1: improve Hebrew reading and oral skills

2: learn Hebrew script

5: add modern language (most likely Spanish)

7: begin study of Aramaic

9: possible addition of second modern language or just focusing on biblical Hebrew, modern Hebrew, Aramaic, and Spanish (or whatever they choose)

 

Too fun!!