Duolingo for a reading 5 year old?

[Slache]

Has anyone done this?

[MeaganS]

Tried it but it didn't work. Partly because there is a spelling and typing aspect. And do found it boring. I plan to try again later. But you could always give it a try since it is free. 😊

Edited October 4, 2016 by Meagan S

[kirstenhill]

It's been a year or more since we were using Duolingo a lot, so this may not reflect any updates/changes they've made to the program, but my DD who tried it (at age ten or so) struggled with the typing/spelling aspect. She was supposed to type/spell words correctly in German...and since learning English spelling was a huge struggle for her spelling words in another language was super hard for her. Not every lesson involved typing/spelling words, but she would get stuck on the ones that did.

[SilverMoon]

I would skip it for now. It's best around a solid upper 2nd or 3rd grade level and above.

[SarahW]

If you do it on the kindle/tablet I believe there is less typing.

 

If you do it together on tablet and keep it light and fun it could work. You can laugh together about some of the funny sentences that get thrown at you.

[wendyroo]

My 7 year old can't manage it.

 

It requires too much spelling and typing.  The tablet app has less typing...but still too much for him at this point.

 

Wendy

[Julie Smith]

I think Memrise is better for kids who aren't ready for Duolingo. 

 

Look for the language courses actually made by memrise. They include videos of real french/spanish/danish... people speaking the phrases.

 

The membus: http://membus.memrise.com/

Edited October 4, 2016 by Julie Smith

[fralala]

Only because my child saw me doing it and begged to do it. She went through a month-long Duolingo phase and then lost interest, and for once, I was glad of her tendency to do this. (With piano, not so much.) For this age group, I'd much rather them be watching a cartoon or stories or songs in the target language than using Duolingo, because of the whole immersion vs. translation thing.

[...................]

I would say 3rd grade and able to type and spell are probably the youngest i would try :)

[EmilyGF]

How about foreign language kid song CDs? That's how my 4-year-old "speaks" German. There is a maturity required for Duolingo; it gets repetitive and boring especially if you don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. That and you need to be able to type, spell, etc.

 

Emily

[Hobbes]

Duolingo is working very well for my 8yo this year, but last year when we tried it (and she was a good reader), it was too difficult. As pps said, the writing was too much.

[Slache]

Only because my child saw me doing it and begged to do it. She went through a month-long Duolingo phase and then lost interest, and for once, I was glad of her tendency to do this. (With piano, not so much.) For this age group, I'd much rather them be watching a cartoon or stories or songs in the target language than using Duolingo, because of the whole immersion vs. translation thing.

That's the problem we're having here. He's been doing it for me but doesn't know enough Spanish to do it properly. I would help with the typing and spelling, but he's actually pretty good at it.

[Julie Smith]

With memrise language courses made by memrise you can skip all the typing activites. It does mark you "wrong", but you can move forward without any typing. 

 

Note I'm not recommending it for a 5 year old. I'm just saying it is better suiting for younger kids than duolingo. My Eldest son loves Duolingo and has been doing it for 335 days straight. Youngest struggled with it and after finishing 20 skills tried out other things and eventually settled on memrise. I'm not sure what your target language is. But the following is what I recommend doing before using duolingo or memrise:

 

1. Get familiar with the sound of the language, and learn lots of nouns.

Some of these movies are marketed to babies, but I used them anyways when my kids where 8+. I would try to make it fun by turning it into a game. If they said, "lion" we would repeat the word and then try to imitate a lion. When the DVD would say the word horse in french we would repeat that word. Then one of us would be a horse and the other would try to climb on and ride the horse. This would last about 10 seconds and we would be onto the next word. It was also good exercise and it would start the day our right having a giggling energy filled 20 minute 'class'.

Little Pim French 1. Eating and Drinking
Little Pim French 2. Wake up Smiling
Little Pim French 3. Playtime
Early Lingo. Part 1 of 12. French Edition
Early Lingo. Part 2 of 12. French Edition

 

2. Get familiar with the basics of the language, learn some short sentences with these DVDs

French for Kids. On va jouer
French for Kids. Dedand and dehors
French for kids. Volume 1 Beginner level

 

3. Move onto CDs

For this one we would try to act out the songs/stories well listening. We would do the same song/story several times in a row and even gather props. Also a good way to learn french and expend energy.
Play and Learn French

This one was a favorite for listening to in the car:
French on the move for kids

We also really liked:
Teach me - everyday French volume 1
Teach me - everyday French volume 2
Teach me even more - French kit

The library use to have the DVD of this, but they now only have the audio version. It is still really nice:
The complete Lyric Language French

 

[HomeAgain]

You don't lose anything by trying. :)

 

My 6yo does it.  We started with Song School Spanish last year and it bored him to tears.  He hated everything about it.  He's been going strong on Duolingo for nearly a year now (started around Jan) doing it 3x a week.  I have him stop after 10 minutes, but most times he has completed the lesson by then and is done.

[Epicurean]

If you use an iPhone or another device with voice transcription, you can use that instead of writing (when it calls for writing you hit the microphone icon and speak instead so it transcribes it--you need to download the language keyboard and speak clearly).

[Slache]

If you use an iPhone or another device with voice transcription, you can use that instead of writing (when it calls for writing you hit the microphone icon and speak instead so it transcribes it--you need to download the language keyboard and speak clearly).

This is brilliant! Thanks!

[Epicurean]

This is brilliant! Thanks!

No problem! I use it all the time. In case I was too vague, you should download the Spanish language keyboard for it to work properly, but that's not hard. :)

[Jackie]

My 5yo did it, making it about 1/3 through the tree before we abandoned it. It did give her a great jump in her ability to string words into sentences, but once it got to stuff that was more grammar-based it got rougher and she needed a different approach. We used the app version, which I've been told has less typing; I've never used the PC-based version for comparison.

[Slache]

No problem! I use it all the time. In case I was too vague, you should download the Spanish language keyboard for it to work properly, but that's not hard. :)

 Yes, I knew what you meant.  

My 5yo did it, making it about 1/3 through the tree before we abandoned it. It did give her a great jump in her ability to string words into sentences, but once it got to stuff that was more grammar-based it got rougher and she needed a different approach. We used the app version, which I've been told has less typing; I've never used the PC-based version for comparison.

Cool! I was going to use Memrise as well. I speak Spanish and I need more ways to encorpirate it for them, even if we don't finish it.

[shadah]

My 8yo is doing duolingo. My 5yo is doing tinycards. It has the duolingo vocab but is a little easier to do. I type for him most of the time, though. As far as methods in general, immersion and tpr have been a total bust here. We tried for years. It was a complete waste of time. My kids are too literal. They want to understand everything right away. We use cartoons and songs for exposure but I have found little teaching value in it. In other words, don't limit yourself to children's language programs if your child doesn't think that way.

[Trilliumlady]

So I haven't figured out how to do quotations here yet but where is this Spanish language keyboard app some have spoken of? Just any app would work?

[mumto2]

The problem a friend had who tried it was the grammar back to English. Wait a couple of years.

[HomeAgain]

So I haven't figured out how to do quotations here yet but where is this Spanish language keyboard app some have spoken of? Just any app would work?

 

On Apple products you can go into Settings and click which keyboards you want enabled.  It automatically switches for you. 

[bookbard]

My five year old does use Duolingo, but she already had a bit of German to start with and could read well. Some of it isn't kid friendly though, like a whole lesson asking for beer and wine etc! I don't think it's ideal for little ones, but it has been fairly good for increasing vocabulary.