mommysanders Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 My son is a bright 6 year old, going into 1st grade. I want a Spanish curriculum for him that's fun but also educational (ie. if the program is JUST fun, I would rather skip it for something he'll learn from). My DD4 will also be tagging along, but it'll be mostly for the 6 year old. So far we have tried Little Pim, Rosetta Stone, and Duo Lingo. Because my son can read quite well, he wanted to try the latter two, but there came a point where it was too advanced for him. We all agree we HATE Little Pim and think it is boring. Currently we know some colors, numbers, and basic words. I have searched the archives for reviews on the following Spanish curriculum, but haven't found anything more recent than 2011. I'm looking for some updated reviews/advice on these. What do the lessons look like? Is it suitable for 1st grade? Is it fun? Does it work? Any other advice? Elementary Spanish on Discovery Streaming La Clase Divertida Getting Started with Spanish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahrb Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Following this topic. I actually majored in Spanish in college and my 6 year old son wants to learn it too :) but this was our first year homeschooling (homeschooled 1st grade, entering 2nd grade in the fall) and I was overwhelmed with just covering our basics. I haven't taught from any of those curricula because I had almost no budget when I was tutoring other homeschoolers in Spanish (before I had my own kids). The one new program I've learned about on this forum is Homeschool Spanish Academy, and I'm considering them for the future, budget-dependent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommysanders Posted March 29, 2017 Author Share Posted March 29, 2017 Bump. Any help/feedback? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CadenceSophia Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 I don't teach my kids Spanish but iirc, Salsa Spanish got good reviews. And it's free sooo.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Song School Spanish is fun for a 1st grader who can read well. We have also enjoyed watching Salsa! episodes free on the Georgia Public Broadcasting website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Do you speak any Spanish? Because what I've done at that age is teach it like we teach English to younger kids. We read a book one day, pore over a picture dictionary page another day, watch an episode of Salsa!, practice making sentences, and do an internet worksheet. The actual schedule varies depending on what resources I come across, but the idea is the same. I wrote a schedule which makes me much less likely to skip days, and I try to keep it pretty open-and-go. I found it difficult to find a curriculum for that age. Instead we focused on building vocabulary in as many ways as I could find. For a few years I had a tutor come once a week to sing songs, play games, and read stories. I'm not terribly shy of translated work at that stage of learning, so I could use a lot of library resources. This approach kept things consistent, built vocabulary, and increased grammar familiarity to the point that taking Spanish 1 this year has given them lots of practice in things that, for the most part, they already knew. Producing high school level of output has been a lot of work, so next year I'm planning to back off a bit. Actually I'm hoping to do a Spanish 1.5 class reinforcing what they know and moving forward at a slower pace. Anyway, if you speak any Spanish you might consider two years of basic vocabulary, useful set discussions, and that sort of FUN! approach, and then shift to a curriculum approach when they are ready. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 My son loved Getting Started with Spanish. It's very gentle and builds slowly. I have absolutely no idea what to use after that, but it was a great start for my son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fralala Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 We are lucky enough to have a library with a large collection of Spanish-language materials. I found my 6 year old and 4 year old learn SO much from watching videos and listening to audio books. If you don't have anything like that, I'd give Salsa or Youtube a try (there are a million shows out there, but "Masha y el Oso" and "Peppa Pig" in Spanish are the ones they use at our local bilingual schools, according to my teacher friends). I also liked Whistlefritz since it is what I consider a good, immersive language teaching style-- and I LOVE the Spanish songs from it, which are super catchy-- but my kids didn't care for it. (They want cartoons, but we still listen to the songs.) Some kids might do better with a formal curriculum, especially as they get older, but I've been impressed at how much my kids seem to be able to recall just from watching shows, which permits me to be both lazy and cheap in this regard. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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