happypamama Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 If you've used this, what did it actually look like in your home? How many sessions did your student do with the instructor per week? How much time did your student spend working independently the rest of the week? How many sessions with the instructor would accomplish approximately Spanish 2? My tenth grader has been through DuoLingo and Easy Spanish Step By Step, so I was intending on HSA for this year. I was envisioning an hour session per week and 30-60 minutes of independent work on her own a day on the other week days. Does that sound about right? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 (edited) We only used it during this summer as a shoring up of fundamentals & keeping the Spanish fresh - so we haven't actually used it for actual credit. With that in mind, they do NOT assign enough homework for your plan. DD had maybe 30 minutes of homework after each 50 minute session and could have spent an hour reviewing before tests. I'd plan on at least two live sessions a week. They tell you how many sessions is generally worth a level. Some kids work quicker & some slower. They check your level during the first real session by doing some testing. (You might find she starts further along in Spanish than you thought -- or further back.) Then, they go through their standard syllabus. You can ask them to try to go through review material quicker, but it really depends on your kid & the teacher on whether that works. They say you need about 30 sessions to go through a semester of work. Being that it was all review (although obviously there were some gaps & things she didn't master the first time), I asked them to go quickly and assign a lot of homework. DD made it through 25 "classes" of material in 17 sessions. (Six of the classes were to review & were assigned, instead, as optional homework.) To finish that semester, she'd need one more lesson, two reviews, a quiz, and a semester exam - so probably 3-4 more sessions, realistically. They build in plenty of informal & formal conversation practice, but take four levels (years) to cover all the grammar where most high school Spanish programs cover the grammar in three levels (years). DD liked her teacher this summer. It was difficult to get in at a consistent time with a specific teacher unless you were booking WELL in advance - and even then, it was sometimes hit or miss. They switched from skype at the end of the summer & she hasn't had a session since then, so I don't know how it works now. Google plus? Google Hangouts? Some sort of Google format. Make sure you get someone's referral code before signing up - to help them earn credit for more classes. (There are several people on here who use HSA regularly & would really appreciate the referral credit.) Also, if you are a HSLDA member, there is a decent percentage off discount, but you have to email Homeschool Spanish Academy to ask for the code. Edited to add: You might get more replies if you cross-post on the high school board. Edited August 25, 2017 by RootAnn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 Well, I can't answer most of your questions, but did want to say that my daughter just started a few weeks ago and has had 5 lessons so far. I agree that there is not a lot of homework, but that is one of the things that drew me to this program. We are aiming for two sessions a week which is what they recommend for high school Spanish. When I look through the syllabus it looks like there is assigned homework roughly about half of the sessions. The homework does not take too long to do - though has challenged my child with learning disabilities. She also spends a fair amount of time simply working on vocabulary and practicing for class. I like that there is a big emphasis on speaking. I am very happy so far with the program. They have switched from Skype to Google Hangouts and it seems to work well. Private message me if you want my referral code which will get me credit for more classes. As RootAnn said there is a HSLDA discount. I happened to luck into an end of July "sale" and got a decent amount off at that time. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 We use it; I love it. My dd does 2 - 3 sessions a week. There is not much homework assigned, and she should spend more time studying. It is 50 minutes of one-on-one conversation. I feel that this program is superior to what we were doing before. (I had hired a private teacher for my daughter - she moved at a snail's pace and never assigned homework... she planned all these fun activites - cooking, dance, etc.. cultural stuff - great, but my dd wanted to learn to speak Spanish not just appreciate the culture) You can see the curriculum here:http://try.spanish.academy/ap/free-curriculum/?a_aid=59720aafcd0be&a_bid=11110007 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 We tried HSA this summer and our experience mirrored RootAnn's. Not enough homework to keep them busy the other 3 weekdays. We used a variety of teachers, though, so my request for more homework may not have been communicated on. They were too nice to consistently make my kids give full-sentence replies during casual conversation. My students are in middle school by age so that was where they were placed in HSA, so my next comments may not be applicable for you. During class time they spent most of the lessons reading the virtual worksheets and filling in the blanks. The worksheets were all bilingual, which I think is a negative when you are dealing with fluent English speakers who can't easily *not* read the English. I have twins, so they took lessons together sitting at different computers. That was often frustrating because they would have one sit while the other did a worksheet section and then they would switch for the next section. During tests one would hang up and sit waiting while the other took an oral test and then they would switch. So the classes were less expensive per person per hour, but there was a lot of wasted, passive time. Overall the price is good and everybody was super nice, but I struggled to see how I could grow the experience into a high school amount of work without doing some major supplementing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted August 28, 2017 Author Share Posted August 28, 2017 Well, we did the trial lesson today, and we both liked it. I think we are going to give it a shot. Anyone want to give me a referral code? PM me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 Well, we did the trial lesson today, and we both liked it. I think we are going to give it a shot. Anyone want to give me a referral code? PM me. Just sent you one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted August 28, 2017 Author Share Posted August 28, 2017 Got one -- thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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