Accelerated/Honors French 1?

[jplain]

My 8th grader will be finishing up Ray Leven’s Spanish 3 this spring, and though she’ll be continuing Spanish, she’s also toying with the idea of adding French.

I did the same, and my experience was that after a month of French 1, learning pronunciation and spelling rules, I was moved up to French 2.  Prior Spanish experience meant I had acquired loads of cognates, and the grammar was very similar.

I suspect it’ll be the same (or worse) with this kid.  We had a tough time finding a Spanish 1 class that moved quickly enough for her last year.  She hated the first two online Spanish 1 classes she tried.  Ray Leven’s classes have been (just barely, lol) fast enough for her.

Can anyone recommend an online French class that might be a good fit?  Or is there something like Homeschool Spanish Academy for French?  A college-pace course would seem the obvious solution, but our local community college only offers ASL and Spanish.

 We do use LiveLingua for Spanish conversation, and they do have French tutors, but they don’t provide a structured curriculum.

Thanks!

[8filltheheart]

Do you need a course?  Is there any reason she can't just go through a French curriculum at her own pace and use a tutor accordingly?  Then she isn't tied to a group pace.  She can progress at her own.  FWIW, I have had a dd who taught herself French to a very high level without even a tutor.  She used multiple grammar sources, wateched movies/the news in French, read French novels, etc.  It is doable for a motivated student.  If you have an Alliance Francaise in your area, she could attend meetings for conversation practice or they may even offer conversation classes.

[jplain]

Thanks for your thoughts!  I’m glad to hear that your daughter did this successfully without a formal course.  

I suppose we could do the same, probably using BtB and French in Action, unless I can convince my Vista Higher Learning rep to give me teacher access to their French texts (very unlikely).  I even have a French in Action textbook and workbook waiting patiently on a shelf, intended for my future self’s use, but maybe I can share.  

I’m considering an online class mostly to protect my Spanish study time.  This kid sucks me in to all of her studies, LOL.  And French would not be a hard sell.  My other thought was to nudge her to pick up OSU German instead, because my older daughter is hoping to add that in the fall . . . then it could be their thing together.