Song School Spanish or Spanish for Children?

[Momto6inIN]

We usually don't do summer school. I love the break, the kids love the break, etc etc. But with the quarantine and all, our summer is (like everyone else's) shaping up to be quite different than normal and my 12 and 8 year old are fighting like cats and dogs whenever they don't have school to occupy them. Most of their subjects are almost done for this year, and I don't really want to move into a full schedule of next year's stuff. I'm mostly looking to add some "fun" stuff so they don't quite feel like they're actually doing "school" but that still adds some structure to our day. They have asked for Spanish, so that's where I'm starting. A couple years ago I tried La Clase Divertida but we just didn't keep up with it like I'd hoped, and the varying length of the lessons was hard for me to plan around. I like Christopher Perrin so so much and really appreciate his approach, so I thought I'd try CAP this time.

Which one should I get for a soon to be 3rd and 7th grader to do together for fun? Grade wise it looks like Spanish for Children would be most appropriate, but will they be missing anything really great by skipping Song School Spanish? I realize either one will probably be too easy for my 7th grader academically, but since it's just for fun I kind of want to keep them together.

[Slache]

I feel like SFC is too much too fast. Have you looked at The Fun Spanish? Lots of conjugation practice and can be completed in a summer.

[RootAnn]

Song School Spanish is fun but could be considered childish for your older one. SfC is tough work. Dd#1 didn't make it even halfway through and I felt like the things it was trying to teach were all High School Spanish 1 level. It was too much, too quickly, with not enough practice/review.

I'd pair SSS with easy-paced Getting Started With Spanish. I'd have both kids do both.

[Momto6inIN]

1 hour ago, Slache said:

I feel like SFC is too much too fast. Have you looked at The Fun Spanish? Lots of conjugation practice and can be completed in a summer.

 

56 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

Song School Spanish is fun but could be considered childish for your older one. SfC is tough work. Dd#1 didn't make it even halfway through and I felt like the things it was trying to teach were all High School Spanish 1 level. It was too much, too quickly, with not enough practice/review.

I'd pair SSS with easy-paced Getting Started With Spanish. I'd have both kids do both.

This makes me feel better about Song School, thanks! I will look into The Fun Spanish and Getting Started with Spanish too 🙂

[Slache]

I like GSWS too, but it has 177 lessons. You can get a pretty fat free sample on Kindle.

[RootAnn]

Yeah, GSWS is long in terms of lessons, but the early lessons are about 5 min each & the later ones are 20 min (with exercises that can be done at a white board, verbally, or with a scribe -- broken up in 5 min increments over a week). The audio is free on the website (or it used to be).

[Quarter Note]

I agree with all of the previous posters that Spanish for Children is really too difficult for elementary age.  I'm trying to go through it right now with a fifth grader and a third grader and it is not going well.  (This is after we had gone all the way through Getting Started with Spanish and watched every single Salsa video multiple times, so after a year's worth of exposure to Spanish).  The presenter tries to be cute and funny, and there are these little puppet videos at the end of every other lesson, but the pace is way too fast for kids.  The other thing is that some of the chants are clunky, which defeats the purpose of chanting.  We're just trudging through until our library opens up and I can find something else.

Your third grader might enjoy the free Salsa episodes on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Thank you, Slache, for the suggestion of The Fun Spanish.  I'll look into that one, too.

[Momto6inIN]

I ended up buying Song School and The Fun Spanish for this summer ... and Getting Started with Spanish for the 7th grader for next year *blush*

Stupid plague makes me spend $ on curriculum like we're never leaving the house again and we're living in a bunker til the apocalypse is over and I have re-educate them on the entire history of mankind 😛😛😛