Spanish for elementary students

[hs03842]

English only speakers:  How do you homeschool Spanish for your young children?  

Edited December 9, 2020 by JoyKM

[Matryoshka]

I do actually speak fluent Spanish and teach it, so I've mostly used things that wouldn't be appropriate for English-only teachers.

But recently I was asked to look into maybe doing something online for younger kids, and nothing I've used before would work for online delivery for that age group.  Flip Flop Spanish was suggested to me as a possible resource - I'd heard of it but never really looked at it.  Now I have, and I actually think it's really good, and it's appropriate for parents who don't themselves speak Spanish.  It's kind of the 'see and say' approach, but it has you learning sentences (not just a bunch of nouns like body parts, colors, and animals) right from the start, and it also isn't just memorizing verb charts.  It's got audio files for everything - I do have to say that the one snippet I heard from someone on their website did not have a perfect accent, but I don't know of anything else out there like it, so that's just a quibble.  It's got two years of materials, and by then you are learning some verb conjugations and other grammar,.

Anyway, it's appropriate for both younger kids and for parents who don't speak it to present or learn alongside.

[Miss Tick]

I hadn't studied Spanish since high school. Starting in K, when I decided to homeschool, we approached it as a mini immersion experience. I wanted it to be a fun! thing we did in the background. We watched Muzzy or Salsa once or twice a week, we read Spanish-language board books another day, etc. We were persistent, year after year. My kids easily jumped into an official class in middle school, with very little new to learn.

[BakersDozen]

I am not a Spanish speaker but did secure an emphasis in Spanish in college - a long time ago. My dc begin Spanish in K with Teach Them Spanish (5 books in all). Along with that program they use Duolingo and Rockalingua for review. After TTS we move to Galore Park in 6th-8th, Easy Spanish Reader for review, then Destinos in high school. I have also used Getting Started With Spanish. It's not immersion but all of my dc have been able to test into higher levels of Spanish for college and one is planning to at least minor in Spanish.

[Sarah0000]

Do you have any experience with Spanish? Even the ability to read correctly out loud?

For my kids under 7yo we do read alouds, little printable games and mini books (check out Spanish Mama), duolingo starting at around 5yo, DinoLingo videos, etc. There's also Song School Spanish, we don't do the workbook though. There's games on Amazon that don't require fluency but you should be able to pronounce words correctly at least. Outschool has a variety of classes.

In first grade my kids start The Fun Spanish workbook which is silly translation and an intro to grammar. My oldest is starting third grade and I've gotten him En Vivo 2 for grades 4-8, an English/Spanish children's picture dictionary, and an early chapter book in Spanish which we will work on together.

My kids are doing great with reading, writing, translation, and grammar but not so great with speaking Spanish, alas. At this point I'm just planning to push forward and get as much vocabulary as we can and hopefully find an in-person private tutor after the pandemic dies down. We've done private and group online classes but they don't seem to work for my oldest.