Power Glide language courses - any good?

[teacher22]

[MinnesotaMom]

I'll answer for German, but I'm sure most of would transfer to French, too. We have been learning German as part of our homeschooling for about four years now. The first PowerGlide jr. book was o.k., but the next two were full of typos! We also found the voices on the cds pretty annoying.

Some other options:
--Lyric Language tapes - a fun and easy introduction to the language; great for the car

--The Learnables - a very solid program; can be a touch boring for the kids if they're not audio oriented, so I would mix in other resources, too

--Rosetta Stone - pretty pricey, but my kids generally enjoy it; builds up a basic working vocabulary quickly

--Muzzy - our library has this video set and the kids like it (request it if your library doesn't carry it - it's expensive!)

--Berlitz Language Tapes (A Visit to Grandmother, The Missing Cat, The Five Crayons) - Good for bedtime listening

--Amazon.de - Order picture books and dvds straight from Germany, but beware if you order videos or dvds that you may not be able to play them on your equipment. However, this is one of the best ways to get a feel for the language, so it's worth figuring out. We have a whole library of dvds in German and we sometimes let the kids watch them on the portable dvd player in bed - they love it and get some language practice.

--Watch "Tom" at http://www.kindernetz.de/tom/filme/-/id ... index.html - Our family loves Tom!

--See if there's a German (or French) language society in your town - Our kids took classes at the Germanic American Institute (not cheap, though); they also often have carnivals or events that you can attend inexpensively

A slow and steady approach just using the Learnables and a few extra tapes will work if you keep at it, but adding in as many fun resources as you can really boosts the learning.

Good luck!

Jennifer