Homeschool World Forum

[corywingate]

I have home schooled about five years and each year I try a new curriculum it seems. Now I have about three different curriculums, and feel unorganized sometimes I have been thinking about teaching my 10 year-old Spanish, but know nothing about it. A public school teacher recommended Rosetta Stone for teaching Spanish. I wasn't aware of the whole home school curriculum, so I'm still trying to take it all in. Can anyone give me advice about this curriculum for teaching Spanish?
I don't know anything about the language myself. Will he be able to speak the language in conversation or just read it or understand it? Is the curriculum easy enough for a 10 year-old and can it keep his interest?

[Josh]

Well its widely used and very successful. I've heard nothing but good things about it and apparently alot of businesses and governments use it. Alot of home schoolers as well. Personally my family has used Alpha Omega's power glide program for spanish and german I did try a demo of the spanish but if this is for a ten year old the Alpha Omega curriculum may be better (they have for that age and for secondary)
_________________
War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. -Bierce

[fiveofus]

I have used something called Tell Me More for my son (14)- I just bought it over the summer from Auralog. It's also software, but they have grammar practice in it, and it's fun. My son tried out Rosetta Stone but got so bored so quickly, I felt it wasn't worth the investment. (Oh, he is learning Spanish right now).

[robinsegg]

We're using Rosetta Stone (very slowly) for my 6yo and myself. It's a great program. You can actually go to http://www.rosettastone.com and go to Demo, to see how it works! It's working well for us!
_________________
Rachel
teacher at home
The Cleft in the Rock Academy

[isamama]

We are using Rosetta stone for Spanish. I would suggest buying Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verbs workbook to assist in verb usage and conjugation. I found mine at Borders and it is very well explained with practice problems. For younger students the Complete book of Spanish (workbook) is a nice supplement. I got mine for Walmart.

In addition I also made worksheets for my 1st grader last year to align with what she was learning on RS's cd - just a bit more practice and so I would have something to bring along on errands. I had a lot of "trace the word/phrase" aside of a picture (cartoon characters or something she could relate to). Ironically my dd16 also enjoyed these. To learn a foriegn language one must be exposed to it in many forms, which Rosetta Stone is good at, but also frequently throughout the day. I found cassette/cds for the car were handy and checking out simple books in spanish from the library to read and/or for translation practice.

I first bought Alpha Omega's SOS spanish I and didn't like it, so we immediately sought out Rosetta Stone. I haven't tried the Auralog product , but have heard a couple good reviews (the above being the third lol).
_________________
I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow. - Woodrow Wilson.

[corywingate]

Thanks for all your help Now I have even more to think about
I wasn't aware of the Alpha Omega's SOS spanish....why did you not like it itisamama?

[isamama]

I felt the SOS started out assuming you knew more than a beginner would. I suppose I am a bit old-fashioned when it comes to learning languages; learn the puzzle pieces first then put them together - in other words the equivalent of using phonic pieces to build words then to make sentences and then paragraphs. Also, AO SOS used a story line that risks the user not being interested in it or may become bored along the way, which, in part, was our situation.

My review is probably out of date considering it has been about four years since we tried that product. At the time I tried a variety of language programs I could buy in stores and was dissapointed in most of them because they assumed you needed instant conversational ability vs. building blocks. I'd say Rosetta's weakest point is lack of verb conjugation and over all written grammar - but I solved that by using the Practice Makes Perfect workbook. Like language software, I found books on spanish had the same problem assuming the reader knows more than they do. Oh, there were two other books I came across that were helpful/interesting - one was Spanish Blunders (or similar title) and the other was Side by Side (or similar title). Spanish Blunders shows the most common mistakes we make in pronunciation and written spanish and Side by Side gives the equivalent english grammmar lesson on one side and on the other, right next to it, is the same lesson explained for spanish. One more book I like is Spanish in 20 minutes (I think it is 20 lol).

That sums up my reason, but I want to urge you to investigate all the products keeping in mind that we are each individuals with differing preferences, so what didn't work for me may very well work for you.
_________________
I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow. - Woodrow Wilson.

[corywingate]

Makes sense to me. I have no idea about Spanish....I can hardly count to five....so I will need something that starts out with the very basics.
Thanks for the review.

[momo3boys]

WE are using easy spanish. it is great, it takes small steps and assumes nothing. it is great for learning conversational spanish and the kids love it because they are makinga naotebook all about them in spanish! Soy yo! it is called. This week we are making a family tree to learn the names for our family members. I highly recommend it for homeschooling families. We are doing it as a group with four other families. I hope this helps.
http://www.theeasyspanish.com/
_________________
Phi 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.