Foreign Lang Ideas?

[Spetzi]

I'm curious what other "quick learners" use for acquiring a foreign language.

Ds is 10 and analytical. I would love to get something that dd 7 could also use, but he is the main reason I am interested in getting a Spanish or French program.

Thanks!

[JeanM]

I'm curious what other "quick learners" use for acquiring a foreign language.

Ds is 10 and analytical. I would love to get something that dd 7 could also use, but he is the main reason I am interested in getting a Spanish or French program.

Thanks!

I'm interested to see what responses you get. We tried La Clase Divertida for Spanish. I think that was two years ago, and my kids were younger then (maybe 5 and 7). It didn't work well because ds1 wanted to go faster, ds2 had trouble remembering everything and I just gave up. This year we've just played around with learning the Korean alphabet (I'm half-Korean), but I'd really like to get my ds1 (also very analytical) started on a second language soon.

Oh, we also briefly tried Rosetta Stone two years ago, because we got it free through the library. It is unfortunately not available through our library anymore. It didn't work at all for ds1 because he got really hung up on the pictures. He would see possible meanings for the words, other than the intended meaning, and got very upset at the whole thing. It really, really irritated him that they didn't just come out and tell him what the words meant. Maybe if we'd persisted longer or tried when ds was older, it would have worked.

[Laura Corin]

Galore Park French is working for Calvin. There is enough practice but not too much, and a lot of detail is laid out in a logical order. I do have him work on vocabulary independently, but otherwise we pretty much do what it says in the book plus some conversation practice.

How is your French? I'm not sure that it's a good programme for a someone to teach who doesn't have a background, because the CD is not very useful.

Best wishes

Laura

[Donna]

My kids are all using Rosetta Stone for Spanish and Gaelic. They all love it and are really learning to speak the languages. I am even using the Gaelic version.

[skaterbabs]

We're still looking for a good program for Dot. Right now we're just listening to children's tapes in French in the car, and I found a local family with little girls her age who speak only French at home.

The boys are using "_____ in Ten Minutes A Day" because Yacko is rejecting every language we can actually OBTAIN easily and within our budget.:glare: We're going to work through four or five languages that way, and once we've done that he'll either pick a language or we'll pick Spanish for him.

[jlovebaker]

Love it! I don't care if my kids can write and read Spanish - I want them to be able to speak it and they are definitely picking it up thru Rosetta Stone. My kids are almost 10, almost 10 and 12.

[katilac]

If you want them both to start now, I'd say Rosetta Stone. If you are willing to start only the older one, or use different programs, I prefer the Tell Me More program - - very similar but stronger grammar, but 10/11 is really the youngest they recommend it for.

My not-quite-11-yr-old will be using it as her formal French class in the fall. her sis, not quite 9, will be tagging along so she can hear/practice pronounciation and pick up some vocab, but much more informally and with no real 'expectations.'

We started Latin early and add a modern language in 6th grade. So the 4th grader will continue with Latin and hopefully get a leg up on French. The 6th grader will have both Latin and French as formal classes, at a fairly slow pace.

[KarenNC]

We're doing Powerspeak French with my 8 yo and she is enjoying it.