Latin, Mandarin and French (or spanish): When should I do which?

[aomom]

I am teaching my kids Chinese, but it is very hard. We are using Ma Liping Chinese, but it goes at a very fast pace and it is like a huge boulder to tackle rather than a little cute pebble, especially Ma Liping Chinese 2, so I stopped when we were 2/3 through. Retention is not great because there are so many new characters in each long lesson.
I really want to start Latin simply because I think it might be easier due to many gentle starter books like Prima Latina and Song School Latin. I also like to start French, which I learned for a few years and was able to speak quite well.
So can you help me decide if I should start French (or Spanish) while keeping on Chinese, or should I start Latin along with Chinese?
Do you combine your kids in foreign languages? My kids are two years apart. I really want to save energy by combining them. Whatever language I start now on top of Chinese will be learned together. Do you do this? Can you give me some ideas how you'd do this?
Thanks,
J

[CleoQc]

Funny, we do Latin, French, Spanish and Mandarin. Except that for us, French is first language, and English is foreign language ;)

I have never combined my kids. They do not learn the same way, nor are they at the same level. They're 3 years apart, but my eldest learns grammar really fast, and my youngest learns idioms very fast. They get on each other's nerves.

Also, only one kid does Mandarin, and one does Latin. French/English/Spanish are done by both.

[Laura Corin]

I'd carry on with Mandarin as an oral language and come back to the writing later. My boys learned the language by immersion (starting at age 4 and 7 respectively) and didn't start really writing until they were eight or nine. It's going fine.

I tried to combine my two boys for French, but couldn't get the pace right. Hobbes became convinced that he was bad at French, just because he needed more repetition than did his older brother. Not good. I split them out and began teaching each of them in a very different style, to suit them individually.

We don't introduce Latin until around age 9 - I like to spend the early years on speaking a modern language. FWIW, our progression has been:

Calvin: Mandarin at 7; Latin at 8; French at 12
Hobbes: Mandarin at 4; Latin at 9; French at 9 (but nine months before the Latin)

Hobbes also dabbles in Ancient Greek.

Laura