Need suggestions on a Spanish lang. program for the whole family.

[carlyincali]

(thank you for directing me to this board.)

I would like a Spanish program that our whole family can learn from. Both my husband and I took Spanish 1 in high school, but neither of us retained more than about 10 or 20 words, (my dh retained more than me.)

We need to learn Latin American Spanish (as opposed to Europian Spanish.)

Our days are filled, so I'm not sure how we are going to schedule it in, but we have to. We are in sort of a time crunch. We have just begun the process to adopt a 5yo girl who only speaks Spanish--we are hoping to have her home within 9mos to a year. We would love to ease her transition a bit and learn as much Spanish as we can in the little bit of time we have.

Dh keeps metioning Rosetta Stone, but he only mentions that because he sees all the advertising. I have read that there are better programs out there. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[nancy in VA]

Hi,
For a large family Rosetta Stone would be great - I know because I have it (possibly for sale, if the person currently interested doesn't purchase it). We have the homeschool version of Latin American Spanish vol. 1 and 2. We need to switch to French because of a probable move.

I'm a fluent (not bilingual) Spanish speaker and the reason I think RS HS version would work well for a large family is that it comes with a student management program that tracks where each student is. That way everyone can work at their own pace and once it's set up, you don't have to tell each kid what to do. Also for the younger kids, you can set it so they focus on the listening and speaking while for the older ones who can read and write, the focus can and should include writing and doing all the exercises and tests that come with the kit (answers are included) and everything can be photocopied.

Let me know if you decide to go with RS and I'll let you know if I still have mine (I'm asking $225 ppd - I purchased for $350 a year and a half ago - I think date is 2005 on materials).
Nancy in VA

[Patricia in WA]

I saw your message on the Curr Board first. I amswered you over there.

[Tami]

I would HIGHLY recommend United Streaming's Spanish. The videos are engaging, and the whole family can work together. Songs, games, activity sheets, and systematic review are included. Homeschool Buyer's Co-op has a subscription for a really good price.

If you have Dish Network, is is also on there (no extra charge).

[yeknom]

for the whole family.. rosetta is better.. in my opinion =)

[Barb F. PA in AZ]

I just posted some links up above: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29458 I've used Rosetta Stone and didn't care for it. I'm giving this a try next.

Barb