"Git R Dun" Spanish....

[brendafromtenn]

O.K. ya'll(Can you tell I'm from the south?):001_smile:

Anyway, we are looking for a FUN and a "Git R Dun" approach to Spanish for 11th/12th grades. We want to earn 2 years of high school credit. We already have 2 years of high school Latin under our belts and it was pretty intense. Did very well on the NLE.

We have other goals in our homeschool that will be much more important for us this coming year....speech...essay writing .....and logic.....OH, and getting Eagle Project Finished. These are on the front burner....Spanish is not.....

So, with all that in mind, we want to do something FUN in Spanish , but still get those high school credits counted. "Spanish Light" is what we need.

Here are the two options that I am looking at today....

Power Glide Spanish (Two year course)

Or

Rosetta Stone Spanish

Both of these were recommended in the WTM by SWB. That is why I picked both of those. Susan has never failed me as of yet!:001_smile: Thanks, Susan! I read a lot about Rosetta Stone on the boards, but not so much on Power Glide. Why is that?

Any comments on either of these courses OR do you have something that I have not thought of......

Listening:bigear:

What say ye?

Brenda

[Sharon in MD]

We were willing to do our two years with Rosetta Stone. It was admittedly quick and dirty in my opinion. But we just simply wanted to check the box on Spanish. You certainly can make it a more substantial course, as many here recommend, by adding more grammar. Hopefully one of the ladies who have done that will chime in with those resources if you are interested.

But for my part, RS did what we needed to do, which was fulfill the two year lang requirement. It took ds about 20-30 minutes a day about 4 days a week. I know that is rather scandolous and not rigorous, but that is what we really needed. Everything else we do is over the top....we needed something that was less demanding for Spanish.

[Jenny in Florida]

However, I have to say that I don't think Rosetta Stone alone is equivalent to two years of high school Spanish.

My daughter, for example, did German with Rosetta Stone. She did all of level 1, which the publisher claims is equivalent to two years of instruction. We even supplemented for grammar. Nonetheless, when she attempted to move to a second-year high school course, she was completely at sea. We ended up calling that year "Conversational German" and starting over with Spanish using a more traditional approach.

Now, if all you want is to be able to check the box, that's fine. Goodness knows I've checked a few boxes in our homeschooling lives. My concern, though, would be that counting Rosetta Stone as two years of language will leave the student unprepared to either demonstrate proficiency or continue with the language in college.

This may not be a problem for some folks. However, all of the degree programs my daughter looked at required foreign language. If your student wouldn't mind starting over with a new language in college, I suppose it's not a problem.

[brendafromtenn]

And that is why I was actually leaning toward the Power Glide in that it had more of a "grammar portion" to it than RS did. After doing grammar, grammar, and more grammar, with Latin, I wanted a curriculum that had SOME grammar to it.

But I never hear anyone talk about Power Glide on these boards....Hmmmm.....Wonder why?:confused:

Brenda

[brendafromtenn]

That when almost everything else you do is "over the top", then in some classes, you don't want to do over the top. There has to be a balance to your day....especially when you have 4 or more kids to homeschool....

If we were "over the top" in ALL our classes, I would be one stressed out lady! And so would my kids!

Good point, Sharon.:iagree:

Brenda

[Margaret in CO]

When dd was dealing with 12 hours at the college, two jobs, getting her pilot's license and two sports, we did the Git R Done Spanish Light of RS. It worked for checking that box and now she's minoring in Japanese anyway!

[Sharon in MD]

Exactly...and I should have mentioned that for our ds, he really would like to take German or Russian in college, so "check the box Spanish" was what we were willing to compromise on for brevity's and sanity's sake.

I would not recommend doing the RS git R done approach if you want to continue in that language and are expecting to come in at a more advanced level.

[Jean in Wisc]

I struggled to teach my daughter Spanish using it and finally set it aside.

You might want to know that I majored in Spanish in my undergrad work.

Ugh.

I can't see how anyone would learn the language with that program.

I also have RS. It is more of a class in conversation.

Switched on Schoolhouse Spanish I and II (not elementary/secondary) is not Spanish lite--but it is what I use. My dd did the 1st year and barely dipped into Spanish II when we discovered she needed to take her college placement test for Spanish class. She tested out of 3 years worth--decided to take the 3rd semester rather than the 4th, and said, yup, there was nothing taught that she had not yet studied. We do SOS all open notebook--if you write it down in your notebook, you can use it on the tests and quizzes. It is all on the computer, but a lesson can easily take an hour. After 2 years of Latin, it might not be tough to get through it--my dd said it was MUCH EASIER than Latin.

If you want to do only SOS Spanish I, you probably could still test out of 2 years of Spanish in a placement test (sad, but true).That would give you 2 years to get through level 1 and you might consider that Spanish lite, right?

I'm not sure what else is out there that might be used. I'm just going on my experience...

YMMV,
Jean

[brendafromtenn]

How did you KNOW that the Alpha Omega catalog came in the mail today???HEEHEE :001_smile: Just joking.... I have been watching your posts and knew that you could tell me about SOS Spanish I. But I had no idea about the Power Glide. Thanks for the information.

As for SOS Spanish I, how long each day would it take to complete a lesson (minutes per day)? AND how many days a week?

And are the instructions clear to the student as to what they have to do each day?

Blessings,

Brenda

[AngieW in Texas]

We tried Rosetta Stone Spanish, but my dd was completely lost.

She's been using Auralog (Tell Me More) Spanish through the library for three months now and enjoys it. It does assume that you have some Spanish background and it isn't always obvious what you're supposed to do when it has a new activity, but it has translations (which my dd NEEDS) and it also has a solution button so you can find out what it's looking for when that isn't clear.

My dd is just in 8th grade this year, so she's only been doing 15 minutes of Spanish, 3x/week. I don't know how much would be required to count as a one-year credit.

I do know that she learned much more in one month with Auralog than she did with three months in Rosetta Stone.
http://www.tellmemore.com/

Auralog isn't an ideal program - I haven't seen one of those - but it is pretty good. You just have to make sure that you click on the grammar links when they're on the screen and you need to have some level of understanding of Spanish to start with. My dd used Easy Spanish Step-by-Step for several months (and didn't get very far) before starting Auralog and that was just about perfect.

[matroyshka]

How about Spanish Now! (http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Now-Level-1-CDs/dp/0764177745/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237424794&sr=8-1) from Barron's? Especially if he already knows all that Latin, he could probably teach himself farily well. It comes with 4 CDs for the pronunciation/comprehension and converstion portion.

I am using basically the same program without the CDs (re-titled "Spanish the Easy Way") with my kids - skipping the CDs because it's cheaper and I speak Spanish so can provide that part myself - and I'm quite happy with it. And the price is most definitely right.

I'd say the first book is a year to a year and a half of high school Spanish. There is also a Spanish Now! 2 if you want to continue.

RS is very expenisve and mostly conversational - I think it would make a great supplement, but I wouldn't use it standalone. I have never heard a single good thing about PowerGlide.