Spanish for a 5th grader?

[Tree House Academy]

What does the hive recommend?

ETA: This would be his first year with a foreign language and we have not done Latin.

[melissa123]

I'm curious about this as well. My daughter is mid-way through Latin for Children Primer B, but wants to add Spanish next year. Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!

[Tree House Academy]

Bump - anyone?

[Patricia in WA]

I am going to assume you do not speak Spanish and that you have not studied any other language (based on the currc you list in your signature) like Latin. To recommend anything in particular I need to know if you would like a whole to parts or a parts to whole approach? Also what are your goals in Spanish?

Paula's Archives (http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/spanishcurriculum.htm) has a page that reviews lots of different stuff. My favorite is So You Really Want to Learn Spanish. I do think so exposure beforehand is helpful. This book (http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Everyday-Package-Learning-Adventure/dp/0764174452/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238345135&sr=8-2) is easy enough to work through and give your child a gentle idea of what to expect. Let me know if I can answer anything else.

HTHs,

[Tree House Academy]

I am not really sure what approach I want to take (not sure how to determine what is best). I just want some beginning Spanish since, no, I don't speak Spanish and this child has had no foreign language thus far. I took 4 years of French in school, but my ds and his dad (not my dh) want to start with Spanish.

[kRenee]

We ended up using The Learnables (3 levels so far). I looked at a few others, including Rosetta Stone, and here is why I chose it:
* It is a full 4 year program
* It is an immersion program
* In the initial book it does not show the written word - I didn't want my young children applying english phonics to Spanish. I wanted them to hear the words first before seeing anything written.
* It is slow
* It really does work well. You listen to the "story" in a progression of pictures and you do learn new words pretty easily
* I like the way you alternate the "picture" book with the Basic Structures book that provide the written word along with pictures and fill-in exercises.

I wish it had a list of words that are introduced in each lesson for the teacher. Sometimes the words you hear are not terribly clear and it is helpful to know what is being said. As the teacher, I would do my 'homework' and look up all new words before each lesson and clarify for my kids when necessary - I think this method cleared up any confusion and enhanced learning. (There is an alphabetical word list in the Grammar Enhancement book that you use in year 2. I would suggest getting this book in the beginning and using that list to help you).

When listening to the picture book the word/sentence is repeated twice, with sound effects. This does get tiresome at times.

In the beginning you should listen to all 10 lessons in the picture book before moving to the Basic Structures book, but later (book 3) you can alternate a lesson in the picture book with a lesson in Basic Structures. That helps keep interest up and burn out lower.

We had to keep the lessons short because the program does tend to lead to boredom and burn-out. We would listen to 2 pages per day of the picture book, and 3 or 4 pages per day in Basic Structures. We have always completed a level easily in a year.

My kids are pretty good at Spanish. My daughter will start high school spanish next year and I feel she is well prepared, she may even know "too" much. We'll see.

[Laura Corin]

You might like to search for posts by Patricia in WA - she is enthusiastic about the Galore Park Spanish course.

Laura

[Tree House Academy]

I looked at Galore Part...but it gave me prices in Euros and I couldn't get it switched. ???

[elegantlion]

We are going to be using Spanish for Children later this spring. We have enjoyed LFC and SFC is set up in a similar fashion.

[Tree House Academy]

Spanish for Children is one I looked at last night. I like it. :)

[Laura Corin]

You can order Galore Park from a US supplier: horriblebooks.com. He should be able to work out the US price for you. Alternatively, you can order from bookdepository.co.uk, which quotes in pounds and ships to the US for free. The current exchange rate is something like USD 1.43 for every pound, so just multiply the pound value by 1.43 and you'll get an approximate US dollar price.

Best wishes

Laura