I have written before about teaching foreign languages in the homeschool. I think it is one of the more difficult areas to teach as a homeschooler because it is one of the few areas where a background knowledge is somewhat essential if you’re going to think of starting in the younger grades. What has always bugged me about any pre-packaged foreign language curriculum is that they often lead a parent to believe that they will be purchasing a program that will yield fluent speakers without the parent having to know the language. While I wouldn’t say that you must speak … Continue reading →

I had been writing about my recommendations for studying foreign languages throughout the elementary years. I have said repeatedly that I don’t think you need to feel like you must spend a lot of money to teach your children foreign language and that the goal early on is exposure. However, I’ve consistently received two comments. One is that exposure is great but that most colleges want to see at least a few years of foreign language on your child’s transcript and the second is from people who have a good working knowledge of the language who disagree with my methodology. … Continue reading →

Awhile ago, I wrote about why I believe that teaching foreign languages to young students is over rated. It’s quite hard to teach your child a foreign language if you don’t speak it yourself. Consequently, I do not advise parents to spend an arm and a leg on a foreign language curriculum in the early elementary grades. You will find that it does very little, if any good towards producing a child that can speak the foreign tongue. Exposure on the other hand is never a bad thing. I do feel like I need to make the point that I … Continue reading →

A big thanks to Andrea, who is letting me guest blog here to share some things about teaching foreign languages in the homeschool. Yesterday, I gave some objectives for the early elementary grades. The goal at this point should be simply to introduce your child to a particular (or several) foreign languages. This is an important point to make because it means that you, the homeschooler do not need to spend money on a big curriculum at this point. Here are a few teaching ideas on how to get started: Vocabulary: You can usually check out from the library various … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that research says that the best time to start a foreign language is after the age of twelve. . .once the child reads and writes fluently in their own language. This is contrary to what most people and most curriculums have us believe–that is that we should start very, very early. However, some states actually require that you teach a foreign language as early as first grade or your child may simply have an interest. Focusing on speaking the language fluently in the early elementary will only serve to shoot yourself in the foot, … Continue reading →

This series is a take off from one of Andrea’s blogs. In my intro I mentioned some reasons why homeschoolers tend to shy away from teaching their child a foreign language It is a difficult subject to tackle if you don’t have the background. However, I also mentioned that one problem is many of the myths that surround teaching your child a foreign language. I went to a home schooling conference where I saw several curriculums for sale all touting similar benefits. They were all supposedly backed by research. Truth be told, I’ve yet to find something that is actually … Continue reading →