I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that my 4 year old knows more Spanish than I do. He comes home from Spanish class and tries to teach me the days of the week, names for articles of clothing, etc., but I am a slower learner than he is. I have wanted to learn Spanish since moving to Texas 5 years ago. Has anyone had any experience attempting to learn a foreign language alongside their children? I vaguely remember the Muzzy videos and figure if I can handle the BBC's Scottish goat giving typing lessons I might be able to handle a giant green monster teaching me Spanish.Rosetta Stone is also highly recommended and I noticed that they have a homeschool program, but am unsure if it would be doable for a 4 year old as well as mom (and it's really expensive).
Would love any advice!
8 comments:
I can't speak to learning Spanish with your child, but we all have learned ASL through the Signing Time videos, mostly through songs. We just involve it in every aspect of our lives and my kids have really picked up on it, they are 4.5 and 2. The 9 month old doesn't know any language yet! Rosetta Stone seems prohibitively expensive to me, I'd give the Muzzy videos a whirl.
my 4 year old loves Rosetta Stone.
We are moving to Spain next month so I have been actively working on learning spanish. I have used rosetta stone and think it is an excellent program but it is very expensive. It is a very natural way of learning though. My parents library gives patrons access to rosetta stone for free so that might be worth checking out. I don't have the home school version and for my kids-the adult version doesn't work for them. We tried Muzzy and both my kids were terrified of him, not to mention he is hard to understand and the storyline seems very strange for a young kids. So with my kids, I just take what I am learning on the rosetta stone and apply it in their play everyday. So for example, my daughter and I might be playing with her dollhouse and I'll just insert spanish words and phrases. It works pretty well. But I'm not too worried about my kids-give them a couple of months in Spain and they'll be fluent in no time!
I too would like to do Rosetta Stone, it was accessible at our library for awhile but they pulled the plug right after we discovered it. You might want to consider the BBC language program (for adults) it's free and online. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
I myself have not used it but I have heard it is good. Let us know what happens and good luck.
I use Muzzy for German and Italian with my almost 2 year old and she loves him. The story and video are a bit weird and very 1970s/80s but she loves the characters and music. I'd at least give it a try as it is significantly cheaper than Rosetta Stone.
I am learning Polish right along with my children, as my husband is a native speaker and speaks it in our house. My children understand more Polish than I do and when we move there in the future they will certainly be leagues ahead of me already. We have Rosetta Stone and it does work but it is a time investment for sure... my 4 year old loves it... he calls it his Polish game. Of course when he is using it, to him, it is just people talking and for me it takes longer because I am still in the translating mode. I think if you dedicate time to Rosetta Stone it is def. worth the cost.
And just using whatever you do know on a daily basis as well as trying out new words or phrases that you learn little by little is important.
I also live in Texas and I have never studied Spanish, but I have found that just living here, I can understand a lot just from being around it my whole life, so you can def. pick it up with a little extra help... good luck!
I recommend learning volcabulary first. Then, speaking will be much easier.
Armiger Jagoe, editor
The Joyful Catholic
http://thejoyfulcatholic.wordpress.
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For cost issues definitely check out your library. We are tiny and we have some Muzzy...but we can also InterLibrary Loan almost anything. And I know the bigger county library has Rosetta Stone.
Good luck, I am horrible at foreign languages, just dreadful. I think it's hereditary since my mom butcher's anyone's name other then Smith...it also applies to dinosaur names, and anything else scientific.
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