I get asked these questions so often that I decided it would be better just to write a series of posts about curriculum that I have actually used and recommend. Just to be above board, there are affiliate links on these pages. As many of you are, we are a one income family and it costs money to pay for this page and I need to at least try to recoup the costs. Thus far, I haven’t even made enough to pay for the start up costs over a year ago, much to my husband’s chagrin. So, if you are interested in the things I share, please use the links provided as it will help me to keep this blog going.
Spanish –
Foreign Languages are the one subject that I have spent the most money on and have had the biggest fails. I have bought more than one curriculum and found it did nothing for my kids. We started our kids on Spanish while they were in pre-school and bought several programs designed to help them get an ear for the language. Then in Elementary we bought several more for multiple years and faithfully did them daily. While they taught my kids the vocabulary, none of them taught my kids to actually converse in Spanish until Homeschool Spanish Academy.
Homeschool Spanish Academy – I was introduced to HSA by a review on The Well Trained Mind Forum and since they offer a free introductory class and after 5 years of another program in which Connor still couldn’t carry on a conversation in Spanish, we tried it. What’s to lose? A free introductory class with a native Spanish speaker over the internet? We didn’t even have to leave home or get out of our pj’s – perfect! After one class, we were sold. Connor had the same teacher for the majority of his classes over the next four years of high school whom he loved. (No, I won’t tell you her name, because she is hard enough to book and the twins love her too.) Connor went through all four levels of their rigorous high school curriculum and it allowed him to travel to Spain and be able to navigate the language and the city. It also allowed him to skip having to take a foreign language in College. As a bonus, I love that the teachers get to know our kids. They are engaged in our kid’s lives and get to know who are kids are, what they are interested in, and become a real part of their high school career. This also allowed us to have an outside teacher who was able to give Connor an academic recommendation to both Colleges and Scholarships, which was huge. I have only ever used their High School Program but had it been around when my kids were younger, I would have used it starting in Elementary. I threw a lot of money at programs that didn’t work and Homeschool Spanish Academy would have been less money in the long run than buying the three other programs that I did try. One tip, if you have a teacher you love, book early. I booked the twins classes at the end of May for the next school year. All the teachers are equally good but if you find one that your child connects with, it’s worth trying to get that teacher. We have had substitutes and they are all great teachers but my kids definitely connect with one over the others.
Click Here for Free HSA Intro Class
Latin –
We have our kids start taking Latin in later Elementary and Middle School. My husband took and spoke both Spanish and Latin and felt it was very helpful to him and studies show how much learning Latin can help Vocabulary, Critical Thinking and as a base for other Languages. Here too, I have spent and gone through several curriculums to get it right. Remember that Latin a dead language and a curriculum that doesn’t teach your child to conjugate and read the language isn’t going to work, which I learned after two different disastrous attempts. What did work? Here’s my favorites.
Lively Latin – All three of mine really liked the Big Book of Latin 1 and 2. We did the both of them over about 4 years, 3rd though 6th. They were engaging, had fun history lessons, were anything but boring and gave my kids a firm basis in Latin and in Roman History. They also liked the online games and classes available to them on the website. We did the books together as much as possible and the twins did fine hanging with Connor. They do have CD’s of pronunciations, both Classical and Ecclesiastical depending on your preference. I bought the hard copies of the books because I really didn’t want to have to copy and prepare the books for all the kids.
First Form Latin – After we finished Lively Latin, we moved into First Form Latin from Memoria Press. We watched the videos together, and did the workbooks during the week. Latin isn’t always the most fun and I would say that this wasn’t necessarily fun but it still kept their attention and gave them a firm foundation in Latin. I would say that the Instructional Videos are pretty important to have and go through. This is a solid, efficient curriculum that will give them a full credit of Latin in high school. If you had kids who were still interested in going further in Latin, then the series goes on to Second through Fourth Form Latin. Our kids had a pretty firm foundation in it and we needed to focus more on Spanish as not all Colleges will accept Latin as a Foreign Language and we wanted the practicality of being able to speak another language.
