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SeaStar
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| Posted: Feb 18 2010 at 6:05pm | IP Logged
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I am curious to know how many out there are teaching a foreign language to their little ones (under 10 crowd).
This year we started Spanish at my house with La Clase Divertida and Senor Gamache. How my little ones love the senor. 
It is slow going but has been fun so far. We definitely take the "do not stress about this" approach.
I am interested in knowing, also, if there are any great websites out there for foreign language printables and learning. Anyone have any favorites?
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 18 2010 at 6:56pm | IP Logged
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well drat I don't know if any of those fit.. I think I'll put "thinking about it"
But I figure when I start the older ones the younger ones will join in.. I've been meaning to start the older ones.. but haven't been able to work it out just yet.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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violingirl
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| Posted: Feb 18 2010 at 7:05pm | IP Logged
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We're thinking about this. We'd like to have foreign language with the purpose of fluency and I haven't really read enough yet to really decide when to start.
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Erin
DS (2005) DS (2007) DD (2012)
Mama In Progress
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pmeilaen
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We're raising our children bilingually: German and English. (I'm from Germany, my husband is American, but fluent in German, all my relatives are in Germany).
We also play a lot of French music/language tapes when they are little. When they enter first grade, we start formal instruction in French. When they enter third grade we add Latin (just listening to tapes). We also teach the Hebrew alphabet. When they enter 4th grade, we add grammar and translating Latin, and New Testament Greek.
I love languages and as a European, there's a big emphasis on foreign languages. I know English, German, Latin, Greek, and some French myself, and once tried to learn Finnish! I had to learn Latin and English in school. When I started studying Catholic theology, English, and German at the university, I had to know Latin and also Greek. So I took a class in New Testment Greek and later a very intensive one in Ancient Greek.
I never thought I would get a chance to use all these languages and often complained about them in school. Now I realize what a gift they were and love to pass them on to my children.
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Eva
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guitarnan
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We did some Latin when my dd was in K and 1st grade. She didn't like it. Since then we've done, here and there, Italian, German, Spanish and French (our current language, as of January!). My dd just turned 12 and she has a gift for accents, so I hope that studying the basics of some languages and learning how to study another language (read, write, speak, study) will help her in future years.
Eva - Finnish! Wow! Even my Swedish friends think it's super-difficult to learn.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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stefoodie
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Yes we do. But in a very relaxed manner. Our kids (down to 8-yo) can understand Filipino fluently, but they don't speak it fluently. I don't know how much the 13-mo understands at this point .
We've all studied Latin, Italian and a bit of German together. Of the German we've only retained the counting to 10. We also study Spanish sporadically, i.e., if we come across a Spanish word that's also similar or exactly the same as the Filipino word -- which is actually often enough since more than 50% of Filipino is Spanish or Spanish-derived.
ETA: Latin is more formally studied than the other languages but we're more interested in familiarity, not necessarily fluency.
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stef
mom to five
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Natalia
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I wish I have made more of an effort to raise my kids bilingually. Spanish is my native language but my dh doesn't speak it. My 16yo speaks Spanish very well (even though she has an American accent), then it goes down hill from then. It seems that the most I got involved in the American culture, the less Spanish I spoke to my kids. Lately I have made more of an effort. Oh, my kids also take Latin.
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Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
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Eleanor
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We've started some Latin with our 4 and 6 year olds, and they love it. (Even the 2 1/2 year old has been known to chime in and start saying "salve, [...]" to everyone. )
Right now, we're using Prima Latina. We'll probably move on to Minimus after that, to keep it fun. Then we're planning to start the eldest on a "real" curriculum by the time she's about 8. Not sure which one yet, but we're leaning toward an immersion style, supplemented with grammar.
Our goal is fluency, so that our children will be comfortable with Latin as the "living language of the Church," and will be able to read the classics, Church documents, and great Catholic writings of the past in the original. If we stay on track, I think we can do it. 
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St. Ann
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Just a side note:
A priest friend of ours told me once, in his adolescence his expression of pubertarian rebellion was to learn the most obscure languages!!! He put his energy into learning arabic, croatian, and of course the run of the mill romance and germanic languages plus hebrew, greek ...
Of course he does have a natural talent for languages, but I always thought I would like to steer my kids in that direction if they ever need an outside outlet!!!
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Stephanie
Wife and mother to Hannah '96, Maria '99, Dorothea '01, Helena '03
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Mary K
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We expose our children to languages using video and audiorapes. My eldest is in college chorus, voice classes and theater. She is often singing around the house-in Latin, German, French, Italian,Estonian,etc.
We teach American Sign Language since babies can communicate with it before speech.
God bless,
Mary-NY
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Maggie
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We used signs with our children, and they took to those around 1 yrs old and had upwards of 50 signs, which was oh so helpful.
When we went to Italy last May, we spent weeks watching videos and listening to cds in the car. My 4yo LOVED this. We taught her how to introduce herself, say please/thank you, say how old she was, tell someone something was delicious...and count to 10, of course...there were some others in there, too...but I think the Italians really appreciated that our 4yo was trying--they loved it.
DH and I did a lot of Spanish in college so Italian was pretty easy to pick up. However, I have such an American accent...can't roll r's at all. Yes, I was told by a Spanish teacher in high school that I had a "Spanish speaking impediment."
How encouraging!
But...because our dd LOVED learning so much, I have been keeping an eye out for something that would be fun and gentle for her to learn a language.
YOUTUBE has some great videos for children who want to learn Italian...never searched other languages on YOUTUBE, though.
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Wife to dh (12 years) Mama to dd (10) ds (8), dd (1), ds (nb) and to Philip Mary (5/26/09), Lucy Joy (12/6/09), and Margaret Mary (3/6/10) who entered Heaven before we had a chance to hold them.
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pmeilaen
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| Posted: Feb 19 2010 at 8:25pm | IP Logged
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guitarnan wrote:
Eva - Finnish! Wow! Even my Swedish friends think it's super-difficult to learn. |
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Yes, Finnish is very difficult, but I had a great teacher from Finnland. I only took it for a semester, though, and of course don't remember very much.
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Eva
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Do you teach littles a foreign language?
