Tip 8: Teaching Spanish to your homeschooler
For homeschooling parents who have tried to conduct Spanish classes for their kids, it can be a frustrating experience to find the right resources. The result is the kids never progress beyond some basic Spanish vocabulary. The choices can be overwhelming, particularly for homeschooling parents who teach several subjects.
1 Make a good impression with a fun start As the developer of the Sing ‘n Speak Spanish® program, my philosophy always centered on the belief that learning a foreign language is fun, but ONLY if the child is succeeding at it. Rather than randomly teaching children vocabulary, I believe It is important to find an age-appropriate well thought out curriculum where vocabulary is introduced in small doses and in the right sequence. You might only get one shot to make a good impression where your child either likes or dislikes learning language so your choice is critical to developing a bilingual learner.
2 Use Spanish vocabulary building exercises To be effective, each lesson should carefully spiral-in vocabulary from previous lessons so that little by little children begin to form basic Spanish sentences. The curriculum should include a variety of activities and humor to engage the students and many thematic songs to help with long term retention. Interactive puppetry is a great way to engage in simple conversations and a favorite for children. A good curriculum should include a workbook with a variety of engaging written exercises.
3 Take advantage of lots of online Spanish resources Once you find a proper curriculum, then you can enhance the learning with many available resources. Spanish Playground is an example of a site with many free resources for parents. These include songs, written exercises and workbooks, dialogues, movies/videos, interactive computer games, flash cards, and board games. There are also full-scale online language programs like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone, but my experience is that they are more engaging to adults than children.
4 A professional Spanish teacher is a click away Many homeschool parents do not know Spanish themselves. Would you want your child to learn Math from a teacher who does not know Math? Spanish is no different. If you do not know Spanish, you need to find a Spanish speaker who is trained to teach using well developed materials. This is different from a Spanish tutor online that helps you with homework from an existing class. A teacher is equipped with a Spanish curriculum and you can find some excellent online Spanish teachers. Homeschooling is increasing a 100-fold due to COVID so quality teachers will be in demand.
Improving the Homeschool Spanish experience Because COVID-19 has required that parents become more involved in their child’s education, many are choosing to try and produce an equal or better outcome. So we applaud you for looking for lots of Spanish teaching tips to ensure you create the best experience.
