Our family reviewed Mango Homeschool Edition with Mango Languages.

This is the Beta format right now and we’re happy to work with something new and help them develop an amazing product to market to homeschoolers everywhere! We didn’t experience any real glitches and my kids loves the lessons, learning simple conversations in other languages.

We’ve used Mango for free from our local county public library before, so I wondered what the big deal was with a homeschool version. Public libraries usually only have one level of maybe a dozen languages while Mango Homeschool Edition has all levels and all languages (60 to choose from!) and community features like a forum.

My kids were excited to explore and try out a few different languages.

Tori chose to learn a few lessons of Hawaiian. Kate and I looked at Mandarin Chinese and really, really loved it.

Liz and Dad did a few lessons of Arabic.

Then we studiously practiced the German since we’re moving there in a couple months!

Once you login, the course directory lets you choose a language and join that space:

Once you join a space, you have to verify that you do indeed want to login for the lessons:

The lessons jump right in with conversations:

I was not interested in the Club or forum or having my kids use any chat features so I monitored their lessons closely. This might be fine for older students, but not my wee ones. It just wasn’t necessary. I understand they have excellent security in place to keep this a safe environment.

There are not restrictions on the number of languages a student can learn or be part of at any one time. This is great since we each joined about 5 or 6 and practiced each several times a week.

What I love:

• Simple conversational lessons with pronunciation and ability to scroll over the words and phrases to see phonetics (good for visual learners)
• Doesn’t take much time to complete a lesson
• cultural notes about language and dialects and colloquialisms (a particular term for girl in Mandarin is not a nice word to say in some provinces of China)
• self-paced. My kids and I could do 1 lesson and walk away or sit and knock out 3-4 lessons. They made it a competition.

What I don’t care for (but I’m sure they’ll improve this soon!):

• the narrator was annoying at times. I still don’t understand some of her phrasing (“without sounding inappropriate” “isn’t this easy?”). Just keep it simple and don’t make me feel like an idiot if I don’t think it’s easy.
• chat and forum accessible to my young children (we just wouldn’t ever use this)
• too much review for advanced language learners. I wanted to see what was ahead. I tested into chapter 2 of German and skipped over lots more of it and drove my husband nuts making the narrator sound like I was channel surfing over her.
• only very basic conversational and vacation language so far in our lessons (we’re moving to Germany, so we want to learn more in-depth info right now)
• no printables or real assessment in the system (apparently, they have plans for this). For the price, I want a more comprehensive program with etymology, vocabulary lists, writing, history, and culture that I can print out and use
• I have to monitor progress and listen in on lessons to check how they’re going. There was no way to assess without asking or listening. My daughters figured out how to use the microphone to test pronunciation, but it doesn’t record for assessment by a teacher.
• I just can’t imagine that this could count for any high school credit since it’s just not comprehensive enough for me to consider the few journeys offered as 2 years’ worth of foreign language study

Here is the info for German:

Journey 1

• Greetings, Gratitude, Goodbyes
• Inquiring About Someone’s Nationality
• Asking What Languages Someone Speaks
• Names and Introductions
• Getting Around
• Shopping and Payment
• Drinks and Dining
• Numbers and Currency
• Getting Help
• Asking for Clarification

Journey 2

• Addressing and Describing People and Animals
• Describing Surroundings
• Making Small Talk
• Accepting and Declining Social Invitations
• Dating
• Foods, Cooking and Dining
• Commenting on the Weather
• Using the Bank and Post Office
• Planning leisure activities
• Sightseeing

Journey 3

• Culture, Literature and Art
• Discussing Historical Events
• Addressing Medical Conditions
• Expressing Thoughts and Feelings
• Discussing Schools and Education
• Names and Their Origins
• Talking About Food and Dietary Habits
• Physical Descriptions
• Making Plans
• Sports and Exercise

Course guides in pdf format are available.

What is currently available on the site:
Over 60 different languages
Progress Assessments
Built-in journals, discussions, and wikis
Collaborative learning spaces
eNote messaging
/chat rooms
Access to embedded/downloadable content
Support from other community members
Calendars to schedule meetings or study groups
Over the next several months, we’ll be introducing other exciting features like:
Enhanced Tracking and Progress Monitoring – including seat time (for students and parents)
Goals and Personal Lesson Plans (both stand-alone and tied into Mango courses)
Resume and Portfolio Builder

The program is intended for ages 6 through adult. My youngest daughter, Kate, is almost seven and she navigated through this easily on her own.

Introductory pricing for Mango Homeschool:
1 subscription is $18/month or $125/year total
2 subscriptions is $28/month or $175 /year total
3 subscriptions is $38/month or $225/year total
4 subscriptions is $48/month or $275/year total
5 subscriptions is $58/month or $325/year total

The kids and I reviewed French Essentials.

This is supposed to be a high school program. Students can complete the modules to earn the equivalent of high school foreign language credits.

They have all the necessary lesson material available: audio, video, workbook exercises.

The format is difficult for our family to navigate. I don’t want to keep clicking through lessons for audio or video. I would prefer an audio-video lesson and then a workbook. Simple. Straightforward. Easy.

In the Download Area, I downloaded zip files of clickable pdfs. The online lessons begin with lesson 4 in module 1.

I need to write the vocabulary on the board anyway for my kids to see it. The clickable pdfs don’t really work for us. There was a lot of monotonous repetition in the audio-visuals. We skipped most of it after the first few lessons and just learned it our own way.

The girls complete the workbook pages quickly and easily as long as they can copy the vocabulary. I am not impressed with the level of learning and review in the work pages. My girls don’t really retain it and would prefer more options.

At the bottom of the screen of the Download Area are workbook downloads, answer keys, and a lesson checklist.

Five Modules have links for exercises and tests. The tests are online and I would prefer something more comprehensive that I could print and check. With four children, I just did oral checks. For the girls, I would prefer written unit tests.

The quizzes are really just audio flashcards.

There is a culture download section. We didn’t really use this after I looked through them. We can do better research and learning on our own. These are very basic.

So, the placement test already had me irritated because some of the answer choices have two correct answers. It’s not a valid test. Sure, there’s a “more correct” answer, but they don’t ask for literal meanings, only “meanings.” They don’t even say which answers are incorrect when you score it.

We began with lesson 1 and worked our way through Module 1. I took 4 semesters of French at university. I could teach that entire module without a teacher guide.

Liz humored me and sat in for the lessons and completed the workpages. Since she was the target age level, she was not impressed. She was disappointed because we had hoped this would be a great program for her.

Tori obeyed and completed the work but didn’t care for the workbook pages.

Kate really loves language and kept craving more.

Alex completed all the listening and oral exercises and then did his own writing work while the girls did their work pages.

I am not impressed. I was hoping for something more challenging and fun that I could use to help teach the girls, and eventually Alex. Tori and Kate are only 6 and 7 and were bored with the level of learning.

I can tell a lot of work went into designing this program, but it’s just not for us.

Levels:

• Pre-high school – Grades 4/5 – 7/8: Modules 1 – 5
• Middle school (junior high) – Grades – 8-9: Modules 5 & 6
• High school – Grades 10-12: Modules 7-10

We’re LOVING learning Spanish around here!

We reviewed SongSchool Spanish from Classical Academic Press.

Katie saw it all come in the mail and wanted to begin immediately. She loves music and this just fits her to a T. She is able to read the lessons herself. She has a great aptitude for language.

Tori, Alex, Katie, and I gather around the book as we listen to the CD and sing along.

I think our favorite parts are the Tortuga (turtle) and Conejo (rabbit) songs and stories. The theme seems to be the fable of the tortoise and the hare with the first few chapters. We just love that.

I ordered Tori her own student book so we could really do all the lessons together properly. The writing portions are easy enough for these 1st graders! It’s recommended for K-3rd. It’s helpful if the student can read and write in English fluently. My girls are having no trouble at all and really love it!

The lessons/chapters are only a few minutes long each day and consist of a short conversational vocabulary list and a song or two, a short application, then a written portion perfect for primary students, with tracing or circling correct answers. It’s fun, light, engaging. After several lessons, there’s a cumulative review to make sure the student retains the information.

The Spanish lessons reinforce English grammar, reminding students what nouns are in the classroom items list. My little English teacher’s heart is thrilled! We’re learning conversational Spanish with family names, things around the house, animals, and food.

We’ve been listening to the songs on the CD to get familiarized even while doing other work.

The girls walk around singing ¿Como te llamas? and ¿Como estas? They fill in family members’ names for the Yo me llamo song (My name is…).

They liked having to ask all our family members how they are feeling: bien, feliz, or triste. And they’re labeling everything in the classroom and house in Spanish. They ask me what everything is and I can’t remember or the book hasn’t taught us, they want to look it up!

The songs reinforce the lessons and vocabulary and it works like mnemonics. The kids (even the 12 year old who’s been hearing it from the other room!) all are in love with the songs and just randomly break out singing the Spanish vowel chant or alphabet song or If You’re Feliz and You Know It…

The Aesop’s fable of The Tortoise and the Hare and the story The Three Little Pigs are familiar in English and make good examples in Spanish to learn vocabulary.

There’s really no teacher prep and I don’t much need the teacher manual yet since I took several Spanish classes in school. The teacher manual has a script to follow that makes it super easy if you have no foreign language background.

We go over the vocabulary. (I review past lessons just to make sure they remember!) We sing the songs listed for the lesson (and pretty all of them up to that point because they’re fun!). We go over the lesson, which is usually a story or conversation – even better with props if we have them on hand (like the rabbit and turtle or 3 little pigs or dolls for family members or play food, etc.). Sometimes I go through the lesson a couple times for emphasis.

Then we do the practice (written portion) together. Sometimes the exercises are crafty (cut out “puppets” to use) or interactive (they have to ask each other questions) or grammar related (word origin and parts of speech) and they need a little extra help from mama. Those are my favorite lessons! That whole gender el and la is very different from English and we’ll need to review that extensively.

Tori loves the Tortuga sign and holds it up for a song prop.

Katie gets the Conejo song prop.

We all sing the songs all day long. The girls now beg to do Spanish first every day. This is a huge hit at our house! I took 4 years of Spanish in school. I extend the lessons a bit, like asking them questions in Spanish…¿Como se dice…? (How do you say…) The lessons are super easy and teachers/parents don’t need any prior experience.

The girls practiced the few lessons we’ve already learned on our Mexican youth pastor last Wednesday. They asked him how he was. They told him their names. They knew hello and goodbye in Spanish. Then they got shy. But he was impressed!

Song School Spanish Student Book and CD and Teacher’s Edition are $24.95 each

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.