I’ve always felt learning a foreign language is important.

My high school offerings were only Spanish and French. My parents encouraged me to take Spanish since they thought it would be more useful. I took three years, but in college, I maxed out the program and also took the maximum courses offered in French and German. I really wish I had become a linguist but I had few role models and no one I knew was into that.

While I am not fluent, I can get by with childish conversations in French, German, and Spanish. I can read it ok, so that’s good when we travel. I can break down and pronounce Italian.

It’s totally true that if you learn one language, it’s easier to learn others.

I don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars on a language program.

We’ve reviewed Mango, but it’s so expensive for a large family. I’ve seen Transparent Language and Rosetta Stone at the library.

Most colleges require 2 credits of the same foreign language. I want my kids to be more than prepared.

How do I teach foreign language in our homeschool?

Latin

Since we follow a classical education model, we focus on Latin in the beginning.

We being with Prima Latina at about age 8.

Then we follow the books as far as we can:

We study Latina Christiana I and II for upper elementary or middle school.

Then First Form Latin I-IV (which is mostly Henle in workbooks) in high school. There is some argument among homeschoolers about whether to count each Form as 1 high school credit.

The girls love it. It’s easy. We watch the DVDs and complete the workbooks and sing songs and recite prayers. I know it’s working because when we travel, the girls totally read the Latin inscriptions!

Greek

I’m so happy there’s a Greek program that begins with the Alphabet and continues with Elementary Greek I, II, and III.

Easy and I use the teacher’s guide for snags and to make sure since I’m unfamiliar with Greek. When we traveled to Greece, it was fun to pick apart the letters and words. While ancient Greek is a bit different, the sounds and alphabet haven’t changed!

French

I’m not super thrilled with First Start French. The lessons are not comprehensive enough for high school credit. The girls enjoy the workbooks. The CD isn’t the greatest, so I read the dialogue exercises aloud. The girls review with apps and love to practice speaking French anytime we go over the border! We’ve heard great things about William Linney’s Getting Started with French and may look into that. He also has Spanish and Latin.

German

We live in Germany, so it’s important that we can communicate with our neighbors. I bought some kids workbooks and we worked through those for vocabulary.

We worked through German for Children and now we’re on German DeMYSTiFieD.

The kids use the Duolingo app for review.
Great resources from Mason’s living languages.
These are some free online college courses we’re looking into.
BBC Languages offers free online courses.
Easy Peasy Spanish and French (scroll down)
Georgia Virtual School has courses in Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, or German. I haven’t reviewed these, but they look like little lessons and quizzes, similar to Mango.

We love these apps for when we travel:

Google Translate and Word Lens
Linguee
iTranslate
Country or Language specific apps come in handy with basic words and phrases but often have in-app purchases for more info.

How do you teach foreign languages to your students?

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We really adore this company and the Latin programs they offer!

We’ve always used Memoria Press Latin.

We reviewed Prima Latina from Memoria Press for my middle girls.

We were ready to begin Latin with Tori and Kate. Kate had been begging to begin Latin. They’re a bit younger than Liz was when she began. Liz was about 8 when she started with Prima Latina. Kate just turned 6 and Tori just turned 7.

This introductory Latin set is recommended for 2nd grade and up. The girls are transitioning into 2nd grade, so it’s great timing!

Kate was super thrilled when this arrived in the mail!

I didn’t tell her it was coming, so it was a great surprise! {I also ordered Tori her own workbook so we could all do it together.}

Here’s the setup:

We didn’t really use the flashcards, but we might review with them after we get farther on in Latin.

The lessons are designed to take about a week:

Watch the DVD.
Read and review.
CD.
Workbook.

We can do a lesson in a couple days! It’s the first thing the girls want to do each day.

Kitty watches the lessons too. Tori and Kate really like the DVDs. The DVDs are easy to navigate and slides could be printed for note taking. The pronunciation CD is great for extra listening and recitation practice.

Leigh Lowe is a great teacher! {and she sounds like home to me…Southern and all…} I usually sit and watch with the girls to make sure they understand and then we do the workbook exercises together over a couple days.

The girls really enjoyed practicing their Latin practical phrases on their big sister, who has done several years of Latin. We listened to the Lingua Angelica songs and the girls really love those. They’re beautiful and they combine a love of music with a love of language! We love learning the Latin prayers. The girls are so proud of their progress!

I love the emphasis on grammar. This helps them learn the details of English as well! Tori struggles a bit, but Kate is already a strong reader and understands the lessons well.

As a classical educator, this Latin program is comprehensive and fun and we love it. It’s a great introduction to Latin and sets a foundation for serious Latin learning with their other programs. Also, there are great supplements, like this copybook.

This introductory course Prima Latina Complete Set is $90.90.

The set consists of:

Student Book
Teacher Manual
Pronunciation CD
Instructional DVDs (9 hours!)
Flashcards

Click on over to view a sample lesson.

Homeschool Foreign Language