Homeschooling Spanish and French During Coronavirus/COVID-19
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Welcome, new readers! I know that a number of you have joined me here looking for resources to help you homeschool foreign languages—particularly French and Spanish—during these difficult times and while I’m sorry for the circumstances, I’m happy to have you here!
If you have found yourself suddenly schooling at home due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus), first of all, let me offer you my deepest sympathy and reassurance. These are hard times and you are doing a very hard thing. I know that you are worried about your child’s education and that there are likely many other pressures on your family during this time, be they financial, relational, or logistical. To the extent that I can help you tackle this part of your child’s education, I’m here for you.
Based on my experience as a homeschooling mom and language educator, I sharing three ways to approach language learning at home during Coronavirus schooling. These are tailored to the three different scenarios that I’ve seen in my Facebook group and include:
Parents who have materials or curricula provided by their home district, but who are seeking extra practice materials.
Parents who want to learn a language alongside their children during this time or who speak another language themselves and can take on some of the teaching.
Parents who need to outsource their children’s language learning (either because they’re waiting on district-supplied materials or are unhappy with what they’ve been given).
If you’re in another situation, let me know in the comments, and I’ll try to find something to match your needs! Otherwise, read on to find the resources you’re looking for.
Extra Practice Resources (To Complement School-Provided Curricula)
If your school district has provided digital or paper curricula for you to follow, but you’d like your child to get a little extra practice in French or Spanish, there are lots of free resources to be found online. In fact, I’ve already got two posts with my favorite free resources for practicing French and free online resources for practicing Spanish. And if you’ve heard of Duolingo and are considering using it in your home for some extra practice, here’s what I think you should know.
If your kids were in an immersion program and you want to maintain their language skills while they’re at home with you, I recommend checking out these posts for ways to do that without creating a ton more work for yourself:
Easy Trade-Offs to Help You Create an Immersion Environment at Home
Netflix Shows for Children in Spanish and French
Spanish Language Audiobooks Your Family Will Love (Ours Does!)
Our Family’s Top Spanish-Language Children’s Music
Teaching/Learning a Foreign Language Alongside Your Kids
For families who want to join in on their children’s language learning journey, or who want to keep language learning going while waiting on district-supplied teaching materials, first of all, please know that I admire your initiative! If this is your situation, I recommend that you pair a written curriculum with strategic listening and speaking practice—the combination most likely to help you achieve your goals.
As far as written curriculum goes, you can find options for every budget and language level in my homeschool French curriculum round-up and my homeschool Spanish curriculum round-up. You can also take a look at the resources that I list to see how time-intensive they are for parents—some of you will want to be “all in” while others need their kids to manage their language studies mostly independently.
For listening and speaking practice, hiring an iTalki tutor is an affordable option that can complement any written curriculum. We use iTalki for Portuguese conversation practice with our boys, and it is very cost-effective and high-quality.
If you have older children, you can allow them to do their tutoring sessions independently, but for younger kids, online tutoring is most successful when parents are involved in the tutoring relationship. You may need to do a few trial lessons with tutors to find one who is a good fit for your child, and if you have young children (as I do), you’ll likely want to attend their lessons alongside them (check that your tutor is okay with this).
Regardless of your child’s age, iTalki works best when you communicate openly and regulary with the tutor, so that they can provide your children with the exact kind of conversation practice you’re seeking. For example, each week, my son’s Portuguese tutor and I discuss what general vocabulary we want him to practice the following week: numbers, animals, colors, etc. It only takes two minutes and it helps our lessons go much more smoothly, so I recommend doing something similar with your kids’ tutor. If you have an older student, you might provide the table of contents from your child’s textbook and use that as a guide for your sessions.
Outsourcing Homeschool French or Spanish Studies
If you don’t speak the language your child is studying and/or don’t have time to oversee their work, then it’s time to look into outsourcing their French or Spanish practice. Luckily, I have great news: you have many options available to you! You can use an iTalki tutor (as stated above), or you can enroll your child in language classes with the trained teachers in one of these online homeschool academies:
Classical Academic Press’s Scholé Academy (Latin and Spanish)
The Well-Trained Mind Academy (Japanese, Spanish, Latin, German, French)
Memoria Press Online Academy (Latin, Greek, French)
Veritas Press Academy (French, Spanish, Latin, German, Greek, Mandarin)
La Clase Divertida’s Online Classes (Spanish)
Outschool (many different languages)
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to point you to resources as I am able!
