Series Sneak Peek: Apps for Homeschool Foreign Language Learning

Update: the series is live! Click over to my three-part review of Duolingo here (the good; the not-so-good; and the how-tos) and my review of Mango Languages (the good; the not-so-good; and the how-tos) as well. 

It is so awesome to be learning a language in 2017. 

I mean, consider this: right now, at this historical moment, we are experiencing a REVOLUTION in language learning. Technology is erasing borders, connecting people groups, and changing every aspect of how we learn languages. Language educators of fifty years ago—or even ten years ago—could not have dreamed of the technological resources that are available to us now. Online curricula, audiobooks, video chatting, and smartphone apps: all of these have transformed the way that we learn and practice foreign languages on an daily  basis. 

And from my vantage point within the homeschooling community? Well, I’ve observed that homeschoolers are some of the most enthusiastic and savvy users of this new technology. But you know what? I’d LOVE to see even more homeschooling families using the latest technology to support their language learning at home. 

So for the next two weeks or so, I’m going to be writing a series of posts focused on two of the most popular apps in homeschool language learning: Mango Languages and Duolingo. 

I’ve been spending a lot of time with both apps, and I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve learned. I’ll be writing about what I like about both programs—as a language teacher and as a mom—and also what’s not so great. I’ll also be sharing advice on how to maximize your use of each of these apps and incorporate them into your homeschool in practical, achievable ways. 

Since I’m writing this to serve you, the Language Learning at Home community, I’d love to know if you have any specific questions about these apps and how they work. If you do, please leave them here in the comments, and I’ll do my best to respond in the series. 

And in the meantime, if you'd like to talk about YOUR experience using apps for homeschool language learning, please join my Facebook group, where I'm planning an exclusive conversation on the subject! All you have to do is to click below. 

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How to Choose a Foreign Language to Study in Your Homeschool

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Decisions, decisions. Making short- and long-term decisions about the direction of your children’s education is one of the greatest privileges (and responsibilities) that homeschooling parents enjoy. Sometimes, the sheer number of options alone can be overwhelming—to say nothing of the decision-making process itself. Since homeschool curricula is so customizable, it sometimes feels like we’re obligated to study ANY and EVERY subject, perhaps even all at the same time. I know that I’ve been tempted to think that way, even though my kids are still young and really only need the basics. 

But let’s say that you’ve made the decision to include foreign languages in your homeschool. Where do you start? If you find yourself asking that question, well, today’s post is for you. 

Here, I’ve developed three questions that can help you narrow down your choices. They’re by no means the ONLY questions to ask yourself when deciding which foreign language to study, but they should help guide you toward the right decision for your family. Since your answers to each of these questions might not all point to the same language, you will have to decide which factors should weigh most heavily. My hope, however, is that these three questions will be a great “jumping off” point for deeper conversations in your family and help you feel like you are making a purposeful and well-informed decision. 

So, ask yourself these three things when choosing a foreign language to study: 

1. What world cultures are most interesting to your family? Since motivation is such an important part of language learning, it helps to connect your family’s language learning to broader interests. So when you’re deciding on a language, ask yourself this: Which language will help you develop your existing interests and thereby contribute to building your family culture? Do you love Italian food and Renaissance art? Perhaps studying Italian will be a way to dive deeper into these interests and help your family appreciate the beauty of Italian culture. Maybe your family is the adventurous type and has a shared dream of traveling to Buenos Aires. Why not expand that dream by studying Spanish and learning about Argentinean literature, music, and food in the language spoken by the porteños—that is, the people of Buenos Aires—themselves?
    
2. What languages might be most practically useful to your family? You can take this question in two directions. First, you can ask yourself what educational interests your children might pursue in the future. While this might be hard to predict if your children are little, your family culture might be a good predictor of their future careers and callings. Therefore, if you’re a science and engineering family, it might be worth studying German to prepare your children for potentially studying or working abroad. Or, if you’re a family of history buffs that adores reciting epics, Latin and Greek would be a natural choice—and would enrich any future historical study that your children choose to pursue. 
   
   Second, you can look around you to see what languages you might be able to put to use in your community. For many Americans, the most obviously useful language is Spanish, given the number of Spanish-speaking immigrants and heritage speakers who call our country home. But depending on your location, you might consider studying other languages. If you live on the U.S. and Canadian border, for example, French might be a language that members of your community speak. For our part, my husband and I grew up in an area with a large Portuguese-speaking population and now live in an area with a considerable number of Chinese immigrants. We could find practical uses for Spanish, Portuguese, or Chinese in our family. So considering that fact, your strategy could be to choose a language according to which cultural and service opportunities might be available close to home.
    
3. What resources are available to you to study the target language? Think of three categories of resources when developing your answer to this question: communities, curricula, and tools.

          Communities: How can you arrange real-life practice of the language for your children? Are
          there classes available through your homeschool co-op, local libraries, or dual-enrollment  
          programs that will enable your child to practice the language with a fluent speaker and
          other language leaners? Do you have the resources to enroll in on-line classes for your child
         or to hire a private tutor to teach your family?

          Curricula: Are foreign language courses available through the curricula that you already
          use? Bob Jones University, for example, has its own Spanish course for its students, while
          Classical Conversations recommends a particular Latin textbook to use. If you are not using
          a boxed curriculum or participating in a program like Classical Conversations, do you have
          the time and energy to evaluate your curriculum options? If you need a little help in this
          area, I would suggest asking around your homeschool community and checking Cathy
          Duffy Reviews to research your choices further—she has an excellent list of curricula in
          different languages. 

         Tools: Would your child benefit from any of the apps and programs that exist to teach
         foreign languages? I consider most of these a supplement to formal language learning
         curricula, but they are excellent for reinforcing new concepts and increasing student
         motivation. The apps Duolingo and Mango are a great place to start and free through many
         libraries. I’ll be posting soon on how to maximize the use of those apps in your homeschool
         language learning—so stay tuned!

         Also consider how easy it is to acquire authentic texts in the target language; are there
         foreign language books, CDs, and DVDs available through your local library, or can you
        order those materials online? Since authentic texts are one of the best ways to engage with a
         foreign language, this is an important consideration. Your ability to access authentic texts in
         a particular language may be better than another. For our family, while we can get most of
        our Spanish-language resources from the library, our Portuguese study requires a more
        serious financial investment, because our library has no Portuguese-language books and
        those that we do use have been imported into the U.S. (read: expensive). However, there are
       creative ways around this: for example, could you share some books with another family
       studying the same language, or could you subscribe to a service like Epic!, which lets you
       check out foreign language e-books for kids?

        The more resources that are available to your family for a given language, the greater your
        chances of being able to learn it well. I like a wrap-around approach to language learning
        that includes practice in all four areas of language learning: reading, writing, listening AND
        speaking. You may have to pull resources from two, or even three categories in order to
        satisfy all of those areas of learning, so the more resources that are available to you in
        general, the better. 

I know that this all seems like a lot to consider—and it is!—but I hope that these questions will help you feel more confident in your decisions about language study and help your family to understand exactly why you’ve chosen the language that you have. 

What other factors did you consider when choosing a foreign language to study in your homeschool? How did you ultimately make the decision to study a particular language?

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Audiobooks: The Secret Weapon for Homeschool Foreign Language Learning

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If you’ve been around the homeschool community for a while, you’ve likely noticed something curious about homeschoolers' "reading" habits:

Homeschoolers LOVE their audiobooks.

From Story of the World to the Green Ember Series, homeschool families are probably some of the most enthusiastic audiobook listeners on the planet.

And this is for good reason. Research strongly points to the many educational benefits of reading aloud to children—all of which apply to audiobooks as well. (If you’d like to learn more about this research, by the way, I strongly recommend Jim Trelease’s classic Read-Aloud Handbook and Sarah Mackenzie’s podcast, the Read-Aloud Revival).

Now, I’d like to let you in on a little secret….

All of the benefits of reading aloud to children apply equally in foreign languages.

I’m speaking from both personal experience and research here: over the years, our family has acquired hundreds of Spanish-language audiobooks to support our kids’ language learning.

Here are just a few ways that audiobooks in the target language can enrich language learning in your homeschool:

1. Audiobooks can improve your child’s listening comprehension by providing exposure to native speakers with varying accents. Logistical challenges can make it difficult for homeschooled students to spend much time interacting with native speakers—let alone native speakers from different countries. Audiobooks, however, provide an opportunity for homeschoolers to hone their listening comprehension skills with authentic texts (originally written in the target language) performed by readers from around the globe. 

2. Audiobooks provide convenient, on-the-go opportunities for language practice WITHOUT a major commitment from mom. If your children are struggling to make deliberate practice a part of their language study, audiobooks might just be what they need. You can redeem that fifteen minute drive to soccer practice by listening to a book in your child’s target language—and in just fifteen minutes, you’ll be helping their language development immensely, with little effort or planning on your part!

3. Audiobooks can be paced to match your child’s current language skills, while also stretching their language development. Unlike everyday conversation, where it’s easy to miss new vocabulary, with audiobooks, your child can press “pause” and “replay” as much as needed to aid in his or her comprehension. With the Audible app, you can also listen to books at 0.75 speed—a strategy that I recommend strongly for new language learners. 

So, how can your family get started with audiobooks in a foreign language? Here are five simple steps to follow:

1. Sign up for an Audible.com account—you get two free books with a 30-day trial. If your local library has a subscription to either Hoopla or Overdrive, you may also find audiobooks on those apps, but I find that their foreign language collections are extremely limited compared to Audible’s. 

2. Search for audiobooks in your child’s target language. Go to “Browse Audible” and then select “Foreign Language” to find Audible’s offerings in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese. Once you’ve selected your language, click “See All” to visit a page where you will see the “Kids” category on the left-hand side. 

3. Match the audiboooks (roughly) to your child’s level of language proficiency. While Audible does not classify its audiobooks by level of difficulty, it does classify them by age appropriateness, which we can use as a rough guide for proficiency. For beginning language learners, start with books targeted at ages 0-4; intermediate learners should steer towards the ages 5-7 category. 

4. If your child is just starting a foreign language, look for supplemental materials to support his/her listening. If your child is in his/her first few years of language study, it’s a good idea to listen to picture books that you’ve already read in English, so that your child can enjoy the listening experience rather than dissecting every part of the narrative. if your library has a good selection of foreign language books, you could also consider checking out those that have corresponding audiobooks. Following the written text while listening (for children who can read) will provide extra reinforcement of the target language in your child’s mind. 

5. Enjoy your audiobooks…again and again! Listen to your audiobooks while you’re folding laundry, eating lunch, driving to extracurriculars, playing with Duplos, drawing at the table…whenever your family feels like it! If time allows, don’t hesitate to listen to it on repeat—younger children will likely request this anyways, and the repeated exposure to the story will aid in their comprehension.

If you’re studying Spanish at home, I encourage you to check out my post with our family’s favorite Spanish audiobooks. In the meantime, I’d love to know: has your family used audiobooks to support language learning? Which ones have you enjoyed most?

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Three Study Habits for Homeschool Language Learners

Is your child just starting to learn a foreign language? 

Perhaps this is the first school year that your bambino has chosen to study Italian, or your filho, Portuguese. That’s great!

Now, how’s your routine for language study going? Is your child struggling to implement regular practice sessions and review?

If your family is still looking to find a groove for language learning, let me encourage you to keep it simple. 

Remember: when studying a foreign language, consistency often counts more than intensity. Short, targeted practice sessions are more effective than epic, sweeping reviews, so if your children develop consistent practice habits, they will be well on their way to fluency.

And this is great news, because if you can help your children develop these habits—even if you don’t speak the target language yourself—you CAN support them well in their language learning. 

So, exactly what habits should language learners practice? I’m so glad you asked! 

Here are three helpful, research-proven habits that I suggest to all new language learners: 

1. Connect language study to a bigger goal.
2. Practice the target language every day. 
3. Model a positive attitude toward mistakes. 

Let’s talk about these a little more in-depth: 

1.) Connect language study to a bigger goal. This is essential. Your child has to know the “why” behind your family’s choice to study a foreign language. Is it because you have relatives who speak the language? Or perhaps you’re planning a #worldschooling experience and want to be prepared to communicate in the countries you visit? Or maybe your daughter loves Pablo Neruda’s poetry (me too) and she wants to be able to read it in the original Spanish? Whatever the reason, write it down—on the dining room wall if you have to! Language learning can be challenging, but keeping this goal front-of-mind will help your child see a purpose to the grammar practice and vocabulary drills, because it helps them develop what’s called integrative motivation. And it’s precisely that kind of motivation that is key to successful language learning. 

2.) Practice the target language every day. In an ideal world, your child would be able to speak the language every day, but since that is near-impossible for most homeschool families, make it a goal to practice at least one element of communication every day: listening, reading, speaking, and/or writing. This is called deliberate practice and oftentimes, it can be satisfied by simple changes in your family’s lifestyle. For example, I’m a big fan of replacing everyday activities with substitutes in the target language.  For example, could your family listen to a few songs in French during breakfast? Perhaps your high school student could read one blog post in Chinese every afternoon. Work with your child to develop a loose schedule of practice that fits his/her interests and personalities. This doesn’t need to take lots of time every day, but it is best if—just like math practice—it happens every day. 

3.) Model a positive attitude toward mistakes. So let me back up a little bit. This piece of advice assumes that your children will make mistakes while learning the language—which is actually great! Making mistakes indicates that your children are taking (good) risks in their attempts to use the language. Therefore, it’s important to know that mistakes are par for the course with language learning, and that a bit of struggle is actually a good sign—not an indication that your child “can’t” learn languages. So when your child encounters an obstacle, try your best to model a positive attitude towards mistake, by treating them as the learning opportunities that they are. If you speak (or are at least familiar with) the language that your children are studying, try your best to correct the mistake alongside your child; if the language is totally unfamiliar to you, this would be where (one would hope) your chosen curriculum would give you the necessary resources to support your child. 

What habits have you helped your child develop to support his/her language study? Are there any habits that I haven’t included here that you’ve found particularly helpful?

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Why We Do Homeschool and Preschool

Ever since I started researching homeschooling options, I’ve discovered that there are a lot of opinions in the homeschool world about preschool.

Some homeschooling families are content to do preschool at home—some with a more play-based model, some with a more structured, academic approach. Some even take an unschooling approach to preschool, choosing to emphasize life skills as the core of their curriculum. 

Other homeschooling families purposefully send younger siblings to preschool in order to give older children more focused attention during school hours.

In our family, we combine these approaches, and take a mostly “life skills” approach to home education, but our older son, Xavi, also attends a bilingual, Christian, Reggio-inspired preschool for two afternoons a week.

We decided to send him to preschool because as a bilingual family, it was important to us that our son was exposed to Spanish speakers outside of our immediate family unit. We wanted him to see that people besides ourselves speak Spanish, and that by learning to speak the language well, he could expand his circle of friends and his experiences.

We also know that even with me at home, speaking Spanish to him most of the time, we will always have to devote a significant amount of time and attention to the development of his Spanish skills.

It is very common for bilingual children to resist communicating in the minority language—that is, the language that is not spoken in the dominant culture—and we found that that was the case for our son. Once, he even begged me to just let him a “niño normal”—a normal kid—which he defined as a kid who spoke only English.

And so, two months in to our preschool journey, I am happy to report that preschool is going great! It has been a very positive influence on him, and is supporting his Spanish language development in exactly the way that I hoped. Xavi is much less reticent to speak Spanish than he was in the past and comes home from school each day sharing new songs and words that he’s learned in our second family language.

His response to preschool has been so positive that I am now looking for ways to replicate this environment in the future. Besides planning for future trips to Latin America (budgets allowing…), I hope to enroll him in a Saturday Spanish School, so that he has consistent practice speaking Spanish in an environment where there are no other options.

So that’s where we are today in our education journey as “part-time homeschoolers”—learning at home, in Spanish, with some support from preschool.

I’d love to know: have you made use of preschool programs for your homeschooling family? Why did you decide to send your children to preschool?

A Day in the Life Here

Earlier this week, I wrote about our homeschool’s goals for 2017-2018 and how our daily rhythms support them.

Now, I’d like to provide you with a visual chart of our days, so that you can see more clearly how it all fits together. Consider this a “day in the life” post. 

Please note that this is an ideal—and not an exact—representation of our days. We do have weekly outside commitments, like our Bible study, that are not all included here and of course, things like playdates and teething babies also force us to shift our schedule at times. Despite that, I hope that this will give you an idea of how we incorporate language learning into all elements of our day—and perhaps give you some inspiration for how you could do so as well!

6-7 AM Quiet Time and/or Sleep

If I’ve woken up less than three times the night before, I’ll get up around 6:00 and spend a half hour reading my Bible, praying, and enjoying my first cup of coffee. I’ll then spend about half an hour reading through Feedly and updating my Twitter feed with the best new articles on homeschooling and language learning.

If the baby has been up more than three times the night before, well, all bets are off. 

7-9 AM Café + Libros/Breakfast

My older son comes out of his room at 7:00, and we usually snuggle on the couch for 30 minutes to enjoy “Café + Libros”—our Spanish-language version of Coffee and Books. We’ll usually get through two picture books or a chapter of our Magic Treehouse books before the baby starts squawking for attention. Xavi especially loves this time because he gets his daily tablespoon of coffee. As you can tell, I really am doing my best to immerse him in Latin American culture.

Sometimes our read-alouds continue through breakfast, but more often than not, we spend that time listening to Spanish music (lately, it’s been this CD) or a dramatized Bible story in Spanish. 

9-10:30 AM Playtime + Chores

While the baby is taking his morning nap, Xavi and I usually play together for 30 minutes or so before doing our daily chores. There are some challenges to living in a small space as a family of four, but getting chores done isn’t one of them! Every time I clean my house, I am grateful for its limited square footage, since I generally need only 15-20 minutes to accomplish my daily “big chores,” such as cleaning the bathroom or the kitchen. Oftentimes, Xavi listens to an Audible book while I do this, but I also pull him into these chores as appropriate. So far, he’s really good at spraying and wiping down counters, scrubbing the kitchen floor (we put down rags and “ice skate” to get it clean), and cleaning crevices with the Dustbuster. 

10:30-12:00 PM Outdoor Time

At this point in the morning, I’ve been awake for a few hours and am starting to feel claustrophobic in the house, so we head out. Depending on the weather and the day of the week, we will go to a park, a nature center, or a local Storytime. Our double stroller has repaid its cost ten times over (at least!) with these outings. 

12:00 PM - 3:00 PM Lunch + Siesta

Lunch is well, lunch, but I consider nap time to be a cultural experience in and of itself—after all, we’re participating in “siesta culture!” All jokes aside, nap time is non-negotiable in our house. I use that time to read, work on this blog, prep for my Bible studies, and complete any volunteer work that I’ve signed up for. Two days a week, Xavi spends this time in preschool, so it’s just Felix napping at home with me. 

3:00 - 6:00 PM Adventure Time

Since this is the longest period of the day when both kids are awake, this is when we do our big adventures: hikes in the forest, trips to downtown DC, and long, lingering visits to the library. I generally plan one “big” outing per week (like a hike) and reserve one afternoon for grocery shopping—for the other three days, we just do whatever sounds good that day. 

6:00 - 7:30 PM Dinner + Bed

My husband works long hours, so most nights, I fly solo with the kids for dinner and bedtime. During dinner, we like to listen to classical music and play “conductor”—Xavi and I pretend to conduct the music and Felix gets a good laugh out of it. Listening to classical and chamber music during dinner, especially when I am alone with the boys, helps me feel more like an #awesomeadult and also develops their budding appetites for good art, so win-win! Xavi has become so enamored of Wagner because of our classical dinners that we are actually heading to a (local, free) Wagner concert in a few weeks! I’m pretty sure that we won’t be able to stay for the whole thing, but I do hope that he at least gets to hear “The Ride of the Valkyries” performed live.

After dinner, Xavi picks up his toys and is then allowed to watch one show in Spanish (this month, it’s Octonauts) while I clean up the kitchen. Felix gets his last wiggles out cruising along our furniture at this point. Afterwards, we get pajamas on, brush teeth, and start in on bedtime reading. We read a picture book (Xavi’s choice), read one story from our current Spanish Bible, and finally, pray before going to sleep. The two questions that guide our prayers (which we learned from our pastor in a sermon he preached last year) are these: "What happened today that you would like to thank God for?" and "What do you need God’s help with today?” Once Xavi is down, I take Felix and put him to sleep in our room. 

7:30-10:30 PM Cooking + Blogging

After the kids are in bed, I clean up dinner and then start cooking. Ever since I had Xavi and was writing my dissertation, I have used the evenings as cooking time. Back then, I found it impossible to focus on any serious intellectual work after having already spent hours of my day poring over academic research and writing. Nowadays, I’m somewhat less exhausted (at least mentally!), but its still a good time for me to listen to audiobooks and putter around in the kitchen. I generally cook three nights a week, six meals at a time. Since we have some serious food allergies between Felix and myself, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen making meals from scratch. Although this can be intense sometimes, I love it, because it frees up our days and lets us spend the maximum amount of time outdoors, since we never have to be back home to cook dinner—it’s already prepared.

I also use the nighttime to read and work on administrative tasks related to the blog (like social media scheduling and e-mail). My husband comes home late (some nights at 8 PM, some nights at 2 AM…), so whenever he arrives (although not at 2 AM), we check in and try to spend at least 15 minutes together rehashing the day. Most of our “together time” is on the weekends, though. 

Our Homeschool's Learning Goals, 2017-2018

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I’m a little late to the game here—after all, late summer is really the season for posts about curriculum choices—but in the interest of giving you a peek into our daily life here, I thought that I would share our “homeschool” learning goals for 2017-2018 and what tools we’re using along the way.

Before I do that, however, I do have one important disclaimer:

I am mostly homeschooling my three-year-old, so at this point, our “homeschool" is really more of a lifestyle than anything else. We are doing some formal learning this year, but are not using any particular curriculum, and we mostly follow my son's interests within a loose framework. My preschool philosophy is basically summed up by what Lisa Healy wrote here—we rely on “natural learning.”

At this point, my primary objective is to build a culture of learning for my boys that centers around our family values. To do that, I try to structure our daily rhythms around activities that support that goal.

So instead of offering you a rundown of curriculum choices, I’d like to share with you our homeschool’s learning goals for this year. They are roughly separated into three categories:

Goal #1: Learning to Love God (Religious Study)

We are a Christian family, so prioritizing religious study is important to us. Our two daily practices that support this right now are: memorizing Bible verses and having family devotions at bedtime.

For our verse memorization, we tackle a new (short) verse every week. As I was not raised in a Christian home, nor has my education included much memory work, this is actually a wonderful challenge for me! I write our weekly verse out on our contact paper blackboard, which sits opposite our dining room table, so that we can review our verse at every meal and snack. Usually, the verses are related to character issues that we are working on (mine and his!) and I use Parenting With Scripture as a reference to find them.

At this point, I am trying to help my older son memorize each verse in English and Spanish (look for a future post explaining why), so the verse is written in both languages. So far this year, we have memorized Romans 12:10b, 1 Thess 5:11a, Psalm 37:8 and Psalm 56:3.

In terms of family devotions, we do them at bedtime with Scholastic’s Lee-Aprende Bible.

We have a number of Spanish language Bibles (some better than others), but this one is just at the right level of sophistication for my older son. When he was younger, we used the Big Picture Story Bible, even though it is not currently available in Spanish. We read one story from the Bible and pray—it’s pretty much as simple as can be.

We also frequently listen to these dramatized Bible stories (recorded in Spanish) over breakfast. They are rather long, clocking in at about 45 minutes each, so we usually only get through one half during a meal. However, they have been great at making familiar Bible stories—especially Old Testament ones—“come alive” for my older son.

Goal #2: Learning to Love His World (Nature Study)

We spend as much time outdoors as possible, for a number of reasons—some of which are more noble than others. Yes, I want my sons to appreciate God’s creation and the creativity that He displays through it. I also don’t want to lose my mind living in a 900 square ft. apartment with two active boys. Moreover, I find myself bored when I’m cooped up indoors for too long indoors. Finally, I love that being out of the house seems to magically reduce sibling rivalry so...we are outdoors a lot.

We live in a very urban area, but have easy access to hiking trails. We go for short hikes (1-1.5 hours) about every other week, and also visit nature centers about once a month.

Pants totally optional for nature babies (note big brother's amusement)

In addition, I’ve planned some formal nature learning for this year. This fall, we plan to: 

• Attend a campfire to learn about nocturnal animals (as my son adores bats, in particular) 
• Participate in a class about river animals at our nature center 
• Go on a bilingual nature walk at our local nature center
• Go apple picking and make applesauce 

We have also been encouraging my son’s burgeoning interest in scientific topics, so this year, we are doing some (very) loose unit studies on:

• Anatomy and the human body 
• The water cycle 
• The seasons

Once I’ve assembled our materials for those unit studies, I look forward to providing a resource post.

Goal #3: Learning to Love His People (Language Arts + Cultural Education)

Here are some of the daily and weekly practices that we have adopted to support our sons’ language development in Spanish:

• We practice (as consistently as possible) the One Parent One Language model; I speak Spanish to the boys and my husband speaks English. I communicate with the boys in Spanish probably about 80 percent of the time. I do need to personally be more committed to speaking Spanish to them in public—it’s so easy to slide into English to avoid social awkwardness, but really, there’s no reason that I can’t translate for non-Spanish speakers.  
• Xavi attends bilingual preschool twice a week; we signed him up for this specifically so that he would have other people holding him accountable for speaking Spanish and so that he could get a sense of the utility of the language outside of our family.  His preschool is a bilingual, Christian, Reggio-inspired school whose educational philosophy really supports the work that we are doing at home, and I am so grateful for that. Even though he’s only been going for a few weeks, he is already much more confident in his Spanish speaking abilities—I am blown away by the positive impact it’s had so far!
• We read aloud in Spanish for at least 30 minutes daily, usually in the morning and at bedtime. We just started on chapter books (he loves the Magic Treehouse series, which are available in Spanish) and we have many picture books that we enjoy in rotation. 
• We memorize one poem every other week(ish) in Spanish. These are short—usually only four verses or so—yet it is truly amazing to see how easy this is for him to do. I think it helps that I reward him with an m&m (yes, a single m&m) if he recites it correctly each morning. 
• We try to do as much of “daily life” in Spanish as possible—we listen to the news in Spanish, listen to music in Spanish with our Amazon Unlimited account, and look at the Spanish language newspapers that are available for free at the Metro. When in public, we also speak Spanish to other Hispanophones as much as possible. 

Important cultural tip: if the piñata malfunctions, you can just tear it open and throw the candy (see my example).

In terms of cultural learning, well—we’re doing it all the time! Much of our cultural learning comes through our read-alouds, but we also have a big adventure planned: next summer, we are planning a month-long trip to Latin America (exact location TBD). This will provide the boys with lots of Spanish language exposure, plenty of cultural learning opportunities, and give me a chance to collect materials for future home education endeavors. I really can’t wait!

So that’s it—whew! Thanks for sticking with me this whole time. Later this week, I’ll be providing a chart of our daily routine so that you can have a more visual sense of how it all works out.

Language Learning 101: Celebrate Progress. (Tip #10)

If your homeschooler has been studying a foreign language for any length of time, he or she probably knows by now that sometimes, mastery of a new language comes slowly. It can take many rounds of flashcard review, chanting verb conjugations, and listening to native speakers in order to be able to utter a single coherent phrase. And even once your child is able to speak or write a phrase in the new language, he or she might feel just plain awkward about it (that’s normal, by the way, and it passes).

Because language learning requires such a significant time and energy investment, it is crucial to help your child celebrate his/her progress during the process. Much like learning math or learning to play a musical instrument, learning to communicate in a new language requires a significant investment of time and energy—and without some fun thrown in, this level of investment can feel burdensome.

So, what’s a homeschooling parent to do? How can we come alongside our children to show interest in their budding language skills and encourage them to keep working hard at learning a new language?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Invite your child’s friends over for a language-themed party. Have your child plan the menu and activities (lots of cultural learning right there!) and offer a mini-vocabulary lesson to his friends—at least the food vocabulary, if nothing else! There are a million ways to do this, so here’s a few possible themes (and I’d love to hear your additional ideas in the comments):

• German students: Oktoberfest with sausages, sauerkraut, and pretzels (and maybe some German folk dance)? 
• Spanish students: A Three Kings party with “rosca de reyes” on Epiphany. 
• French students: Birthday Party for the Marquis de Lafayette (ties in well with a history unit on the American Revolution!).

2. Host a family movie night with a film in your child’s chosen language of study. This is be rounded out with some delicious treats as well. Common Sense Media, which I always check before showing anything to my own children, has a great list of foreign films that are safe for kids.

3. Plan a poetry teatime for your homeschool co-op that includes works written in your child’s new language. Many libraries have bilingual anthologies of children’s poetry—be they Spanish/English, French/English, or German/English. Work with your child (and your local librarian) to choose her favorite texts, and then make copies of the poems available in both languages. If you have a particularly extroverted and/or performative child, perhaps she would be willing to recite the poetry in its original language for her friends. Again, make this fun with some decorations and food. Preparing themed snacks for the teatime can be a great learning experience and fun bonding time for you and your child as well. 

Have you planned any similar activities to encourage your family’s language learning? What did you do? 

Language Learning 101: Involve others. (Tip #9)

As part of our journey towards “official” homeschooling, I’ve spent the past few months working my way through a stack of the most influential books on the subject. I’m really into immersive learning (like a unit study—for me!), so I’ve been cashing in all of my birthday gift cards to buy more and more resources.

Along the way, one of the most intriguing philosophies of education that I’ve studied has been that of Charlotte Mason (you’ve probably heard of her).

Although prior to reading her books, I knew that Charlotte Mason promoted foreign language education for her students, I was pleasantly surprised to find that her philosophy of language education was strikingly similar to my own. 

In her book Parents and Children (aff), for example, Mason writes:

What shall we teach our children? Is there one subject that claims our attention more than another? Yes, there is a subject or class of subjects which has an imperative moral claim            upon us. It is the duty of the nation to maintain relations of brotherly kindness with other nations: therefore it is the duty of every family, as an integral part of the nation, to be able to hold brotherly speech with the families of another nations as opportunities arise; therefore to acquire the speech of neighbouring nations is not only to secure an inlet of knowledge and a means of culture, but is a duty of that higher morality (the morality of the family) which aims at universal brotherhood; therefore every family would do well to cultivate two languages besides the mother tongue, even in the nursery. (7, emphasis mine)

Her methods for teaching language also had a distinct emphasis on the language learning in service of the “other” and emphasized fluent communication as the goal of language learning. By the time her students were high school age, they were said to have been able to watch a play in French and deliver a proficient narration of it.

But for homeschoolers, consistent conversation practice can be difficult to schedule. Beyond tutors and outside classes, it might be difficult to find fluent speakers with which your children can practice their developing language skills. Yet it is certainly not impossible! Here are a few ideas for how to locate speakers of another language:

1. Look into volunteering opportunities in your community. 
   • Does your nearest city have a population that speaks the target language? Plan a visit to their ethnic neighborhood to see if any churches or community organizations might need help. Perhaps there is a church- or locally-sponsored food bank seeking volunteers to serve its Spanish-speaking clients. The whole family can get involved in an activity like that while supporting the language learner’s development.
   • Look on a site like idealist.org for non-profits that serve different populations in your community—their volunteer opportunities are often linked to their listings. 
      
2. Investigate language societies in your state or city that offer cultural events and conversation practice. 
   • For French students: Alliance Française
   • For Spanish learners: The Instituto Cervantes (English-language resource)
   • For German students: The Goethe Institute 
   • For Chinese learners: Local Chinese Arts and Culture Institutes (these tend to be community-specific) 
3. Get creative! These random suggestions might work for you:
   • If you are Catholic, why not attend a Spanish Mass at another parish?  
   • Check to see if your local library has conversation groups and if they don’t, start one! 
   • Search Meetup.com for a playgroup that is conducted in the target language. 

What suggestions do you have for involving others in your child’s language learning?

[Image provided by Flickr user Bill Benzon and used under a Creative Commons license]

Language Learning 101: LOVE the Language. (Tip #8)

*This post uses affiliate links--thanks so much for supporting Language Learning At Home.

One of the greatest privileges of motherhood, for me, has been watching my children learn new things.

I mean, what is more fun than watching a baby figure out how to walk? Right now, I’m experiencing this for the second time with my younger son, who is just learning how to coordinate himself while upright. He applies himself so diligently to the task, cruising along the walls of our apartment and pushing his little walker around the living room, one awkward stride after another. When he falls, he doesn’t get discouraged—he just gets up and doggedly tries again. And when he’s able to take a few steps on his own, boy, is he proud of himself—and so am I!

If only we could all approach learning the way a baby does!

Yet sometimes, despite our best efforts to cultivate wonder and joy in our homeschool, children can mistakenly come to believe that learning is drudgery. Let’s be honest: sometimes we can feel that way too. Even the most enthusiastic adult learner can become discouraged by challenging material or by long practice sessions with new skills.

When learning a new language, the potential for burnout is very real. The beginning stages of language study—particularly for older learners—require lots of memorization, conjugation practice, and sometimes, necessary frustration before any true learning can occur.

For that reason, I love the idea of prioritizing delight in foreign language study. There has to be a balance between hard work and enjoyment in learning. My thinking on this has been deeply informed by Julie Bogart of BraveWriter, who writes the following in a post entitled "What Enchanted Education is Not:"

“The goal is to remember that for kids and teens, rote learning using pen and paper (abstraction) and receptive learning through reading text books is rarely enough to keep the enthusiasm high and the learning applied. Anyone can “enchant” learning because you have heart, connection to resources, and a home filled with space for exploration and coziness. ”

So what are some ways to infuse delight into your language learning? I’ll have plenty of posts on this soon, but here are a few ideas to start with:

1. Work with your child to cook a recipe from the target culture. If you’re studying Spanish, I adore Rich Bayless’s cookbooks (like this one and this one) for the way that they integrate cooking and cultural learning. 
2. Take an hour to Google photos from a target country and compile them into a daydream-worthy calendar. 
3. Visit a bodega to buy a paleta, or some pan dulce, or a package of tamarind-flavored candy. If you’re studying a language other than Spanish, seek out an ethnic grocery store!
4. Watch a movie set in a country where the target language is spoken--even better if it's in the target language!
5. Buy your child his/her favorite book in the target language. As an intermediate language student, I improved my Spanish by reading Harry Potter. Win win!

What are some ways that you have brought delight to language learning in your homeschool? What have been the most enjoyable learning experiences that your family has shared?

[Slighly modified image provided by Flickr user Dermott O'Halloran and used under a Creative Commons license]

Language Learning 101: Activate Your Senses! (Tip #7)

When you speak your native tongue, do you always do it sitting down and perfectly poised with pen in hand?

Of course you don’t! So why would we expect our children to learn a new language in such an artificial scenario?

When we are talking with others in our native language, we are constantly gesturing, shifting position, and even moving around the room to make ourselves understood. Language learning, then, is naturally enhanced by such a physical element—after all, we communicate not only with our words, but with our bodies.

Some homeschoolers are catching on to this and studying through curriculums like Excelerate, which uses a method called Total Physical Response to teach Spanish.

But what if you’re not following one of those curricula?

Here are some ideas on how introducing physical movement to your child’s language study can help reinforce his or her learning.

1. “Active" verb conjugations:
   • Have your child practice conjugations aloud and apply a particular motion to each conjugation. For example, if he is reviewing the present tense conjugation of the verb HABLAR in Spanish, he could clap between each conjugation like this: Yo hablo (clap), Tú hablas (clap), Él habla (clap), etc. Not only does the action help make the conjugation more memorable, but saying the conjugation aloud also reinforces it in the brain. 
   • Playing “Simon Says” with your child is a great way to practice the command form of verbs along with new vocabulary (such as body parts or colors). 
2. Vocabulary Charades:
   • Play “Vocabulary Charades" with your child to practice his/her vocabulary. Suggest a word and have your child act it out. Not only will the game help cement new words in your child’s memory, but it will also likely be a lot of fun for you as well! 
3. Drama practice: 
   • For the child who can read and write in her language of study, encourage her to read and act out scenes from authentic pieces of literature. She can prepare by watching any cinematic representations of the scene—which will not only provide acting clues, but challenge her listening skills as well! 
   • Have the child memorize a poem in his/her target language and perform it for the family, complete with “choreography”—timed breaths, movements to emphasize certain words, meaningful glances at key moments in the poem. You might be surprised at how physical a poetry performance can be! 
   • And my personal favorite: have your child write out brief scenes based on thematic vocabulary (a supermarket scene, for example, to practice food vocabulary). If you speak (or are learning) the language along with your child, you can offer to be the other “actor” in the scene—or perhaps there’s another homeschooled child who’s willing to fill the role! I love this from a pedagogical angle because it hits all of the key components of language learning: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Honestly! It doesn’t get much better than that. 

Do you have any strategies for integrating physical activity into your language study? Are you using Excelerate? I’d love to hear about your experience!

[Image provided by Flickr user Sam Deng and used under a Creative Commons license]

Language Learning 101: Connect Language to Culture. (Tip #6)

What is the end goal of language learning?

Each family may have a different reason for studying foreign languages in their home: some may do so in order to prepare for travel opportunities, others may do it as part of the college admissions process, and still more may study languages in order to prepare their children for future employment opportunities.

Undergirding all of these motivations, however, is a simple truth: language study is not about language alone—it's about the cultures and peoples connected to that language. We study languages in order to better know those who are different from us—and to make ourselves better known to them as well.

If your daughter wants to work in Mexico, for example, she will not only have to study Spanish grammar and vocabulary, but she will also have to learn how to live like a Mexican. She’ll have to learn how to greet others with a kiss on the cheek, to do her shopping during the week, since many stores are closed on Sundays, and to tip the baggers at the grocery store. She’ll also learn that tacos in Mexico are nothing like what’s on the menu at Taco Bell—they are much, much more delicious.

Anchoring language study within a broader plan of cultural study, therefore, is essential to providing children with a complete experience of language learning. Grammar and vocabulary divorced from culture are tiresome and unrewarding, but contextualizing language learning within a broader cultural framework naturally provides motivation for students.

Luckily, most language curricula are already structured to include this. But if your language curriculum doesn’t, how can you help your homeschool student pursue cultural learning?

Here are some general recommendations:

• Consider learning alongside your child in English. Here are some ideas:
  • Watch travel shows about other countries that speak the target language. Maybe some Rick Steves or National Geographic?
  • Check out cookbooks from the library that focus on cuisine from a target country. 
  • Combine the above two and watch cooking shows that have a cultural element. Pati’s Mexican Table and Rick Bayless’s show are both great for Spanish learners.  
• Look for cultural learning opportunities in your neighborhood. 
  • Does your neighborhood or city have any ethnic grocery stores? Take a field trip to study the new foods and compare the experience to your typical grocery shopping. 
  • If your child is older, perhaps he/she could volunteer to teach English to immigrants in your area who speak the target language. 
  • Perhaps your family could get involved with a church ministry that serves people from different cultures. 

And if your child is studying Spanish, may I also recommend my list of our family’s favorite resources? These have all been tested and approved by us personally, and have provided loads of opportunities for discussing what life is like in other countries. They have also been a good motivation for my older, extroverted son to keep practicing his Spanish, because, as I remind him frequently, “The more languages you know, the more friends you can have.”

If you’d like to read more about the importance of cultural education, I suggest this excellent article on how to raise global children.

How have you helped your child make cultural learning a part of his or her foreign language study?

[Image provided by Flickr user Alex Proimos and used under a Creative Commons license]

Language Learning 101: Make Mistakes, Then Correct Them. (Tip #5)

Did you ever think about how much courage it takes for our children to learn a new language?

A lot!

If you yourself have studied a second language, you know that awkward stage—the one where you keep mispronouncing words, struggling with conjugations, and mishearing your conversation partner. I remember that stage well myself, and I also remember the relief when I finally got through it!

It takes a great deal of determination—and indeed, hope—to soldier on through the beginning stages of language learning.

So when I am working with students, I like to emphasize the value of courage in language learning—especially the courage to make mistakes.

After all, linguistic researchers generally agree that making mistakes has an important role in language learning. When a child makes mistakes in his reading, writing, or speaking of a foreign language, that means that he is challenging his own language abilities, and ultimately, growing in his communicative skills.

But there’s an important caveat: as much as possible, mistakes should be corrected, so that they don’t become erroneous patterns in the brain.

After all, our brain assimilates that which we practice, and so if we repeatedly use incorrect conjugations, for example, those patterns will become ingrained.

As a parent, you can support your learner in making—and correcting—mistakes in two key ways:

1. Encourage your child to take risks with the language that he or she is learning. If she is studying Spanish, why not help her find a Spanish-speaking pen pal to write to? It will surely be more difficult to write a letter than to complete a workbook page, but it will also be much more rewarding. In that case, a site like ePals may be valuable (with close parental supervision, of course). 
    
2. Help your child find the right resources to correct his or her mistakes. Aside from workbook answer keys, help your child find ways to correct his/her own practice. The games available on a website like conjuguemos.com and the learning units of the U.S. military’s GLOSS site can provide real-time feedback on mistakes, for example. When you are evaluating other resources, be sure that they provide thorough answer keys and enough practice questions to allow for repeated “loops” of practice—students should have many opportunities to practice the same vocabulary and grammar concepts. 

While this is all more challenging if your child is learning a language that you yourself are unfamiliar with (Klingon, maybe?), it is certainly not impossible, and is worth the effort!

What have you done to encourage your child in taking risks and making (good) mistakes while learning a new language? 

[Image provided by Flickr user jridegwayphotography and used under a Creative Commons license]

Language Learning 101: Be Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable. (Tip #4)

In my experience, I’ve found that one of the most character-building elements of foreign language study is this:

Language learning exposes your weaknesses.

Maybe your child struggles with memorization—well, learning new vocabulary might be difficult. Or maybe she's naturally reserved, so practicing a second language takes even more courage than speaking in her mother tongue. For homeschool students—and any other language learner—mastering a foreign language is easier if they can keep this mantra in mind:

Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

At no time in my life have I felt more socially awkward than when I moved to Spain to study abroad for a semester. Although I had a fairly good command of the language, those first few weeks were extremely humbling, as I had to communicate with those around me through halted, sometimes incorrect speech.

It was a great lesson in recognizing my own limits and learning to apply myself to overcome them. It was also a profound lesson in accepting the kindness and patience of those around me, and appreciating the grace that they showed to me as I struggled to express myself.

Students who are just beginning to study a foreign language will likely feel the same awkwardness that I did. The sheer differentness of the new language can be overwhelming. But I find that this kind of reaction can be a great learning opportunity for our children to learn about themselves and who they are as learners.

So if your child is struggling with learning a new language*, remind them of two things:

1. This experience is totally normal. 
2. This experience is potentially fruitful. 

Then, ask these questions to help determine if the challenges that your child is experiencing could, in fact, be an opportunity for growth:

1. Is your child struggling to learn a new language because of a lack of study skills? Perhaps he/she could use this opportunity to institute regular, self-directed practice. 
2. Is your child struggling to learn a new language because of a lack of confidence? Could you find ways to offer extra encouragement to him/her, even if you’re not learning the language yourself? 
3. Is your child struggling to learn a new language because sometimes, it’s just hard to learn new things? Great! This is a valuable lesson to grasp early in life. Sometimes time and practice are all that a student needs to get over that initial discomfort. 

To be sure, more questions may emerge in this conversation, but these are all good starting points if your child is feeling that deep discomfort. Try to remember that instant proficiency is not the goal in language learning—as if that were even possible! The journey to mastery is as important as the ability to use the language itself.

*There are students with special needs (such as dyslexia or dysgraphia) who will face significant struggles to learn a new language—their experience is not the same as the discomfort that I describe here. I do have a post planned about the relationship between special learning needs and language acquisition, however—so stay tuned! 

How has your child handled the experience of being uncomfortable with a new language? How has he/she grown from working through that?

[Image provided by Flickr user anaxolotl and used under a Creative Commons license]

Language Learning 101: Practice the Right Way. (Tip #3)

Here’s my third tip in our series: in order to master a foreign language, students need to practice.

But what does it mean to “practice?”

Ideally, language practice would satisfy these three criteria:

1. It would be regular—in a perfect world, happening daily. 
2. It would spiral—including the review of old material while adding on new vocabulary and grammar. 
3. It would be engaging—employing interesting resources that are suited to the learner’s strengths. 

So, let’s think about how to meet these requirements.

Making it regular:

One (very obvious) way to make language practice a regular occurrence is to set aside daily time to study. Perhaps your homeschool student could set aside 10 minutes every morning to review the vocabulary flashcards that he/she has made. Or perhaps he/she could use time in the car, on an app like duolingo, to review how to conjugate the preterit tense.

But another way to make language practice regular is to replace English-speaking activities with activities in the target language. It’s even better if they’re authentic resources, which integrate cultural education into language learning.

Does your teen usually scroll through blogs first thing in the morning? You can add (appropriate) blogs in Spanish to his/her RSS feed. Does your family enjoy listening to audiobooks in the car? Well, why not listen to one in another language? You may have to start with short stories or even picture books in order to match your child’s level of listening proficiency, but audiobooks (as well as podcasts) are a great way to reinforce listening skills by immersing your child in the target language. If you’re looking for such resources in Spanish, look no further—I’ve compiled a complete list here of my favorite authentic (and safe!) resources for homeschool students.

Making it spiral:

In general, language learning naturally builds upon itself. Once you master a basic set of vocabulary, such as greetings and introductions, you naturally include them in future conversation. Yet the maxim “Use it or lose it” still definitely applies. If the majority of your conversations in the target language revolve around literature, for example, it can be easy to forget sports vocabulary. Or if you mostly talk about sports, useful everyday vocabulary—such as that related to food and cooking—may fall by the wayside.

For that reason, it is essential to structure foreign language practice in the form of a spiral. 

(Want to know more about what spiraling is? Here’s a great explanation by a fellow homeschooling mama).

Some language curriculums popular with homeschoolers naturally do this (such as Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone), but others do not. If you are using a combination of materials, or materials that have thematic units, spiraling can be as simple as writing out a schedule that includes weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews of old material.

Making it engaging:

Some kids (…quietly raises hand…) really like to do vocab and grammar drills. For them, the worksheets included in their language curriculum or even a workbook like this one (aff link) will be enough to keep their attention and provide a sense of accomplishment and reward. 

Other kids need a little bit more convincing. For these students, apps and on-line resources can provide the game-like atmosphere that can help them stay focused and motivated while practicing vocabulary and grammar structures.

In the past, when I’ve had such students in my classroom at the University of Virginia, many of them found the Web site conjuguemos.com to be a great tool for review. I like that for vocabulary, it is arranged by theme, and for grammar, it is arranged by concept, so it can be an excellent supplement to any language curriculum and it takes about two seconds to navigate.

What are some of your best tips for building in language practice to your homeschool routine?