Holiday Blogging Break...Until The New Year!

Hi all!

Thank you all for following along with me on my blogging journey this year. It has been so exciting to get Language Learning at Home up and running! 

I am going to be taking a blogging break from now until January in order to spend time focusing on my family in this season. Not only are we quite busy with holiday events, but we also just moved into our first home, and I need to spend some time getting the last few boxes unpacked and paintings on the wall, as well as getting toddlers settled into a new routine here. 

If you have some downtime over the holiday break, you might consider catching up on some of my recent series: 

Language Learning 101: where I lay out 10 basic principles for language learning at home. 

Homeschool Language Learning Apps: where I provide in-depth reviews of both Duolingo and Mango Languages along with recommendations for using them effectively in your homeschool. 

Motivation and the Homeschool Language Learner: while not technically a series, I’ve been writing a lot of this topic. My recent posts have focused on how cultural learning can boost student motivation and gives more creative ideas for motivating your language learner (from my own experience with a reluctant child!). 

I hope that your family has a wonderful holiday and can welcome the new year refreshed and encouraged for another season of homeschooling. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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. 

Join my Facebook community of families sharing tips and encouragement for learning languages at home!