The Importance of Foreign Language as a Life Skill

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

The Importance of Foreign Language as a Life Skill

The Importance of Foreign Language as a Life Skill

In our increasingly global world, the ability to communicate cross culturally is going to be more important that ever before! Listen in as True North Homeschool Academy’s Spanish Instructor, Sra. Catalina Garcia explains why and how, by becoming bilingual, your student will have more opportunities than ever before!

Interested in becoming multi-lingual?  True North Homeschool Academy offers Spanish , Chinese  Hebrew, LatinGerman, ASL and French . True North Homeschool Academy. Classes are taught by exceptional teachers from across the U.S, Mexico, Italy and Israel who are fluent polyglots. Culture studies and inspiration included!

Foreign Language Resources:

5 Reasons to Study Spanish

Why Your Homeschooler Should Study Critical Languages

Why Study Spanish

Why Study German

FREE German Recipe E-book

Celebrate Chinese New Year!

Why Learn a Foreign Language Podcast

The Wonder of Foreign Language Podcast

YES! Your Student Can Learn a Foreign Language

 

Join us this spring for our Foreign Language Exploration class! In this 15 week class, students will learn some fundamentals of Latin, Spanish, German, ASL, Hebrew, French and Chinese.

Resources and Printables from True North Homeschool Academy!

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Creative Ways to Use Tech for Foreign Language Learning

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Ways to Use Tech for Foreign Language Learning

104: Creative Ways to Use Tech for Foreign Language Learning

This episode explains some creative ways to use tech for foreign language learning. This is not about apps and websites to teach a language, but rather on how to use tech to allow you to practice what you are learning in a natural way. The ideas I share can be used for all ages.

1. Listen to music in foreign languages

2. Read simple e-books in foreign languages

3. Watch TV shows and movies in foreign languages

4. Set shopping sites to the language you are learning

5. Use the Toucan web extension to integrate Spanish words into the websites you choose

6. Set your phone to Spanish

These ideas may spur you to further ideas – using tech or even without tech on ways to integrate foreign language learning into your daily life

Be sure to listen to the episode as I go into detail about how we did these things in our home.

You can find show sponsor, FundaFunda Academy’s online classes (including Spanish!) and web-based unit studies here

Join our Facebook Group especially for the listeners of this podcast! You can ask questions and get advice as you try integrating technology in your homeschool.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and give a rating and maybe even a review! Subscribing will help you make sure you never miss an episode.

Ways to Use Tech for Foreign Language Learning

Six Benefits Of Learning Spanish

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Learning Spanish | With a passion for speaking Spanish, and experience as a homeschool mom, Alba Alonso shares the benefits of learning Spanish. You will be surprised at the innovation she uses and she explains more of this in this episode! | #podcast #homeschoolpodcast #fitnesslatinos #foreignlanguageSix Benefits Of Learning Spanish Episode 366

With a passion for speaking Spanish, and experience as a homeschool mom, Alba Alonso shares the benefits of learning Spanish. You will be surprised at the innovation she uses and she explains more of this in this episode! Time to learn a #foreignlanguage ~ try #fitnesslatinos

Thanks so much to Fitness Latinos our sponsor! Please visit the website here: VISIT Fitness Latinos here 

An informational video about the product is here: VIDEO Here

About Alba Alonso

  • Her first language was Spanish. She lived in Colombia in South America for her first 10 years. She learned English during her middle and high school years and moved from Miami to Oregon and went on to college in South Carolina. You can say she has tasted a little bit of our US culture in a short time!

    She gave up a career as a marketing coordinator for an international architecture firm to be a stay-at-home mom and homeschooled her two children for the next 20 years. When her firstborn was eight years old her friends began to take an interest in learning Spanish. The first year her homeschool coop started with twenty students!

    Alba is the founder of an all-male Hispanic soccer league, has been an interpreter and was the co-host of Mom’s Homeroom, a parenting web show. Thirty-eight years after having moved to the US she has poured her life’s experience into her online business Fitness Latinos where she teaches Spanish and English in a practical way that will commit learning the foreign language in a personal and permanent way.

    She believes you have to define your “WHY?” before you learn to enjoy the journey. Her life’s motto is, “Transformation Through Education and Each One Teach One.”

Handout from Level 1 & 2 Syllabi and Benefits

Top Six Benefits of Learning Spanish

  1. Inspire – Your journey will inspire others to be courageous and to step out of the mundane routine of life and get to know someone new and exciting.
  2. Fun – The study of a new language helps us be able to navigate outside the tourist bubble, to connect and interact with the place and its people in a way that is typically not accessible to those without the language.
  3. Appreciate –We begin to appreciate other traditions, mannerisms, and cultures. We develop a greater acceptance of others and we learn to have empathy for humanity.
  4. Health – Highly successful people exercise because exercise keeps the brain healthy, reduces stress, helps improve memory, creativity, concentration, problem-solving skills, we can multitask better and we become better listeners.
  5. Connect – We become someone who can connect at a deeper level with others simply because we are more in tune with the differences we each possess.
  6. Challenge – Our motto is “Through language, we communicate, through actions we connect.” Our weekly challenge will encourage you to have the courage to make new friends one step at a time.

By nature, learning our native language or foreign language is elementary. The same way we learned to say hello, learned our colors, numbers, and animals in our mother tongue is the way we instruct students to learn a foreign language. Even if you have some knowledge of Spanish or English but you cannot carry or understand a simple conversation with a foreign speaker then you need to go back and master the basics. By the end of our 1st level course, you will be able to understand your GPS in Spanish or at least give someone directions.

You will understand cognates, articles, nouns, and 50 verbs. Our 2nd level will help our students have a full conversation using feelings, sports, professions, opposites, as well as learn cognates, nouns, prepositions, interrogatives, and 50 verbs. In addition, we give our students specific websites they can focus on to take ownership over their future studies. Learning how to conjugate in different tenses is more advanced and requires different examples best learned one on without stress.

It is important for students to read, write, hear and physically practice the language in a fun environment. There are 22 lessons with written instructions, a video with me pronouncing the vocabulary for the week and a challenge for the week. Some of the challenges are right in your own home and some require you to go to a local store and ask for help.

We have to live with the end in mind. No one lives a happy life without these three: love, purpose, and support. We need more than theoretical knowledge, we need to challenge ourselves to gain practical knowledge. The best way is through relationships. In each lesson’s video, I give my students tips on how to break out of that shyness, fear, lack of interest and truly experience how easy it is to learn Spanish or English. Through weekly assignments that include: family, friends and their community, they will retain the vocabulary for the week for years like my past students.

We have combined effective linear learning (as in one theme per week which is curriculum controlled) and flexible learning (where the environment is learner controlled) and coupled it with motivation to help decrease stress and master cognitive load. The weekly assignments connect our students peer to peer in their own community, something that no computer software can do. We lead the way for better relationship habits in all areas of life.

 

Foreign Language in a Day

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

Foreign Languages in a Day with TalkBox.Mom and The Real Kathy Lee

Today was a fun one! While in Richmond, VA for the HEAV conference, I got the chance to chat with the founder of TALKBOX.MOM and learn more about her super cool business that helps families speak a new language the first day you put it into practice. If you are like me, the idea of teaching your kids a foreign language is intimidating. I always worry about saying the words wrong and I never can get the accent right. I was thankful when Adalaide shared that it is totally okay if words are mispronounced and accents are off. In fact, that is the very reason she includes authentic audio with every book. I LOVE THAT!

As a mom of two, Adalaide understands the importance of knowing other languages in today’s society. It was her opinion that it is never too early to start introducing a new language. With her lovely talk box cards, everyday phrases get reinforced easily throughout the day.

By the end of our time together, Adalaide had me convinced that I could actually learn Japanese before my trip next year. Additionally, I plan on getting a TALKBOX set in Spanish in order to support my son and daughter in law as they raise my grandbabies in a bilingual household. I think it is safe to say that I am a big fan of all that Adalaide is doing with TALKBOX.MOM.

Lastly, Adalaide offered a big discount to anyone listening to the show today!!! If you use the code HOMEGROWNPRESCHOOLER, you will save $40 off your subscription.

Go check it out… NOW! You will thank me!

Say YES and have a great week!!!

Thanks for listening. If you have topics you would like for me to discuss or people you would like to hear from, let me know. Just email me at kathy@thehomegrownpreschooler.com or shoot me a message on social media.

 

Thank you to The Homegrown Preschooler for sponsoring this Podcast! Check out the blog post Kathy mentioned, Farmhouse Schoolhouse, to read more about A Year of Playing Skillfully.

Also, to thank you for listening, you can receive a 10% discount on any purchase at

The Homegrown Preschooler by using the code, THEREALKATHYLEE.

 

 

 

 

 

HSHSP Ep 101: How to Teach a World Language if You Don’t Know One

A Production of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.

This week on HSHSP Ep 101: How to Teach a World Language if You Don’t Know One.

HSHSP Ep 101: How to Teach a World Language When You Don't Know One

HSHSP Ep 101: How to Teach a World Language if You Don’t Know One

What goes into a real homeschool high school World Language credit and how do you handle it if you don’t know one yourself?

World Language credits need 4 components:

  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking

In many areas, homeschool highschoolers need 2 years of the same World Language. In some areas, they need 3 years of the same language. For highly competitive colleges, they may need 4 years.

Some World Languages that our local homeschool highschoolers have studied include:

  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Russian
  • Chinese
  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • Latin
  • Greek
  • Gaelic
  • American Sign Language

Check your colleges of interest to see if there is a language that they will not accept.

What are some good ways to for your homeschool highschoolers to learn World Languages?

  • Often it is good to start with a textbook to get a handle on vocabulary, grammar and basic conversations. Check out the publishers’ websites for free resources to enhance the curriculum. For students who are self-directed, they can plug through on their own. Some students will need more help, so you will need to learn along with them.
  • With immersion curriculum like Rosetta Stone, students can more often learn without much adult input. However, make sure you get the homeschool version or they won’t get the necessary grammar.
  • Online courses, like those at Currclick.com, are a great way to let someone else take charge of the language for you.
  • Co-ops and group classes are marvelous ideas because they allow for lots of interaction, conversations and fun.

Here are some valuable resources to add to curriculum (we are not affiliates with any of these):

  • Duolinguo app
  • Tiny Flashcards app
  • Memrise app
  • Babbel app
  • Freerice.com vocabulary game
  • Vocabulary games like good, old-fashioned Hangman
  • Bible verse memorization (In groups you can have games to learn the verses: Fill in the blank competitions, chanting, recitation relays)
  • Nursery rhyme memorization
  • Childrens’ songs singalongs
  • Reports on the countries (in English in years 1 and 2, in the language year 3 and 4). BEWARE: Google translate is not a good tool for writing papers in another language.

Because we are not shackled to a rule on how much curriculum to cover, in the group Language classes that Kym and Vicki have taught, we have generally covered 1/2 textbook each year and spent the rest of the necessary hours in conversation, writing, listening and interactive activities.

For homeschool highschoolers who need more than 2 years, years 3 and 4 should entail much more reading and writing.

  • start with children’s story books in the language
  • read lots of poetry in the language
  • read classic familiar books in English and the chosen language (like The Little Prince or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Checkout some other fun resources at Vicki’s World Languages Pinterest board.

Remember: Learning happens better if you’re having fun. There’s not one right way but there are many fun ways.

Join Kym and Vicki for a resource-filled discussion on covering a World Language when you don’t know one. In the meantime, enjoy these posts.

How to Homeschool World Languages in High School

HSHSP Ep 21: World Language Credit How-to’s

HSHSP Ep 101: How to Teach a World Language if You Don’t Know One


Special Thanks to our Network Sponsor!

 

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