Languages for Pre-K/K

[Collinsky]

There are so many language resources out there! I'm not sure what is good and what is not so great. What language instruction programs have you liked? (Besides things like Muzzy, which we have in Spanish - we just can't afford to get anything like that right now.)

We all learn Spanish by default (Dh is fluent) and now I have one child that wants to learn to speak German and the other insists on Chinese. (I admit I have tried to get her interested in Japanese since I find it so much easier to speak... she hasn't wavered for almost 2 years now!) So any great websites that have games or fun instruction in any of those languages would be helpful! Also any CD-ROMS or DVDs. My kids are pretty young - the girls are 6 and 4.5 - so we're really looking for fun, laid-back games and interesting videos. Also a source for story books would be awesome!

And if you know of a really good language curriculum, I'll take a look at it. Most probably won't work for us but they're worth checking out!

[umsami]

DS1 was in public Pre-K last year and over half of his class spoke Chinese (Mandarin). So, we picked up a great DVD called "Follow Jade". It was gentle. Like singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and replacing some of the word with the Chinese words.

I took German many moons ago, but haven't really bought any of the stuff out there. I do remember that all of the Baby Einstein videos had a German option.

[Collinsky]

My Dd4 loved Follow Jade - we got the one about going to the market at the library and they both really liked it. I had forgotten about that. Thanks!

I know that Bilingual Baby isn't bad (or at least the Spanish one isn't) and I know they offer German, and possibly Chinese. So we might get those.

Anyone get the "Teach Me.../Teach Me More..." language learning set? The Berlitz Kids Language packs look similar, and is about the same price.

I still haven't found any good sites online. : I'm sure there are probably several, I'm just having trouble digging them up. (I've found good sites, just not for our needs.)

[Collinsky]

The KidsSpeak programs from transparent.com - are they good for kids around the age of 6, or better for older kids?

[happydoulamama]

Hooked On Phonics makes language sets. We have the Spanish one and my dd loves it. She loves the CD-Rom program and asks for more. I think they also have Chinese and French.

[Einen]

Originally Posted by Collinsky

Anyone get the "Teach Me.../Teach Me More..." language learning set? The Berlitz Kids Language packs look similar, and is about the same price.

We have several of these sets. They basically use the same songs for every language so it can get redundant if you get more than one language. The booklets are not extremely instructive although I haven't looked over them in awhile (put them away because dc were too young).

My kids do enjoy listening to them. And for the price, I think it's a good deal.

Right now the dc are obsessed with our French Lyric Language DVD. They've probably watched it 8 times over the past few weeks. I think Lyric Language does a few more languages.

I'd love to hear recommendations for either Russian or German cds or dvd's.