[Mona]

My dd is just 17 mo old, so is not school age.

we plan on unschooling- or at least I plan on it. :LOL
anyway, i'd like to introduce her to a foreign language- the sooner the better i think. she is drawn to japanese, but i don't know this language, and don't know anyone who could teach her. so that seems unrealistic i guess.
but three of my housemates know spanish, so i was thinking of having them speak spanish to her. (i don't speak spanish at all)
any ideas on this?
any other ideas on how to teach her spanish?

tia!

lisa

 

[lilyka]

well it doesn't get much better than that.

We check out books on tape from the library, many DVDs have foriegn language tracts under the set up featuer. My kids know that if they agree to watch a movie in Spanish I am much more likely to say yes. Familiar stoires, songs, poems, moveies, etc told/sung in spanish are best because they will already know what is being said and the spanish will me more meaningful. does that make sense. If they know the nursery rhyme is about theee blind mice, the words three, mice etc are going to be obvious to them.

Also my children are a little bit older and like the power glide stuff. I really like they way they teach. they stat out by sliding a few spanish word in and gradually increase the spanish to english ratio until at the end of the program you are listening all in spanish. they also combine lots of music, repitition, listening, seeing and touching to hit on all types of learners. We are using those principles with my youngest (Me and the baby are learning french and the two older girls decided to learn spanish which I alreadyhad a familiarity with living no to far from the border.) I mix a lot of french in with my English so that certain sounds and words are familiar to her. as I learn more I insert more and she learns more.