thinking on languages
Apr. 28th, 2004 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
celticdragonflyWe got a flyer in the mail for the Muzzy courses for foreign languages for young children. I'm thinking about it. Especially if we're going to homeschool, we should consider a second language program. There's all sorts of evidence out there that it's really good for kids, and younger is better. Brendan's heading towards kinda late to start another language, but then he's had so much trouble with English, and troubles in general, that I'm not really thinking about him - although if we got something for the other kids he would get exposure from it, and might find it helpful. No, I'm more thinking about Maggie and then in turn Jamie. We probably want to start looking into getting some kind of foreign language program for the kids.
Anybody, especially the homeschoolers, have any advice or suggestions on how to get into this sort of thing? What's worth it, what's not worth the price, common pitfalls? Age to start at? I will definitely discuss this with Maggie's speech therapists before starting anything, but I don't see them for another week.
Which has a side branch of discussion - which language? I tend to gravitate towards German - it's from my family background, I already know some of it, so I can keep up with the kids even at my advanced ;-) age, and I can pronounce it okay. Don't know how USEFUL it would be to them. Spanish would probably be the most useful, but I don't want to teach it. French is possible, but eh, maybe not. I don't see much point in Italian. That's what's usually offered.
Anybody, especially the homeschoolers, have any advice or suggestions on how to get into this sort of thing? What's worth it, what's not worth the price, common pitfalls? Age to start at? I will definitely discuss this with Maggie's speech therapists before starting anything, but I don't see them for another week.
Which has a side branch of discussion - which language? I tend to gravitate towards German - it's from my family background, I already know some of it, so I can keep up with the kids even at my advanced ;-) age, and I can pronounce it okay. Don't know how USEFUL it would be to them. Spanish would probably be the most useful, but I don't want to teach it. French is possible, but eh, maybe not. I don't see much point in Italian. That's what's usually offered.
