Monday, March 15, 2010

Teaching Children a Second Language - Intro

I've been thinking about sharing some of my success, and failures at teaching the children a second language, for a while. As, I started organizing some thoughts, I realized it is going to have to be a series of posts. We've been at it for 12 years, and have used, what feels like, hundreds of resources, that run the whole spectrum of really good to absolutely worthless. And, my goals have fluctuated between teaching a single, second language, and providing the children with a wide linguistic base.

Right now, I'm planning the series out, something like this.
  • Where I'm coming from - a brief, at least I'll try to keep it brief, post on my own linguistic, background (which is not nearly as impressive, as that phrase makes it sound).
  • My hopes, and dreams for bilingual children, verses the realities of where we are at.
  • A list, and perhaps short review, of as many of the products, that we have used, as I can remember (it has been twelve years, after all!)
  • Some tips, and points of frustrations, when it comes to teaching children a second language, while living in United States.

These might change, and morph a bit, as I write them, but I wanted to lay out the general idea. So, if you're interested in teaching your child a second language, or if you have input on the topic, watch for the posts as they come. I'll try to get to them in the next week, or so, interspersed with our other topics.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

3 comments:

Ticia said...

I'm looking forward to what you have to say. And I'm always a fan of reviews of things I might want.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

I can't wait - very exciting to hear what you have to say from so much experience.

Noah said...

Ooo! This is one of my big issues--I really want my kiddos to learn another language, and I'm worried about making that happen with homeschooling. I'll be looking forward to your reviews.