As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I love cyberschooling - don't get me wrong. I just never anticipated having a gifted child that would be so much work.
It seems I've spent the last 2 weeks on the phone with DJ's guidance counselor and teachers planning his next 6 years of elementary school. Anyway, the gist of it was - DJ is going to be in advanced placement classes in another year and he has an aptitude and an ear for Spanish and French (thank you Paw-paw Chuck ) so we're supposed to begin immersing him in the languages at home.
We can only do so much with Dora and Diego stories at home this summer and I speak Italian. (Had I known how useless that language would be outside my grandparents' house back in 9th grade... ) My dad (Italian ) speaks fairly good French and a friend of his is a college French teacher. She sends me worksheets and games occasionally for DJ to play. So I'm not terribly worried about French just yet. (And Paw-paw Chuck is fluent in something like 12 languages. )
Anyway, what I'm looking for is elementary Spanish lessons, games, and stories we can do at home. Websites, books, kits - anything you can think of! I'm open to try anything. Also has anyone tried the Hooked on Phonics Spanish Language Kit? Is it for kids who speak ESL or SSL? (I'm learning with DJ, so I have to learn pronunciation first so I can teach him. We have some LeapFrog Spanish puzzle cards and I keep guessing at pronunciation on those. Not good. Everything sounds Italian when I say it. )
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Chrissi - have you looked at Muzzy yet? We have not tried it, but I've seen the system and it seems well done.
Languages - it's hard because different kids and adults work best with different programs and modes of learning. Sometimes you have to experiment to see what 'clicks.'
Oh hey - totally off-topic, but I saw Knoebels on Food Network the other night!!! Looks like a fun time - no wonder you go every year!
Emilie took Spanish through her elementary school (and, as long as we can get her back in the program) will be doing so again next winter. I believe they were using the Muzzy program.
Not an actual lesson plan, but DD who has a Spanish minor in college, would take the dvds of her Disney favorites and put it on the Spanish track. You can have English subtitles but most of the time she knows the movies by heart and didn't need them. It was a fun way to keep her vocabulary fresh.
My nephew is in a Spanish immersion program: twelve native English speakers and twelve native Spanish speakers study together from K - 5 and are fluent in both languages by the end of the program. He works on his Spanish a lot at home, so my sister, (who is bilingual and our state's university Spanish Services Coordinator), bought him lots of stuff to help him. I will ask her what she used and also what his school uses. He'll be going into 2nd grade this year, so he's a year ahead of DJ (and AG classified as well) and I would think what he used last year would be perfect for him - she might be looking to clean out some of his old stuff, and if so, I'd be happy to send it to you!
I have heard her say that as far as computer programs, Rosetta Stone is the only one she would recommend. I've only ever seen the adult versions, and I'm sure that's what she is talking about, but I think I've seen a kid's version advertised, too.
P.S. I took 4 years of French in HS and seven semesters of Italian in college - I won't say that that time was WASTED, but...yeah, go with the Spanish, at least at first. I find that I can understand a lot of Spanish just because it shares the same Latin roots as Italian, so maybe you're more ahead than you think!
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Scarlett
Last edited by Disney_Scarlett; 06-19-2008 at 02:53 PM..
I love cyberschooling - don't get me wrong. I just never anticipated having a gifted child that would be so much work.
It seems I've spent the last 2 weeks on the phone with DJ's guidance counselor and teachers planning his next 6 years of elementary school. Anyway, the gist of it was - DJ is going to be in advanced placement classes in another year and he has an aptitude and an ear for Spanish and French (thank you Paw-paw Chuck ) so we're supposed to begin immersing him in the languages at home.
We can only do so much with Dora and Diego stories at home this summer and I speak Italian. (Had I known how useless that language would be outside my grandparents' house back in 9th grade... ) My dad (Italian ) speaks fairly good French and a friend of his is a college French teacher. She sends me worksheets and games occasionally for DJ to play. So I'm not terribly worried about French just yet. (And Paw-paw Chuck is fluent in something like 12 languages. )
Anyway, what I'm looking for is elementary Spanish lessons, games, and stories we can do at home. Websites, books, kits - anything you can think of! I'm open to try anything. Also has anyone tried the Hooked on Phonics Spanish Language Kit? Is it for kids who speak ESL or SSL? (I'm learning with DJ, so I have to learn pronunciation first so I can teach him. We have some LeapFrog Spanish puzzle cards and I keep guessing at pronunciation on those. Not good. Everything sounds Italian when I say it. )
Chrissi - look on your movie dvds. Alot of them have Spanish dubbing on them. It's always fun/interesting to listen to a story you already know in spanish. I remember in high school our teacher had a record of Beatles songs that were redone in Spanish. It was cool to listen to because the songs were so familiar in English. That and having to learn the Gettysburg Address in spanish, were 2 of the cooler lessons that year (2nd year).
__________________
Keep Moving Forward
Wilderness Lodge
All Star Movies
Carribean Beach
Port Orleans French Quarter
Dixie Landings (Port Orleans Riverside)
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Kathryn is fluent in both Spanish and French, and Lauren is fluent in French (Spanish comes in 6th grade). They're both in immersion programs at school.
We try very hard to find books, CDs, and DVDs that are in those languages. I've bought CDs from Amazon.com, and books thru Barnes and Noble. Especially in Spanish, you can get tons of books - some of the French and Spanish ones are also in English, they're meant as ESL books, but they work the other way, too.
Children's CDs are wonderful ways to introduce pronunciation. Music is a wonderful teacher.
I took 6 years of spanish in school and attempt to at least expose my preschoolers to the language. I have ordered a lot of bilingual books from scholastic and I picked up some spanish songs on cd from our local education store.
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Some Day My Prince Will Come!
Katie - WDW - August 2011
I teach in a school that has 53 different languages spoken. About 30% of our kids each year speaking little to no English. The students who learn English the fastest watch the news channels and soaps. I have one girl who moved from Russia is January and by the end of the year she tested out of our first and second levels of ELL classes. She told me she watched a lot of TV.
If you have Spanish channels in your area, have DJ watch the news or cartoons. I also second or third watching the Disney movies in Spanish.
Yes, watching or turning on "the in Spanish" selection on your tv. And, we will be doing Rosetta Stone this coming year. (So many homeschoolers recommend this.)[
My kids and I know the basics and I have the educational posters hanging up in Spanish, and dictionaries and books etc.
I took beginning Italian when I got back from Costa Rica and Italian and Spanish are quite similar. Your pronunciation of a few words might be a little different, but I'll bet you are doing a better job at that than you give yourself credit for Good for you for teaching him different languages. It will be such an asset for him. I wish there were programs around here that I could have put my kids into. When they were younger, I taught them some words, but we kinda got off track with that.
Funny side story. My sister is a Spanish teacher. She taught her oldest Spanish and she was quite good at it. One day they were in a doctor's waiting office and playing the game 'Guess Who?' Another lady in the waiting room made a comment about how that game doesn't stimulate the mind or some such nonsense and recommended 'better' games for my sis and dd to play. My sister whispered to my niece 'Let's play it in Spanish' so they did. Haha!
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*~*Tina
Picking up our Brasilian exchange student at the a/p
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About This Page: 
I love cyberschooling - don't get me wrong. 
I just never anticipated having a gifted child that would be so much work. 
Anyway, the gist of it was - DJ is going to be in advanced placement classes in another year and he has an aptitude and an ear for Spanish and French (thank you Paw-paw Chuck 
(Had I known how useless that language would be outside my grandparents' house back in 9th grade... 
) My dad (Italian 
So I'm not terribly worried about French just yet. (And Paw-paw Chuck is fluent in something like 12 languages. 
)
Also has anyone tried the Hooked on Phonics Spanish Language Kit? Is it for kids who speak ESL or SSL? (I'm learning with DJ, so I have to learn pronunciation first so I can teach him. 
Everything sounds Italian when I say it. 
)
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Pixie Dust
Parlor Panther in 'stalking mode'
I find that I can understand a lot of Spanish just because it shares the same Latin roots as Italian, so maybe you're more ahead than you think!
Hybrid Mode
