Spanish for Kids? About This Page:

[Chrissi]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, everyone! We're looking into Hooked on Phonics: Spanish for the coming school year and possibly Rosetta Stone when he grows out of that. At 5 payments of $120 each, Rosetta Stone is a bit spendy to start off with. Especially since I'm not sure which version of the Spanish Rosetta Stone to choose - European Spanish or Latin American Spanish. My guess is Latin American, but is that what most American schools teach? Or is it European Spanish?

And a funny little side note: We tried watching Disney movies dubbed over in Spanish. DJ likes to follow along with the movies that he knows by heart and say all the words. He got really mad when I put on some of his favorite movies in Spanish and French. "Do it right, Mommy! You changed the words! " He thought I was playing a prank on him.

[McMickey]

I don't know if DJ has a Nintendo DS, but I have noticed that they have language cartridges (definitely French, probably Spanish). I'm thinking about getting them for my girls - I've been impressed with the DS games that are on the more "educational" side.

[Chrissi]

PassPorters so totally ROCK!!! We just got an awesome surprise this morning - a package in today's mail with a Spanish language book kit for kids in it. From Don (duck addict). Thank you so much, Don!

I was so intimidated at the prospect of trying to teach DJ Spanish that I had no idea where to start. This is such a great (gentle ) kick in the pants! Just what we needed.

[oldmom]

Raising gifted kids is so much fun. I have 2 (now 29 and 23) . Fun and challenging.

DD has taken Spanish since junior high all the way through college. You asked whether the schools taught Spain Spanish or Mexico Spanish. She has had teachers whose Spanish was from Spain, Mexico,El Salvador, and Paraguay. Two of her teachers told her that the mark of someone who learned Spanish in this country is the lack of accent. (Not necessarily a good thing if one is traveling abroad). DD has an accent based that places her somewhere in Central America. Our last trip to WDW, she spoke with many people using her Spanish and was constantly asked where she was from and the people were surprised to discover she was from North America. Point being that at least here, there is no regional area that receives preference and that seems to be a good thing.

The CLEP college test seems to favor Spain Spanish, if that helps you.

[AmyJune]

Originally Posted by Chrissi

Thanks for all the great suggestions, everyone! We're looking into Hooked on Phonics: Spanish for the coming school year and possibly Rosetta Stone when he grows out of that. At 5 payments of $120 each, Rosetta Stone is a bit spendy to start off with. Especially since I'm not sure which version of the Spanish Rosetta Stone to choose - European Spanish or Latin American Spanish. My guess is Latin American, but is that what most American schools teach? Or is it European Spanish?

And a funny little side note: We tried watching Disney movies dubbed over in Spanish. DJ likes to follow along with the movies that he knows by heart and say all the words. He got really mad when I put on some of his favorite movies in Spanish and French. "Do it right, Mommy! You changed the words! " He thought I was playing a prank on him.

Chrissi - I had 5 years of spanish in high school. Some of my teacher spoke with Latin American accents others with European. It's very similar to someone learning English from a Brit and another from an American. It's the same language with a few different pronounciations and vocabulary uses but it really isn't a big difference. I'd say go with Latin American only because that's probably the one that he'll hear the most since we're closer to Latin America than Spain.

[KAZ415]

What about Rosetta Stone. Its a computer based program and its supposed to be wonderful. I was thinking of purchasing it for myself to help freshen up my spanish.