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Choosing ANY homeschool curriculum can be a very difficult process. There are just so many choices. So. Many.
But choosing a FOREIGN LANGUAGE curriculum? That has been a special level of difficult. It has been almost painful.
I think, that if my son wanted to learn Spanish, with which I am at least a wee bit familiar after taking four years of it in high school, I might not feel so lost.
But, no, my kid wants to learn Chinese.
So, looking for the right program to teach him the Mandarin language has been a rather foreign process for me.
I mean, how do I even begin to assess whether a program is good or not? It’s NOT like I can read through it and get a feel for it myself. {I cannot read it!}
And, for some reason, FOREIGN LANGUAGE curriculum seems to be one of the more expensive subjects. So, though, I have been willing to shell out primo bucks for science and math, which my kid actually needs for his career goal of being a zoologist, I really didn’t want to spend a ton for this elective. And, I sure as heck didn’t want to spend hundreds on one program only to find it didn’t work for us and then have to buy another one.
And, probably the biggest challenge for me is the fact that this is one subject with which I cannot help my kid learn. I mean, we all know that homeschool moms can teach almost anything to our kids, and when we find ourselves outmatched by a subject, we can outsource {like I do for math and science at the high school level.} But, again, I’m not sure I want to spend the same type of serious money on him learning Chinese that we invest into live, on-line science classes or the time that we spend with what I like to call my private 1:1 math tutor, Nicole The Math Lady.
So, even after I have spent countless hours looking at options of how to teach a FOREIGN LANGUAGE, I have yet to decide which route we will take.
But, I sure have learned a lot about HOW and WHERE students can learn a FOREIGN LANGUAGE!
Hopefully, what I learned can help YOU make your FOREIGN LANGUAGE choice less difficult.
Other than the huge selection of boxed curriculum you can find in your homeschool catalogs or on the web, I found three other options for FOREIGN LANGUAGE instruction.
Three Out-of-the-Box Options for Teaching a Foreign Language
ONE: YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
This is a phenomenal option that could flat-out be FREE for your family. Obviously, different libraries will offer different options but it’s definitely worth looking into.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that our local library offers MANGO for free to all card-holders.
MANGO is a self-paced online resource that offers over 70 world languages and dialects through courses crafted using conversational methodology.
I know other libraries offer similar options including Duolingo and Babbel. We have not used any of these resources but considering it’s FREE, it sure seems like a great option! Even if we use it to simply “test-out” which language he might really want to pursue, it sure seems like a wise consideration.
So, be sure to check out what your local library has to offer in terms of FOREIGN LANGUAGE instruction.
TWO: DUAL ENROLLMENT
Now, this one won’t be free BUT, if your student plans on attending college like mine, then it could be considered an investment.
{If you are not familiar with the concept of Dual Enrollment, here is a great article that explains it clearly.}
The gist of Dual Enrollment is that your high school homeschooler can take classes at the college level that count as both a current high school class but also as college credit. It’s an excellent way to take schooling to the next level of rigor, expose your kid to the changes that college courses will bring while still under your roof, and accumulate college credits at a reduced cost.
Obviously, much depends on which college you are considering for dual enrollment, but while I was perusing the catalog for Columbia College in search of history and literature classes for my son’s 11th Grade year, I ran across several FOREIGN LANGUAGE options.
I did not look too closely {because I don’t think we’ll be interested in a college-level Chinese class, eeks!} but I did take note of it for future reference.
So, if you have a college-bound kid who would be interested in taking some serious FOREIGN LANGUAGE classes, Dual Enrollment would be a fantastic option for you to consider!
THREE: ONLINE OPTIONS
This option is, in some ways, the most obvious out-of-the-box option.
I’m sure you have seen ads for Outschool, which offers a bazillion different kinds of classes, including FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
And, if you are familiar with VIPKID {a popular money-making gig for moms to teach English to Chinese kids,} then you may have heard of their Chinese-English counterpart, Lingo Bus.
Or, if you are a fan of the Time4Learning app, there is also a Time4Langages add-on you can consider.
But, there are some other less-obvious online options as well. They might be smaller, but that does not mean they are not high quality.
For instance, if your student is interested in learning Spanish, Dale and Robin Gamache have a small “mom and pop” online company, La Clase Divertida, that comes highly recommended.
Or if your family is interested in learning Hebrew, a great option is Hebrew for Homeschoolers, which is the beautiful creation of a fellow homeschool mom, Ana Willis.
So, if your student is in need of a FOREIGN LANGUAGE, consider these
Three Out-of-the-Box Options:
ONE: YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
TWO: DUAL ENROLLMENT
THREE: ONLINE OPTIONS
