Are you looking for a great homeschool Spanish curriculum for children? Teaching Spanish to your homeschool children is a wonderful opportunity for them to gain a broad cultural awareness, to introduce them to foreign language, and to activate the part of their brain responsible for vocabulary, which has long-term benefits in all learning areas.
The success of your introduction of Spanish to your kids depends on finding the right homeschool Spanish curriculum for children, and relaying it to them in the best way possible. Finding the best homeschool Spanish curriculum for children depends on your teaching style, and your child’s learning style. Only you can determine that fit, but we’ve put together a list of other factors that will make your homeschool Spanish curriculum for children successful:
Four Tips for Teaching Spanish to Your Homeschool Children
- Consistency is key for success.
As a homeschool parent, you have quite a bit of wiggle room when planning out your school day. Perhaps some days, you use worksheets at the kitchen table to teach your children, and then other days, you have them outdoors, absorbing math and science from Mother Nature itself. The flexibility of homeschool is one of the greatest benefits; you can cater your teaching habits to best suit your child.
However, with a foreign language, consistency is an important part of helping the children absorb the new vocabulary and adopt the lingual patterns. Before you even begin your first Spanish lesson, make a plan for what days you’ll teach them Spanish, and for how long. Be consistent that every other morning from 9:00 to 10:00 (or whatever works for your family), the kids will learn Spanish. When learning Spanish becomes a habit, the childrens’ brains will automatically kick into Spanish mode when it’s Spanish time. - Make it sustainable.
Perhaps learning nothing but Spanish for eight hours a day will quickly jam a lot of information into your kids’ skulls at once. However, that’s exhausting for both the child and you. If you make your Spanish routine too labor intensive, your kids will adopt a negative relationship with it, and you’ll eventually give up.
To be successful in teaching Spanish, create a realistic schedule. Most Spanish curriculum lessons are designed to be taught for an hour or so, two to three times a week. If that is too much of a commitment to stick to, teach it once a week. If your children can’t stay engaged for one hour at a time, consider teaching them in 30 minute mini lessons. Perhaps your child really enjoys the Spanish lessons, it might be best to “strike while the iron is hot” and teach them daily. The point is, to create Spanish lesson schedule that you can stick to, and that everyone enjoys, for the best results. - Slow and steady wins the race.
Learning a second language is tough! The key to success while teaching Spanish to your child is repetition. You child might not absorb the whole concept in a day, but when the same concept is reinforced over and over, it will gradually become second nature.
As a homeschool parent, you know that every curriculum can be adjusted to meet your child’s learning pace. If they seem to be advanced, you can introduce new concepts a little quicker. If they struggle with a concept, you can slow down and stick with it until they adopt it. However, with a second language, its better to move forward slowly, so that they really absorb the idea before getting a new concept to learn. - Be a Spanish student as well as a teacher.
Many homeschool parents worry that they’ll fail at teaching their kids Spanish since they don’t speak Spanish themselves. In reality, learning along side your children has a very powerful impact on your child adopting the language.
If you were fluent in Spanish, it might be hard to recognize when your child just isn’t grasping a concept, because it’s second nature to you. However, when you’re learning Spanish at the same pace as your child, you know firsthand how to convey the concept in a way that is easy to learn, as it is how you’re picking it up yourself. Not to mention, you have the chance to grow and develop as a person.
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