 |
| Spanish flash card sample from Unit 1 - Lesson 1 |
I really liked Rockalingua, which is a program with visually-engaging audio and video, plus worksheets but the grammar and sound was more "castellano" than the Mexican/Latin-American Spanish I was looking for.
Sigh. I even delayed the kids' teaching and then I was like: "What on earth? why don't I just do my own?" And I have trained for this too! I worked in a language school in Mexico in 2003 teaching ESL, plus I'm a native speaker, plus I've worked professionally as a translator for 5+ years and as a bilingual proofreader for one and a half years. Oh my ... why pay for it when I already know it!
My kids haven't learned Spanish because ... I've been lazy? It's horrible, I know. My husband doesn't speak Spanish (he understands some but doesn't really speak that much) and I'm mostly isolated by being a homeschooling mom so I don't have many opportunities to speak Spanish. It was easier to speak in English so my husband could interact in the conversation and know when I was disciplining the kids, etc. and we fell in a routine that was hard to break. So sad! My parents get onto me all the time, but this time I decided to take action.
So I looked, and looked, and looked some more. Some of it was expensive, some of it was free but not what I needed ... A lot of it jumped right into phonics and grammar and I just didn't think it would work. Heck, I remember my own learning experience when I first moved to the States. I did study some basic English grammar in Mexico but it didn't help me right away. I was dazed and confused, and didn't answer anything but yes or no. It didn't matter what you said - to me it was a yes or no question. I submerged myself in English when I started Bible school. I would go to the library to do my homework and an English-Spanish dictionary was my best friend. I literally pointed at things like a toddler and repeated the words my roommates said back. It took me three months to know what was going on and it was a painful time because, on top of the culture shock and isolation, I was dealing with a language barrier. I soldiered on and broke through, but guess what? I learned with little to no Spanish accent because I kept repeating and repeating words from native speakers; didn't need a formal course on phonics and grammar at the time to communicate and expand my vocabulary (or get me through Bible school, I might add). Those are skills I want my skills to develop. I want them to eat the baby puree before tackling a steak, so to speak.
Years (and formal training) later, here I am: a homeschooling mom, looking for books to teach my kids Spanish because I dropped the ball with them. Then again, when my kids were younger, I worked full-time and then some ... Barely saw them or really talked to them so I don't know when exactly I would've had time to teach them Spanish before.
Well, I am writing my own curriculum here is a snapshot of what the first lesson of the unit looks like:
I can't tell you how much I loathe Comic Sans. I detest that font, makes me cringe. I don't know why but it seams to be many teachers' (no offense) favorite font. Or everything is in black and white or it just didn't appeal to me. I'm all about aesthetics, clean lines, easy-to-read text. It retains my attention better and it looks like my kids inherited that trait from me so it works for them as well.
So I'm writing my own and I'm releasing the first lesson for FREE. Doesn't require previous knowledge of Spanish to follow along, and even the advanced reading part of it is easy enough to follow, even if you don't quite know how to pronounce the words. You can go to sites like www.spanishdict.com enter a word like, say, "sun" and there is an audio file with that is displayed with each definition. You can check against that or you can send me a quick message with any questions.
You will love this lesson! It took me about 45 min. to teach but you can break it down into two sessions if you don't have that much time.
DOWNLOAD LESSON ONE HERE (for FREE, from my TeachersPayTeachers store).
It includes flash cards, vocabulary, a reading comprehension exercise, advanced reading exercise and teaching objectives/answer key. This is the first lesson in the unit. Here is what the full unit (and release dates) look like:
UNIDAD 1: SALUDOS (Greetings)
Lesson 1: ¡Hola! Buenos Días
• Intro to greetings: hello, goodbye, good morning, good night
• Release date: 2/11/2015
Lesson 2: Buenas Tardes Linda
• Intro to greetings: good afternoon, how are you?, what's your name?
• Release date: 2/13/2015
Lesson 3: Buenas Noches Luna
• Additional vocabulary: nightly routine (brush teeth, getting ready for bed)
• Release date: 2/20/2015
Lesson 4: ¡Adiós Amigos!
• Additional vocabulary: see you later, until tomorrow.
• Release date: 2/27/2015
The first three units in my Spanish course will be conversational Spanish, then we will shift to grammar, spelling and phonics development.
I hope your students enjoy these and please, please do leave feedback so I know how to improve these lessons and make them easier to follow and better. Share with your homeschooling friends or Spanish teachers you know! I always look around for awesome free stuff I can use with my kids when homeschooling.
Enjoy!
- Gina
