Señora Gose's Homeschool Spanish Blog (aka "Seriously, Suzanne")

As homeschooling parents, we often feel like we're barely keeping our head above water. There's regret peeking around every corner, and guilt-ridden unfulfilled lesson plans in piles and heaps, right next to the living room book basket. It's just part of motherhood - we care, so these are emotions that creep in. What do we do? We do the "basics." We decide that we "just need to push through." Learning slowly becomes a chore, a burden, rather than a delight. AUGH.You know in your heart that NOW is always the time to learn a foreign language, and you WANT to, but...

How do you FIX these stress points during the most problematic parts of homeschooling? 1) Take a one day break (not on a weekend!)     - For this I mean an UNEXPECTED break. My homeschool flow has always been dependent on charts.  I have a chart posted on the wall for the week for each child. We look at the day, the week, and sometimes just the box each school day. If math is the worst subject ever for us, then in order to "take a break," I would walk over to the chart WITH the child, and say, "Let's...

One of the biggest perks of learning Spanish with See it and Say it, is that every  new Spanish word you learn is already meaningful. The photos give a stark visual, and typically SOME sort of reaction in the student's brain, creating a sort of connection to the sound of the word that just reading it doesn't. Some students imagine an item when they read a word, but some don't - the photos help to make the absorption process that much faster, more efficient, and thus more effective for long term memory.So - what does that have to do with...

I know. Every one wants to know the letters in Spanish. And I think that's a normal desire.   But I say SKIP IT.  Spending time looking at, studying the sounds, memorizing and practicing the letters in the Spanish alphabet is not only NOT useful, but it's a detriment to learning how to speak. Truly!Here are a few reasons I've heard from other curriculum writers:"Letters are the building blocks of a language.""Knowing the sounds of a new language is the stepping stone to sound native.""Being confident in the written word translates to being confident in speaking."The thing is, your four year old...

I'm a Charlotte Mason-ish homeschool momma, and one of the areas I've regularly failed in is "mother culture." I love the idea, and I absolutely enjoyed all the activities, handicrafts, and creations the children did over the years. I dyed the wool, made the book marks, sculpted, whittled, carved, painted, built, and sketched! But it was always FOR the children. For the children. follow the children. let the children lead. And I was pretty good at being involved, not just watch, not just take pictures... but that wasn't really the point. The point was for the MOTHER to just do...