What's your learning focus? Maybe I can help!

Let's face it, there are too many sparkly things in the homeschool world - or in the mom world, even... ok, in the world."Squirrel!"

Honestly, I did NOT want to write this post - deciding a focus and sticking with it is just NOT super fun. It's even maybe a little boring, but it's important to have a plan so you can adjust... "PIVOT" if you will.

As you look into the spring semester for your foreign language journey, I recommend planning your focus.

When our five kiddos were younger, we chose ONE focus per day. That way, at the end of the week, every subject for SURE got covered! Did we still get to most of the subjects daily? Yes! But if I had a tendency to drop science, I knew that science was at least focused on for one day that week, and thus the five children weren't going weeks without something, simply because I was focusing on the fact that all five of them needed to eat, and bathe, and get dressed ...I mean, EVERY single day!

So, here are your focus choices. You decide if it's better to choose one per day, one per week, or a different set of time.

1) Vocabulary - this is typically where everyone stays. Choose a few words at a time (typically nouns) and practice learning them in all the ways! I have a TON of tips on the FREE section of Spanish Geniuses. If you follow me on facebook, you get a NEW word of the day EVERY single DAY! 

2) Grammar ideas - "How would we say that in Spanish?" Choosing a grammar theme in English, and comparing it to Spanish a a great ways to create depth of understanding in BOTH languages. If you don't have a back ground in this, you can use Copy Work. We use our Bible Verse of the Day in Spanish and in English from the Bible App. Then the children decode - learning some new vocabulary by making a little glossary. If you need a reference, this is a great one - Side by Side Spanish and English Grammar. I've been very pleased with the succinct explanations as well as examples for each topic.  

3) Culture: This is likely the one we skip the most and the one that's the most fun. Choose a country and a holiday. Or a food, or a song, or a famous person. There's SO much history to learn and it absolutely influences the language. Over on Spanish Geniuses, we're adding the Passports Lessons. I'll give the link as soon as we have a few lessons loaded. It was SUCH a fun class to teach last year.

4) Pronunciation: This one is pretty easy to focus on, and truly may not need a full week. Here is a FULL lesson video on the Vowels and the Alphabet.

So choosing your focus? This is what mine will look like this month:

Mondays: Vocab for FIVE new words (check for memorization with a game on Friday)

Tuesdays: Culture - FOOOOOOD (inspired by Taco Tuesday) Kids will research a country and a food, and tell me how to make it in Spanish.

Wednesdays: Pronunciation - Use Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish to focus on cognates (the most typically mispronounced words)   - each student can choose a category and see how many words they can pronounce correctly. Use SpanishDict.com to check for correctness, if you aren't confident.

Thursdays: Grammar - use our decoding and translation from either a book/story from the SpanishGeniuses Lessons, or our weekly Bible Verses, and look it up in the Side by Side book.

Friday: Recap the week and discuss in Spanish. - Have a contest on Vocabulary words - memory game, charades, pictionary, or "Speed."

You can do the SAME thing, but rotate by the week, rather than the day - EVERY (good) Spanish curriculum will include these topics for you to focus on.

Oh! And good news! If you purchase ANY Spanish learning tool from FlipFlopSpanish.com OR subscribe  on Spanish Geniuses between Dec 10, 2022 and Jan 6, 2023 you'll be automatically invited to my exclusive 4 day Language Boost Boot Camp!

Yeah!  Why? Because you are MY TYPE OF PEOPLE!

Trying something new mid-stream, at the beginning of the year. I LOVE THAT. New beginnings take effort, bravery, and dedication, and I want to cheer you on! I hope you'll join me!