Home School Spanish Curriculum Grades 1-2
My wife and I are homeschooling and I am teaching them Spanish. I haven't found anything useful (for free) online and I've only found one book I like.
They burn through curriculum quickly so something challenging would be nice. Any suggestions?
7 Answers
What about a Spanish penpal? It may be a little bit advanced at the moment, but check out www.mylanguageexchange.com It's really great to help improve your Spanish (or, in this case, your kid's Spanish!)
I'm not sure what age you're talking about, but how about having them watch the videos here? They start off really basic.
You also could create some vocabulary flashcards based on their level.
Have you had them go through the house and name all of the appliances, furniture, pets, etc.?
A great book to read them would be Harry Potter in Spanish.
Edit: Oops, you said Grade 1 and 2, so they're age 6 and 7? Harry Potter may be a bit advanced. How about "El Oso Paddington" or "James y el Melocotón Gigante"?
Hi! It´s great to see other homeschoolers (I homeschooled my kids from second grade through graduation).
You are right, it´s hard to find material that has enough meat in it without being too boring (endless worksheets) or expensive (Rosetta Stone). Most of what´s out there for younger kids is just vocabulary or disjointed phrases.
However... there are also some really good books. First, I highly recommend ¨"¡Viva la acción!" by Contee Seely and Elizabeth Romijn. This is a book of about 60 sets of vignettes -- for example, Make a Peanut Butter Sandwhich, or Brush Your Teeth. In each vignette, you say commands which your student follows. The sentences are detailed and include a high level of vocabulary and basic grammatical structures. For example, "Oh, you spilled your milk on the table. Go to the sink. Take a rag. Wipe it up. Wring out the rag." etc.
Doing the vignettes is a lot of fun, and after several run throughs, your kids can also start ordering you around (even more fun!) However, the parent does need to understand Spanish for this to work...
You can find a number of other books that will work well for kids at TPR world. TPR stands for Total Physical Response. Its a great method for kids.
Have fun!
I found a great book! The Complete Book of Spanish for Grades 1-3. My children are Kindergarten and First Grade age but the Pre-Schoo-First grade book, called The Complete Book of Starter Spanish is way, way too easy. Not only that, but the Grades 1-3 book has everything from the Pre-School to First book as well as much more advanced stuff.
ISBN 0-7696-3426-5
I've tried to get a Spanish pen pal for years. What little luck I've had (using mylanguageexchange) in finding one or two ... they seem to lose interest after a while. I've posted a new question regarding this.
Also ... I would prefer a "real" snail mail pen pal.
I'm planning on making a good deal of the material myself (I'm an instructional designer getting my masters in curriculum development) but I simply don't have the time to make all of it. Whatever I make, I'll post here.
Please share whatever you find....I am not homeschooling yet, I am in college myself as is my husband, but I have her in a multi-cultural charter school where she is being taught four languages with an emphasis in Spanish and Sign. She has been exposed to the language so much that she too burns through it. I thought with Christmas coming up (we are mean parents and don't plan on buying her toys, she doesn't care about them!) some site word Spanish books would be fantastic.
Good for you being there for their education 
