In our years of homeschooling, I have found foreign language one of the hardest subjects to teach, especially if I’m not fluent myself. Sometimes discovering out-of-the-box ways to teach foreign language in your homeschool can be a game changer!
When we first started homeschooling, we were living in New Brunswick, Canada, which is a bilingual province. While it wasn’t required that we teach foreign language in our homeschool, we thought it would be wise. However, as a girl who had two years of Spanish in high school, I had a really hard time teaching my young kids French, even though we purchased a curriculum made for homeschoolers.
So, in short, this post comes to you from a formerly frustrated homeschool mom over the foreign language options in the homeschool world. After years of trying multiple programs with little success, let me share with you three out-of-the-box foreign language options that will work for homeschool families – even if you’re not fluent!
Here are the best foreign language options for homeschool families, starting with programs for your youngest kids through to your high schoolers.
The Cultured Home Language Program
If you’ve ever thought to yourself “I don’t know where to start” with introducing your young kids to a foreign language, then this is the answer. The Cultured Home teaches foreign language through play-based learning. Your membership includes a new lesson each week, complete with video, worksheets, flash cards, audiobooks, and play-based plans.
Take a look at the languages your children can learn with the Cultured Home:
- French
- Spanish
- Italian
- Mandarin Chinese
- German
The time commitment to use this program is only about 5 minutes per day, and you will receive step-by-step instructions for how to implement it in a fun, hands-on way with your kids.
You can get a 7 day trial of the Cultured Home Language Program for just $1. That way you can see how it works with your kids before you commit.
Listen to this podcast episode where founder Shannon Kelly of TheCulturedKid.com explains how the program works.
Hebrew for Homeschoolers
Most of us probably don’t consider teaching Hebrew as a foreign language, but why not? If you’re a Christian or Jewish homeschooling family, then learning Hebrew makes a lot of sense. Ana Willis teaches a 10 week beginner’s level course where your whole family can learn the basics of Hebrew.
Here’s what you will learn in Hebrew for Homeschoolers:
- The Alef-Bet (Hebrew alphabet)
- Numbers
- Colors
- Shapes
- Greetings
- Basic vocabulary
- Biblical vocabulary
- Hebrew songs
This course would be great for kids of all ages.
Visual Latin from Compass Classroom
Finally, for those high school kids who need a foreign language credit – what’s a homeschool mom to do? We struggled not only in the younger years with foreign language, but unfortunately in the high school years as well. So many programs are written for a classroom experience. The videos are not always well done. The written assignments are confusing. And when a parent can’t help with pronunciation, the teenager can be flustered as well!
After muddling through other foreign language courses with our two oldest, we decided to try Visual Latin from Compass Classroom this year for our 10th grader and it has been a huge success!
Not only is it easy to follow and clearly geared toward an independent homeschool high schooler, but the teacher is phenomenal. My high school boys are hard to please when it comes to online teachers, but Visual Latin gets two thumbs up from my teen.
By the tenth week of this course, your student will be reading an all-Latin book. The frequent reviews and quizzes provide great assessments so I always know how my student is doing. The video lessons are short and to the point. And best of all, your student will put his Latin knowledge to work by gaining increased understanding as he listens to the Latin Bible each week.
This will now be our go-to high school foreign language course. And learning Latin will be a springboard for future foreign language study or it will help their English skills as well. It’s a total win-win!
Additional Foreign Language Resources
- Foreign Language YouTube Channels & Videos for Kids
- Why ASL is a Good Option for Foreign Language
- 41 Foreign Language Curriculum and Resources (Some FREE)
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Abby is a former public school teacher, now homeschooling her five children. She’s in the trenches just like you and knows it can be challenging to be home with your kids all day while you struggle to keep up with the housework and educate your kids (and maybe even work on the side!). She blogs over at www.4onemore.com and hosts the Homeschool with Moxie podcast.
