In my first Homeschool Spanish blogpost, I about my own Spanish background: my “Violeta” Spanish name in class, writing notes to my teacher so I could learn more verb tenses, and choosing to study abroad in Spain to become more fluent! I also wrote a bit about how trial by fire is often the quickest way to learn something new, language included. I ended by summarizing my experience as a Spanish Immersion Teacher in the public school system, and how astounded I was with the fluency gained by my students in just one short year.

In my second Homeschool Spanish blogpost, I wrote about how my experiences informed my instruction for my own kids, now 18 years after living abroad: the good, the bad and the ugly! Some things worked well, some things didn’t. Some strategies were smooth for my son, but rocky for my daughter! This post summarizes what my favorite songs, games, and other methods of language instruction have risen to the top.

When Your Plans Do Not Work Out

I have to admit, when things aren’t successful in my homeschool, I sometimes jump the gun. I am a research girl, and I always want to know the reason behind things! I think things out thoroughly, plan with intention and sometimes bite off more than I (or my kids!) can chew. That said, the process of language instruction in my own home has been a frustrating one for me. My husband and I have not been able to keep up the pace of immersion within the home, the way we had first planned. We were great when we had one kid, dropped a little with two, and by the time we had our third, just became too mentally preoccupied to be remembering to speak in the second language on a daily basis. (And now we have four kids!)

Besides some personal work I need to (still) do to accept this and give myself grace, as a homeschool mom, I am always on the search for small tweaks or new ideas, to make our language instruction successful. Is it what I had hoped for? Definitely not. But, in life, and especially in homeschooling, you have to pivot! If something isn’t working, it is important to be honest with yourself, get support, and search for new solutions.

Trying A New Strategy

This summer, I have tried to employ a new strategy. My youngest is two, and her three older siblings dote on her on a daily basis. There are varying levels of openness to Spanish amongst the three, so here is what I’ve devised for summer:

• Making the instruction basic, and focused on the toddler. This way, the older three are not feeling under pressure or like they’re schooling heavily in the summer, and they are more likely to participate and pick up some words on the way.
• Incorporating one Spanish song at a time, until mastery. My toddler daughter loves songs, and so my strategy has worked–I introduced “Si Estás Feliz” (If You’re Happy And You Know It) to her last week, and she has requested “feliz” a few times now. We do the actions, and sing in a fun, exaggerated way. My older daughter especially loves helping with this!
• Using one Spanish book at a time, until the vocabulary is somewhat mastered. Currently we are reading “Clifford Va al Zoológico” because they are already familiar with the characters, can recognize some basic words like “amigo” and “perro” and “rojo” and “grande,” and area learning a lot of new words pertaining to animals.
• Doing a super basic matching game using these Spanish animal cards–my daughter is only two and doesn’t understand the concept of Memory yet, but we have showed her the cards and had her repeat the words. For a free Spanish Matching Game, check out Llamitas Spanish–she has an entire freebie library that I have utilized many times over the years.

This entire process, with my toddler, only takes about 15 minutes, but I think it is worth something! The older three are also participating and are learning some more Spanish, without even knowing it!

Old School Language Instruction

As I plan my curriculum for the upcoming school year, I am going back to basics! I am going for a bit of an old-school method, that I hope will maybe take some of the weight and pressure off.

I do think that full immersion is the best model, and I always will. But this year, in this season, with the ages of my kids (10, 8, 5 and 2) and myriad other factors, I am going to try out a workbook type curriculum in a loop schedule.

I have been a fan of Llamitas Spanish for years now! I have used various freebies, helpful blogposts and Spanish Spotify playlists of hers and love her content. This year, I plan to invest in her award-winning homeschool Spanish curriculum. I will try:

• Preschool Spanish Morning Binder for my kindergartener (little Spanish background)
• Level 1 for my third grader (she understands Spanish, but doesn’t have any formal training)
• Level 3 for my fifth grader (understands well, and has a year of Spanish immersion under his belt, but has gotten rusty and is not able to produce well, yet)

I felt a bit resistant to this idea at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it would be a good fit for us this year. I think having it on the schedule, with something tangible, that was purchased, will help me stay motivated, and take all of the content creation off of me!

I also think that including Spanish in loop scheduling will help me not feel too structured or constrained. Whatever pace we are able to achieve is great, and certainly better than nothing!

I am super curious to see how this new plan works this year. As homeschool moms, we know, that we have to always be ready to pivot!

With love,

Cait