Middlebury High School Spanish I - A TOS Homeschool Review

In early September I learned I had been chosen to be part of the TOS Crew team reviewing Middlebury Interactive Languages. 

I can't tell you how happy this made me because I myself was permitted to be the student for High School Spanish I. 

I really wanted this opportunity because I've been wanting to succeed at learning Spanish. I've been trying half-heartedly for years, but really felt that this time I had/have the time to apply myself and stick with it. Learning Spanish important because of the growing prevalence of Spanish as a language in my world. In addition, my son is taking Spanish I this year (through dual enrollment at the local community college) as one of his high school subjects, and I want to be able to support and assist him, and help him practice.

I received an email from Middlebury with my Spanish I log-in ID and password, with a PDF attachment with "Quick start" instructions on how to log in and proceed through the course.

When you first log in, you land on the "Dashboard". On the right side is the assignment you should be on if you are following the assignment that has been pre-scheduled for you by Middlebury. They set my schedule to cover two lessons a day, to cover the one-year course in six months. I wasn't able to go that fast. If the student (like me) cannot keep up with the schedule that is preset by Middlebury, the mom/teacher is not able to change that schedule (which is preset on a calendar feature of the program). 

The way around that is to click on the menu, then select the Table of Contents.

When the student enters via the Table of Contents, they are taken to the lessons. To locate where the student is, click on the lessons. Green check marks show sections completed. It's very easy to see where to start back up even if the student left off previously right in the middle of a lesson.

The program is set up in "Units". Each unit has five "Lessons". Ideally the student will cover one unit per week, one lesson per day. Each unit has a general focus, with each lesson building on the content of the unit while reinforcing information covered throughout the course. Material is presented and reinforced/tested in a variety of ways including videos, PDFs to print out, matching, fill in the blank, audio to listen to, repeat and record, etc.

Graded assignments are graded immediately.

When the student does not know the correct answer and wants to know what the correct answer is, there is a way to get to that information. You get to the information through "Gradebook" on the drop-down menu.

When you select "Gradebook" you get to a couple of features. First, you can see how well the student is doing and how many units, lessons, and sections of lessons the student has done.

Second, you can get to the assignments that the program does not grade that the teacher is supposed to grade.

This one part of the program needs a boost for us homeschoolers because if the parent does not speak the language the student is studying, how can the parent correct or grade the papers? That's why we are using Middlebury in the first place!

The third thing the Gradebook gives you is a grade report for the report card/transcript. Great feature! (Does not include the grades for the "Need to be graded" assignments.)

I want to add one thing here. Even though there were pages to print out, "SCRIPT"s of lessons, vocabulary, etc., I was really struggling to remember the information being presented. I thought back to my middle-school French to remember how we learned and to decide if there was more I could do to help myself remember things.

What is missing is actual writing. When I write things down I make better neural connections. So I started writing EVERYTHING down. I started a notebook of my notes. It really helped me start remembering which words always have an accent, how to spell things. It really made a huge improvement in my learning.

So my final "verdict" is that I LOVE Middlebury Interactive Languages High School Spanish. Maybe you will, too!

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed various language programs by Middlebury Interactive Languages. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.

Homeschooling Spanish Academy: A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

For over a year now my son has been asking me to teach him Spanish. All the while I had been trying to teach him French, which I speak, and Latin, which I was learning with him, but I felt inadequate to teach him Spanish. I kept buying different versions of Spanish courses, and had the opportunity to review a different one months ago, all with good intentions, but with very little in the way of results.
 
Then I learned that we would have the opportunity for him to take seven weekly Spanish lessons via Skype, through Homeschool Spanish Academy out of Guatamala. 

I have long been a believer that "immersion" language learning is the best method to use to teach a foreign language and to learn a foreign language. I was not having success immersing my son in Spanish largely because I did speak it myself, and it is hard to teach something you do not know.

The Homeschool Spanish Academy is a language program taught via Skype meeting. Since it uses this level of technology, the user's computer needs to be checked to make sure it meets the technology's requirements and will be fast enough. I had to have my son use my laptop, because his does not have a camera and does not have a built in microphone. My computer initially did not pass the test, but after a little tweaking and a retest, we were qualified and good to go. 

We were given a seven-week course in exchange for our review. To start, we went to the "How it Works" page and signed up for a free lesson to establish an account with a user name and a password. Before doing that, I watched couple of videos about Homeschool Spanish Academy:







By this time I was looking forward to getting started, and was convinced we would have good success. So I clicked on "Sign up now" at the top right of the page (yellow button).  The "How it Works" page tells you everything you need to get started. The instructions are there for signing up for a free lesson, testing your computer speed, packages you can choose from (different age levels, length of course, number of classes per week), how to sign up for your first class using Schedulicity, how the lessons work, and how the homework works. That's a lot of information packed into that one page! 


I signed up for an account and for a trial lesson.  Before I knew it I was receiving a telephone from Homeschool Spanish Academy "Tech Support" (who happens, also, to be the owner of the company). He walked me through the speed test and helped me get signed up for our first lesson. (Since I was a reviewer I wasn't really supposed to take a free trial lesson.) We signed up for the Middle School lessons. My son, aged 12, could have gone either Early Language or Middle School. 

Our first lesson I sat beside my son. He often has focus issues, so I didn't want him to just walk away from his lesson. I found he was not willing to answer the teacher as she asked questions -- he didn't know the answer and was afraid to say so and also afraid to say that he didn't understand or didn't know the answer. At about 30 minutes he kind of melted down and ran away from the computer, so I finished the class to learn what the homework was and what else would have been covered so I could go over it with him during the week.  I don't know why he had/has this fear, but it continued to plague us through all of these lessons.

After the first lesson, the owner, Ron Fortin, called to chat about how the class went and to answer questions. He asked if I had any suggestions of how we might change things to make the class work better for my son. Since my son had requested a male instructor and there were non, Ron offered to sit in through the class if it would help my son. He was very helpful and involved in trying to make this work for us.


During the class there had been some times when JD had not known the answer to the question asked, and I told him, or he hadn't understood the question in Spanish, so I told him in English what he had said. Ron suggested that maybe, for the next class, I should let him be alone with the teacher, so that's how we did the 2nd class. 

Second class he sat at the dining room table alone while I sat out on the deck just outside the dining room door.  He again lasted about 30 minutes and then ran to his room in tears, and I came in and finished the class so I could go over it with him later.

Third class he did better, and I hoped we would now be into a groove, but it never did really smooth out...  To the very last class that we took, my son (although learning) was resisting taking this course. ::sigh::

Later in our series of classes my son had a sick week. Ron was very understanding, allowed us to cancel and reschedule, and said rescheduling for sickness is not a problem. For other conflicts they ask for 24-48 hours notice for a class to be cancelled and rescheduled.
Homeschool Spanish Academy offers four levels of Spanish:

• Early Language (25 minutes once or twice a week);
• Middle School (50 minutes once a week);
• High School (50 minutes once a week); and
• Adult Program (50 minutes once a week).

PRICING STRUCTURE:

 This program has so many different levels and ways to take the course that I think I would bore you to tears if I listed here all the many options. You can see the pricing for the different levels by clicking the above links. For the level we were taking, Middle School, the options are 1) one student one class per week; 2) one student two classes per week; 3) two students one class per week, and 4) two students two classes per week. We were taking one class per week for one student for seven weeks.

Each week the lesson is emailed to the student/parent. I liked getting the material printed out for my son to look at during the Skype session. We always tried to open Skype with ample time before the class was to start to make sure we didn't have any unexpected glitches.

Then each class we would go over the printed materials for that week's lesson, and also go over the information for the homework the student was to complete for that week. Later, after the student completed the homework, it was to be sent to a certain email address for homework. It was then corrected and returned by someone at Homeschool Spanish Academy.  (There was at least one week when they did not correct and return my son's homework, but when I emailed them they took care of it right away.) Early Language students are assigned about 30 minutes homework per week; Middle School, High School and Adult classes are assigned about an hour's homework per week.
In my opinion, to really learn Spanish well the student should actually be doing review of the current week's lesson for at least twenty minutes daily. We were not very consistent with this, and I think my son might have been more successful with this program if we had been.

We had a recurring difficulty adjusting to the fact that the class times are posted in Mountain Time. It was difficult to get used to signing up for one time and remembering that our class was actually two hours later, being Eastern Time. One class got rescheduled somehow so that I got a reminder that the class would be at 11:30 Monday, and on HSA's end they had me down for a class at 1:30 Tuesday. We never did figure that one out... And there was at least one day when I was calling them when they didn't call me when I expected, and if I remember correctly that was because of the time difference.

The quality of the instructors and the lessons was exemplary.   I was sorry my son just couldn't work well with it. I did sit with my son through most of the classes, and studied the homework with him, and I myself did learn a lot. I think the biggest difficulty we had was getting our study time and homework done daily between the lessons.  I think the program would be better if the company could create videos (or at least audios) to be available to the paid students, that they could play, watch, and practice with between the Skype lessons. That would have helped us a lot. 

This is a little slow, but it is a video of my son doing a lesson. He thinks a long time before he finally answers a question -- maybe he was processing and not understanding the question, I'm not sure... But this is a flavor of what our classes were like:

The Spanish taught by Homeschool Spanish Academy is specific to Guatamala. If I understand correctly, the different countries and different areas have inuendos and little differences in the way the language is spoken. Not being knowledgeable about this sort of thing, that's all I can really say about it.

The customer service at Homeschool Spanish Academy was the best! I began to thing that Ron Fortran sleeps with his Skype open on his bedside table! Any time I texted him or called him, he replied almost immediately!

The Spanish teacher's were excellent, well trained, and for the most part understood our English at all times. I think any misunderstandings we had could have been largely related to Skype, and voice processing only being able to go through one way or the other. In other words, if we started talking while she was talking, I don't think she could hear us until she stopped talking, I'm not sure. 

One other suggestion I would have: Currently Homeschool Spanish Academy has only female instructors. My son would have preferred a male instructor.

Homeschool Spanish Academy did not require any additional materials to be purchased. The lessons were delivered to the student incrementally. Printing the lessons wasn't required, but was helpful. Since they were in color, that can be expensive. Also, my son thought some of the illustrations were corny-looking. I thought they were okay.

The purpose of the product Homeschool Spanish Academy provides is to teach students to converse well and with a proper accent. I believe this program is excellent for that, even though it didn't fit for my child. I think their method of teaching the pronunciations of the alphabet on the first lesson is key for this, and then the regular corrections of mispronunciations. That is what makes this program so good -- the real live person teaching the lessons.

One of the features of this program that is nice for families is that the class can be set to have more than one student participating with the instructor. I imagine it would be nice for some families if  Homeschool Spanish Academy were able to accomodate even more than two students to one instructor. I know of families with triplets or quadruplets, so it would be nice for those families if Homeschool Spanish Academy were able to let those families just have a regular group class. Of course, each student would need their own state-of-the-art computer set up with microphone, camera and Skype. It is possible that the instructors would find it too difficult to conduct such a class, but to me it seems like a good idea...

What I Liked and Didn't Like:

□  I liked the classes being one-on-one;

□  I liked the people who work for Homeschool Spanish Academy;

□  I liked working with Skype. This was new for me, using Skype.

□  I liked the challenge. I've come away having learned some Spanish, even if my son didn't. I think he probably did learn some, but I probably learned more (I probably applied myself more than he did).

□  I didn't like that there were no male instructors. I hope they can change that in the future.

□  I didn't like that there seemed to be some mistakes in the papers -- the lessons and the homework. Specifically, Lesson 1's homework asked that a raspberry's name is in Spanish, but we had never been given that information. There were some places where words (in Spanish) were randomly capitalized, and I thought they were incorrect, but not knowing the language I can't really be certain.

□  Overall, I really liked Homeschool Spanish, and my son really didn't.

□  I would definitely recommend this program to anyone, especially since they can try it for free!

DISCLAIMER:

Our family was given a 7-week course of Homeschool Spanish Academy in exchange for our review. We did not receive any other compensation. My opinions and words are my own, and are not influenced by any other factors.

This review brought to you by The Schoolhouse Review Crew. Let me know what you think! Leave me a comment!

Classical Academic Press: The Art of Argument (A Review)

This month, as a part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew, I had the opportunity to review a product by Classical Academic Press called The Art of Argument. 

I had long wanted to have an opportunity to dabble in argumentation and debate. Does that surprise you? Well, long ago I realized that there are certain aspects to argumentation that, if you can learn them (and learn how to observe them and use them well), it can make it possible to have disagreement in a more cerebral, less emotional way.

I'm not sure if I am making myself clear. But, many years ago an attorney friend of mine, who taught debate, helped me to get the tiniest glimpse of the concept of a fallacy, and catching a person in a fallacy. And this program goes into the concept of fallacy (and 28 forms of informal fallacy) in great detail.

I received the following items free from Classical Academic Press, in exchange for my honest review:

• The Art of Argument (230-page paperback) which sells for $21.95 (see sample pages here);
• The Art of Argument Teacher's Edition, (286-page paperback)which sells for $24.95 (see sample pages here);
• Disk 1 of a 6-DVD The Art of Argument DVD set, which sells for $54.95 (Watch lesson 14 about the "Straw Man Fallacy"):<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/a_KAdp7BJtw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>iframe>
• [These can be purchased as a bundle for $88.95]

This program contains three units, split into six chapters, covering 28 fallacies, and is designed to be spread out over one full school year.

Now, I know the DVD set is a little expensive, but the DVD is so worth it! I am totally loving the age of technology we are coming into with DVD sets. They are making my homeschool so much more successful (and easier!)!

This curriculum is geared towards Junior High students, which is perfect because as they hit that age-range (seems to start at about age 13), their brains are changing and they start to become very argumentative. It can seem they are becoming disrespectful, but that is not (necessarily) their intent. They are just at a changing place in their development where they are trying to figure things out. Equipping them with the ability to argue well enables them to approach situations much differently, and assists in diffusing many emotionally-charged situations.

Studying this material also enables the parents to see where their own arguments have fallacies. For example, I remember one recent situation where, even though I knew it was a fallacy, I had to ask my child to go clean up/change clothes, whatever the situation was. We were trying to accomplish something serious (I think it was a heart-to-heart talk), and I had to tell my child that I was really having difficulty taking him seriously when he looked so ridiculous; it was distracting. (I think maybe he had written on his face with marker or something...) So, the fallacy that ran through my mind was an example I had heard in the past of a type of setting where an attorney is trying to discredit a witness because of something unrelated that the witness had done in the past.

I think the fallacy I was thinking of might fall into the category of "Ad Hominem Circumstantial". But while I was looking it up to figure out what type of fallacy it might be, I saw another fallacy that I can illustrate even better. When I grew up, in the public school system teachers would often get siblings from the same family as they all worked their way up through the grade school. I remember distinctly situations where a teacher might say something like, "Oh! You're Kenny Smith's brother! I should have known I could expect this type of behavior from you..." This is an example of "Ad Hominem Genetic" fallacy, the student is guilty because of source of origin (from the same Smith family, therefore they're all bad).

The books clearly lay out different categories of fallacy, and specific fallacies within each category. For instance, the above "Ad Hominem" category refers to arguments against the source (discrediting the source as a way to win the argument). Another fallacy category is a category of appeal to emotions as a way to win the argument. A last category of fallacy, and one of my favorites, is the category of red herrings, which refers to presenting "proofs" to support the argument which are not emotion-related, but are nevertheless irrelevant to the situation.

The Art of Argument Teacher's Edition now contains the complete text of the student book, with the answers filled in on all the question spots. Having the student book contained in the teacher's book is hugely helpful! The TE also contains all the tests (to photocopy), as well as the test answer key. (This is so much nicer than some curricula where you must purchase the student textbook; the student activity book; answer key to the student activity book; test/quiz book; answer key to the student test/quiz book; and possibly an additional teacher book that gives things like recommended daily lesson plans, lecture notes, etc. All in one place. Nice.

So, the nitty gritty. On a grading scale of 1-10 (10 is the best):

• Affordable? 10
• Relevant:  10
• My student liked: (N/A - he's 6th grade. I can't wait to use this with him next year!)
• Age range of the product: Junior High, but older and younger could benefit as well. It's just that that Jr. High age is perfect for introducing the topic of Logic to. High school is then a good time to get into more formal debate.
• Educational style: Classical
• Necessary teacher prep: It is wise to read through each lesson in advance, or while the student reads through. If doing the DVDs, the parent can let the student do the material independently with the DVDs (if the student is honest and will do what he says he will do -- I prefer to do everything with my "less trustworthy" student at this time)
• Consumable or reuseable: TE is reuseable; student book is consumable
• Secular/religious: I detect no "bent" one way or the other. The book, very reasonably, deals with real-world-style advertising issues, but nothing that I saw was objectionable.
• What did I like or dislike: I like everything about this program. I disliked that they did not give me the entire 6-DVD set, but, hey...
• How could it be improved: I did not see anywhere in the book material a place where there is guidance on how to implement the program (daily/weekly lesson plan strategy). I saw one comment on the website that one Facebook fan did Unit 1 one year and will do Unit 2 the second year, so maybe they just want the parent to decide the pace, but I still would have preferred an example of a plan...
• To whom would I recommend the program: to everyone with up-and-coming middle schoolers, and most especially boys! (My girls would have done well also, but I find my son more argumentative, ...or maybe I am just forgetting. It's been 10 years since my daughter was this age...)

So I highly recommend you consider looking into this product. It is going to be part of my school plan this coming year. I am home schooling using the "Charlotte Mason" approach, but implementing this material does not, in my opinion, in any way conflict with that approach. I DO want my homeschooling to implement a program of Argumentation and Debate, and this program looks like a winner in my home!

This has been a TOS Homeschool Crew Review.

 

To see more reviews of this product, go to the TOS Crew Review page.Throw me a bone! Leave me a comment! I love comments!

Adding Foreign Language(s)

When I arrived in this world, I was unable to speak. When I needed something, if it did not appear without being requested, I probably cried until my mom could figure out that I was hungry, or wet, or cold.

My parents and my brother and sister had a different way of communicating, and I wanted to learn that way to express myself as well. So I watched, and I listened, I payed attention, and I learned. Real life language learning occurs best through this method, known as immersion.

In my later school years I wanted to learn French, so I signed up for French class year after year. French was taught using the immersion technique: after day one of class, English was never again spoken, unless you asked in French, "How do you say..." and then you could say an English word, "cow?". I learned to speak French. I never became well educated in French grammar, or learned all the possible declensions, but if I was dropped on a street in Paris, I could find the bathroom or order a meal.

Since then I have wanted to learn to speak Spanish. I have made attempts in the past to learn Spanish, to teach Spanish, but I have failed. Quite frankly, I haven't found myself to have the discipline to follow through. But now my son also wants to learn Spanish, and I know he will need to have a two years of a foreign language in high school. I paid to have my other two attend outside classes for foreign languages, but this time I'd like to go through the course with him!

This past month I was given the opportunity to review a Spanish language program called REAL Homeschool Spanish.

("REAL" stands for  "Relax, Enjoy, Aspire, Learn)

The author, Dr. Karyn Williamson-Coria, received her doctorate in Expanded French Studies, and then went on to learn Spanish on her own, with the help of her Spanish-speaking husband. After her children were born she began to home school, yet continued teaching Spanish and French.

I really like that Homeschool Spanish Dr. Williamson-Coria's concept with this course is that the homeschooling parent should learn the foreign language with the home schooled student, rather than the student learning independently from some home school curriculum program, or learning from some outside class. Now, those other methods work, and are perfectly valid for credit when applying for college, but it will be easier for my son to learn Spanish if I am also learning it because I can integrate the language into many aspects of our day throughout our day. This way learning the language is occurring through the immersion technique, which language experts will tell you is the ideal way to learn a new language.

The REAL Homeschool Spanish "Book Bundle" can be purchased as an electronic download for $49.95 and includes the REAL Spanish Book (105 pages) (written more to the educator than to the student, but can be shared by the student), Activity Book (175 pages), Answer Book (45 pages), and Audio Files.  For $59.95 you can get the same bundle, but with the addition of the Daily Curriculum Guide (50 pages) (very helpful). For $99.95 you can get a printed copy of the entire Book Bundle with Curriculum Guide and audio CDs.

 

 Each lesson incrementally focuses on a section of vocabulary and language to learn, and has corresponding audio files to listen to which can help with proper pronunciation. I find this helpful. I am trying, but my daughter says I speak Spanish with a French accent! By taking a peek at the Table of Contents, you can see what is covered in the course.  Take a peek at some of the pages from The Spanish Book and you can get a flavor for how the book is set up, as well as see how well laid-out the materials are.  At the end of each chapter of The Spanish Book there is an Idea Section. Here is a sample for you to see. The lessons in The Spanish Book are reinforced through corresponding sections in The Activity Book. You can know, step by step, what to do each day by following the Daily Curriculum Guide.

The REAL Homeschool Spanish website also has additional helpful resources that you will find helpful and beneficial: in addition to helpful cultural links, there are links to recipes, puzzles, maps, quizzes and games, history, animals, songs, and on and on. There are hours of additional support materials linked there.

Generally speaking, I did not find this curriculum to be religious, so it would not offend secular home schoolers. Being a program with no religious bent, it also would not offend home schoolers with strong religious beliefs. It is just a language program. It doesn't discuss anything religious that I found.

With this program, some can probably implement the system with limited preparation in advance. I, on the other hand, cannot -- for me this program requires I work the lesson in advance before teaching to my son. For one thing, I don't know the language. For another thing, if I don't make sure I know in advance what I am about to teach, a lot of our time gets wasted while I rummage through pages trying to find the right ones, rummage through computer files to find the right audio file. I have to have pages flagged and have audio files queued up and ready to play. Otherwise my son would lose patience with me and I would lose his attention. Yeah, attention issues in this house. It's a balancing act -- keep it short, keep it quick, keep it moving, take a break and move on to the next subject...




POSITIVES:

• Immersion language learning;
• Incremental introduction nicely done;
• Audio track available and easily accessible, and very essential in my situation;
• Daily Curriculum Guide is a day at a time, not a week at a time like some might be;
• Activity Book is fun and engaging;
• Ideas section helps me to think of ways to continue to integrate Spanish into our day throughout the day;
• These materials are created in a way that a variety of ages can learn simultaneously. That means I can start now, or next year, or I could have started three years ago, and a large family can start one, two five, seven students all at the same time! Wow!
• Affordable -- more affordable than many other language programs.

NEGATIVES:

• I received the download version, when I would have preferred to receive materials that were already printed out. I feel like I'm spending a fortune on ink this year, and I definitely needed to print out and organize a notebook (with several sections with dividers marked) to properly implement this program smoothly. On the other hand, if I had more than one student, I imagine I would see this version as preferable.
• Heavy teacher prep required for teachers who do not already know the language.
• One thing I wished this program had was audio/visual files, not just audio files. I learn much better with video/book programs than audio/book programs.

Even with all the positives listed above, my experience with this program thus far have not been wonderful. I do not consider this to be due to any fault in the program. Rather the problem was the timing of this material's introduction to our home school. My son is already doing so much school work, and there are subjects my state requires that we are having difficulty getting done. For both of us, the thought of diving into this program just now the way it should be done was enough to make us groan. My son is 6th grade this year, and I am optimistic that I can plan to fully implement this program beginning in September and have a much better outcome. I will try to keep you posted.

Disclosure: I received a free set of The REAL Homeschool Spanish in exchange for my honest opinion and review. I received no other compensation (other than the aforementioned), and this page contains my honest opinions.

This has been a TOS Homeschool Crew Review. To see more reviews of this product, visit the

TOG Crew Review page. Throw me a bone! Leave me a comment! I love comments! Let me know how you like my reviews, and if you have any questions.