Por aquí pasó un caballo/The Learnables

The Learnables - books with no writing, only pictures. 
Basic Structures - has pictures with sentences

I must say first, that I really do not recommend the students looking at how the Spanish word is spelled until waaayy after they really have the pronunciation down pat.  (I mean, we teach babies how to talk long before we teach them to read, lol.)  😄

Update: Looking at the computer versions on The Learnables website, however, I am not sure if they are adding in the written sentences now, or if the samples shown are to go along with the second book, Basic Structures.  
You may contact them for current information. 

I recommend caution here... I know that for some people, (this is from experience) seeing the spelling can actually make them start mispronouncing words, after they had already learned them correctly.  
It may be better to do as I accidentally ended up doing, not even showing them anything until well into Lesson 4 - nearly eight weeks in.  🙂

It did work out fine, even though they had some misconceptions early on.  But pronunciation was great, especially for one kid, lol.  

►Possibly a better option, if you have good pronunciation yourself, is to simply pronounce each individual word when introduced in The Learnables.  

I'm talking about the verbs in sentences that are not introduced individually in the lesson.  (You can look in the second book, Basic Structures, if you are having trouble catching all the words.) 

The main vocabulary words are spoken alone and should present no trouble for students, but verbs and connecting words are added into the sentences and sometimes consist of more than one word, and are run together, just like we do in the English language. 

A real-life example is how I learned this little rhyme as a teenager, and did not know until well into adulthood when I decided to google it one day, that I had some things wrong, lol. 

► Watch here
 
Por aquí pasó un caballo, (A horse passed by here)
con las patas al revés. (with his feet backwards)
Si me dices cuántos tiene, (If you ask me how many he has)
te diré que diez y seis. (I will say 16)
uno, dos, tres, cuatro, (1, 2, 3, 4)
cinco, seis, siete, ocho, (5, 6, 7, 8)
nueve, diez, once, doce, (9, 10, 11, 12)
trese, catorce, quince, diez y seis! (13, 14, 15, 16!)


This is a hand-clapping game I learned as a young teenager from my best friend and her sisters.  Their dad, a native Spanish speaker, was my Spanish teacher in high school.  
I learned this rhyme by sound, not knowing how anything was spelled, or even what most of the individual words were.  I did know what the rhyme was about, but it was like one long string of sounds with pauses at the ends of each phrase.  

The other day I was around two cute little Spanish girls that knew no English, and I wanted to teach this to them!  (It would also have been fun if they already knew it!)  But because it had been well over 20 years since I had learned it, I was unsure whether I had it right, and didn't want to accidentally say something bad!
So I called my best friend, and YES!  I did know it!  Mostly.  I had an e and i reversed (saying ti dere instead of te diré), and left off the s from dices in the third line.
I also didn't realize al revés was not arre bes, and that Por aquí pasó un caballo was not pora kipa sun caballo.  Which is how I had been thinking of it all this time.  (I have no idea if those are even real words, so I hope they're not bad!)  Pasó un is run together so that the o is barely or not even heard.

Even though having learned it well, I am now having a hard time wrapping my mind around the individual words I see written!   But other than about four words, I already knew what each word meant (although I didn't realize it until I saw them all written out).  But in my mind, I still see the "old" words I had formed in my head long ago.

If I had been told each individual word, that would have helped greatly.  

Which brings me to The Learnables.
(Click ↑ to see my review, and video of a partial lesson.) 
About three days into the first lesson (usually a lesson can take about 2 weeks to learn), my son came through the door spouting an entire sentence in Spanish with a perfect accent!  La señora está comiendo la manzana. Sounded perfect to me!  😊 
So I was pretty pleased.

But recently, my daughter wanted to know how to say a phrase in Spanish that had words we hadn't yet learned.  We talked about how to say several other things as well, and I discovered that she had really misunderstood some of the words from the native Spanish speaker on The Learnables CD.  😯
(Similar to when my oldest daughter was small and wrote "cow" as "cal." LOL!  Okay, sounds the same!  But actually not even close.) 

This was a little dismaying to me since we are already in Lesson 4!  Nearly eight weeks!
With The Learnables, you learn one word at a time, then put them together in phrases, then sentences.  

But I discovered that my son thought of "está comiendo"  (is eating) as "estaco miendo."  Hmph.
But even if the purpose of not seeing the words is so that you won't mispronounce them, your mind still will think of how they are spelled.  Maybe not actually spelling them out in your head, but it hears the sounds and interprets this as letters.  Cow and cal.  😄

So I let them look at the first couple of pages in the Basic Structures book (2nd book in the series), which has pictures and sentences that use words from the lessons in The Learnables.  My daughter was amazed at how the words were spelled.

We also went over vowel sounds, and I gave them English words to help them remember how the vowel can sound in Spanish:  a in father; e in bed; i in pita (pita bread); u in nuke.  The Spanish o is tricky.  With our Southern accent, I can tell them it sounds like the beginning of oil, but I have no idea how to get that across in written instructions.  lol.

I told them how a rolled r sounds kind of like t or d.  Otto and aro sound very similar, except for slight difference in the ending o's.

Since they knew how to pronounce the numbers 1-10, I then went over the spelling of those and we sounded them out according to what we had learned about vowel pronunciation.  I also wrote down several made up words to see if they could read them according to what we had learned about vowels.

We then went over orally come (com-eh) and comiendo (eats, eating) and bebe and bebiendo (drinks, drinking) since they had learned both of those forms separately, and may not have connected them.  

And that trae (trah-eh) is brings, and pone (po-neh) is puts. My daughter had said she was having a hard time catching whatever it was the waiter did, which was trae.  El camarero trae más café.  (The waiter brings more coffee.)
The sentences are getting longer now in Lesson 4.  El camarero pone la taza de café sobre la mesa del hombre. (The waiter puts the cup of coffee on the table of the man, i.e, the man's table.  De and el are joined as del.)

The kids do fine at listening and knowing what is being said, but still were not quite catching all the words, and sometimes were making 2 words in their head where there should be one, and vice versa. 

So I'm making some changes, but first we will be going back over all the words they've learned in the previous lessons.
We will have actual objects (when possible), and they will be doing things I say.  Drink, drinking; eat, eating; bring, put, etc, different objects.  We'll spend a few days reading some things aloud, like the numbers 1-10 and some short words I make up, working on vowel pronunciation.  

I'll spend as much time as needed before jumping back into Lesson 4, and then we will start my new plan.
After letting the kids listen to a new lesson for a couple of days, we will take a day to go over aloud the individual words, such as action words, etc, that are in the sentences but are not pronounced alone in the lesson.

    
After a week (or more?), I may let them see the written words...  I will just read aloud from the Basic Structures book while they read along silently, and they can try it when they're ready.  I will also make up some of my own sentences with those words. 

►►If this creates a problem, we may just only do orally, no reading, with me pronouncing individual verbs or other words that are not introduced individually in the lesson.  

If things go well, we will review briefly for a couple more days (with them continuing the CD) just to head off any misconceptions.  

We will keep reviewing letter sounds so that eventually they will actually be able to read even unfamiliar Spanish words.  This is my "starter" idea.  I'll know more how to proceed as we get into it, since as usual, homeschool moms tweak as they go, adjusting to fit the needs of each child.


Some things I added:
The spelling of the words in each lesson is listed in the back of the Basic Structures book, but I wrote a few verbs (see at the bottom of this post) on my small dry erase board and let them copy them in their notebook.  This helped them notice the endings of the verbs.

If you are having trouble with the verbs, for conjugation, I use SpanishDict.com/conjugate.  (currently have to scroll way down to see it)  I just use the first row down, which is present tense.
If I don't know what a verb means, I use the translate section of SpanishDict.com, find the "to ____" verb, then go back and type the Spanish word into the conjugate section of the website.

We aren't memorizing the conjugation, but after a few regular (not irregular) verbs, they saw the pattern.  So each time a new verb is introduced, we go over the differences orally, and they will be able to hear the difference of se ríe and se ríen. (he laughs, they laugh)

Learn to hear the difference.  
Sometimes the I, you, he, they, part of the sentence will have different forms.  For example, one sentence may say, The man is eating.  (El hombre está comiendo).  The next sentence with the same picture may say, He is eating.  (El está comiendo)  The verb form will be the same in both sentences.  

Hearing the endings of the verb will help you understand who/how many is laughing, eating, etc. 

Note the word endings below:

ríer - to laugh

I laugh -- yo río (REE-yo)

you laugh -- tú ríes  (REE-es)

he/she laughs -- él/ella ríe  (REE-eh)

we laugh -- nosotros reímos (re-EE-mos)

they laugh -- ellos/ellas ríen (REE-en)

poner - to put 

I laugh -- yo pongo 

you laugh -- tú pones

he/she laughs -- él/ella pone

we laugh -- nosotros ponemos

they laugh -- ellos/ellas ponen

traer - to bring 

I laugh -- yo traigo

you laugh -- tú traes

he/she laughs -- él/ella trae

we laugh -- nosotros traemos

they laugh -- ellos/ellas traen

Again, if seeing the spelling starts to cause a problem, just orally explain the differences in conjugating a few verbs as you come to them (and only in the forms learned so far), and practice them so that they can get the pattern.  

The verb forms introduced first - is eating (está comiendo) and is drinking (está bebiendo). 

Next is eats, drinks, puts, brings. (come, bebe, pone, trae).  

At this time, point out the difference between está comeindo and come, and está bebiendo and bebe.  

The next verb form introduced is plural.  The verbs usually end in the letter n. 

The man and the boy are eating.  La señora y el nino están comeindo. (not está)

The firefighters come.  Los bomberos vienen.  (Also notice the plural form of el = los)

There are "feminine" and "masculine" words that have either la or el (the) in front of them, and when plural, are las or los.  See the two sentences above. 

Words ending in o are usually masculine, and words ending in a are usually feminine.  (One exception is la mano.)   Words ending in letters other than a or o will need to be learned as you go.  

Students really do not need to know the spelling at this point.  They just need to listen for the differences, and will begin to catch them more easily as they repeat the lessons.  🙂

sMiLeS,

Alpha Omega's Switched on Schoolhouse Review

Note - This review was last updated in 2011.  I'm sure many things have been updated since then!  　

We've used  Alpha Omega's Switched on Schoolhouse (SOS) for 4 years now, 6th-9th.
It is similar to their LifePacs, but on the computer.
(update: This is our 5th year.  Rebekah (10th) is using only the English for SOS this year.  Since she LOVES history, I allowed her to do some research on her own this year.  JohnDavid and Bethany (8th) are using it for history and science.)

We did all 5 of the main subjects the first year, then decided it was a bit much to do on the computer, so we dropped Bible and Math. 

This past year (March, 2010), we dropped SOS science for Rebekah (9th), and switched to Apologia. The upper sciences get hard in SOS with no teacher manual, and I didn't know much about Biology. (And Apologia has audio CDs that read the books, so that will work out great for my dyslexic ds!)
We are still using SOS science for JohnDavid and Bethany, but this fall will be changing the science.  JohnDavid really wants to use SOS Bible, though.  They had used the 6th grade one I got for Rebekah.

**I would recommend NOT putting all your kids into SOS at once, or at least doing only a couple of subjects to begin with.**  Start early in getting it set up, (like a few weeks, or if you're like me, the day you buy it, lol), so you'll have time to learn how to do everything.  Esp. if you network your computers.  Whew!  But it was so worth it.  I can access everything, all kids' work, from my computer, even while they are working.  =)
SOS has a 1-800 number for tech support, and they will patiently help you with any question.  I recommend calling early in the morning, before the phone lines get busy.  =)  Be prepared to just put your phone on speaker while you get a few things done, and just let the kids play.  =)

What I like:
Subjects are taught with a Creation- and Bible-based viewpoint throughout the lessons.
No internet connection needed. But nice if you want your computers networked so you can see their work from your computer. =)  Very handy if you have more than one child.
From the teacher's application (password protected), you can choose for quizzes and tests to be open book or not.  You can have the child rework any problem, or an entire lesson or quiz.  You can change the grade the computer gives if you think the answer is acceptable.
For one child, I duplicated an extra spelling quiz on Thursdays and retitled it Practice Quiz.  (hehe, I can't remember now how I did that, lol)  I also deleted a chapter last year from science, and this year was able to drag and drop it into the current year's grade.  I also created a separate subject for Spelling, and was able to drag and drop the spelling lessons and quizzes from Language into the Spelling folder.  This way, it was easier to control which days the spelling lesson and test landed on.
(Sorry, I can't remember how I did all that!  I'm sure a tech person from SOS will be able to help.)

The student can send messages or questions to the teacher from individual problems by clicking on a yellow sticky note.  Teach your children early to send you a note if they feel an answer was graded incorrectly.  Even if you're standing right there!  ("that way I won't forget which problem to check." ;)  Act matter-of-fact, and they will learn it's nothing to be stressed about if the computer says they're wrong.  They'll feel better as soon as the note is sent.  =) (My kids had no problem with this.  I've just heard some have.)

Also, if it says the answer is wrong, teach them to first check the score of the problem.  (each problem has it's own grade)  If it's just a spelling error, depending on what your student settings are, it should say 95% or 98%, etc.  Then they can change spelling instead of changing their answer.
Of course, this is not the case in the actual subject of Spelling.  If it's wrong, it will be counted as a zero.

I've included some screen shots of student pages. 
Click to enlarge.  

Left image:  The top of the screen shows Bethany's current day's lessons, which she will click on to access.  At the bottom shows all subjects, and completed lessons are clickable for review.

7th grade science

10th grade English

Right image:  JohnDavid's science lesson for today, showing a clickable slide show, and student questions at the bottom.  There are match-up questions as shown, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, True/False, and essay.  He can drag the page divider-bar up or down to see more of the question or more of the student text.

Left: One of Rebekah's English lessons.

They usually take a few notes (I had to teach this), or draw maps, graph, diagrams, and label their pictures or write a short paragraph.  {notebooking}  This really helps reinforce what they've just studied.



--All student work should be backed up on a flashdrive daily.
If your computer crashes, SOS tech support can help you get your child's work back without having them do it over. (horrors!)
--Curriculum is reusable, and each subject/grade can accommodate up to 5 children at a time.
We have piano on Wednesdays, so I'm able to change the due dates of the lessons so we don't have as much to do that day.  For that day, I leave off whatever subject has fewer lessons that year.  I love that!  (Yes, I actually counted the lessons, lol)
Next year I plan to use the main lessons from 6th and 7th SOS Language (drag and drop method) to fill in gaps my dyslexic child has not learned and create a one-year curriculum, and hopefully do grade-level the following year.
AS OF 2011.  The price is $85 per full-year subject, except for April (20% off) and May (15% off).  Even full price with tax, that's only about $30 per subject per year when I divide by 3 kids, and less when I get the discount.  =)

The first year using SOS will seem harder, but believe me, it gets easier, especially as the kids start learning to take notes and study on their own.  I think history is the subject I help the least on now.  Virtually none. I started with only one child using SOS the first two years, and JohnDavid and Bethany started when they got to that grade.

I'd advise installing it way early and get used to figuring out the way it works. That's the hardest part. When we networked our computers 2 years ago, I thought I'd go crazy getting it all figured out.
SOS said to contact our Internet Service Provider. ISP said to contact the router company. Router company said to contact Microsoft. Microsoft said...  You get the idea. But finally it was DONE!!!  And I love it.  The kids send me notes on SOS, or IM me with GoogleTalk (if I'm working on my computer).  I can check work, reset problems, give them hints as to where an answer is located, which paragraph, etc. especially for my dyslexic child.  (I still have Internet Explorer 7, not 8, on my computer so I can still use Ctrl-F to 'find' key words in the text and tell him generally where to look.)  =)

Things that I don't like:
►When we first started using SOS, I noticed the way of writing was less "conversational" than I would have liked.  But they did fine, and have no problem with it.  Even my dyslexic ds. 
►I only used math one year. Sometimes (not all the time!) if an answer was two-fifths, and Rebekah wrote two fifths, or 2/5,  it would count it wrong.  She did ok with it, and didn't ask for much help.  She'd send me a note if she felt the grading was incorrect.  
But two years ago (2008) SOS started having more user-friendly answers - where more than one answer was acceptable, but I'd already gone back to BJU for math. We tried the SOS 6th math again for a bit w/ JohnDavid, but since there is no Teacher's Manual, I still needed to make up my own "teaching" lessons (with him having dyscalculia, he needed extra explanation, and going slower). =( And I've saved all my books and Teacher's Manuals for BJU, so I don't want to buy more SOS math.
BUT it was better with the user-friendly answers.  So I would like it if JohnDavid didn't need so much help w/ me sitting at his side.  Hmmmm...  But again, there is no TM, just the built-in answer key.  =\
Note:  If you have an older application (installation) disc, you won't get the user-friendly answers. You'd need at least 2008 or later.  (unless things have changed since then - always check w/ SOS)
We installed the 6th math and other subjects (from 2006 as well as 2007 this year) w/ the 2008 installation disc and got the user-friendly answers, even tho SOS said we wouldn't. (?)  So that I do like!
►There is no teacher guide w/ SOS, and when we got to physical science, it began to get difficult for me to understand (lot of scientific math w/ not much explanation), so how could I explain to Rebekah while not knowing a lot about science myself!  I would need to go back several lessons to catch up, and some most times I did not get around to helping her in a timely manner. =(
We stuck it out, and then (since I had no clue what else to buy) we bought SOS Biology. 
Then a month later!! I found Apologia science.  Now if you understand upper science, SOS would be great!  I just needed help, ha!

I still like SOS for History, Bible, Science if I knew what I was doing, and even  for English (parent really needs to keep up and make sure they're actually learning), but we've only used SOS from 6th up, so I don't know how their younger grades are for these subjects.  
Note:  My daughters had good background with ABeka Language, so they have done fine with SOS Language/English, which has literature and spelling included.  It does have grammar, punctuation, etc, but not a lot.  They may have done fine even with the younger grades of SOS, BUT I do NOT know how much the younger grades cover grammar, punctuation, etc.  It would be good to call and ask them.

Also, I have learned it is never a good idea to allow them to "learn" English or math on their own.  Maybe in highschool.  You will learn your child, whether they are self-starters, self-disciplined, etc.
Children need daily supervision  in these subjects because if they get off on the wrong track, it's a lot of un-doing and catching up.
Not fun.
That said, if I'm going to need to teach these anyway, I don't know if I would use SOS for youngers.  I need to have the book laid out so I can flip back and forth while I study and prepare lessons, and so I could look at it while teaching.
Also, there is no teacher's manual with SOS.  Nothing to teach except what they read in the lesson.  Not enough example problems.  My brain doesn't work well enough to make up my own.  ;)
However, if we both had laptops, and if my child was a fast learner and didn't need much instruction... maybe.  =)  Except for essay questions, reports, etc, it does grade the work so that the computer gets to tell them if they're wrong instead of mommy.  ;)


►Here's an Alpha-Omega Switched on Schoolhouse review that I did earlier this school year:
http://www.homeschool-curriculum-savings.com/sos-curriculum-for-dyslexic-talkative-active-kids.html 
Note: I no longer read the questions to JohnDavid.  He's reading much better now, and if he can't read it, he highlights the question and uses NaturalReader Software (free download at the time of posting).
►Here is an extensive review that tells the pros and cons.  Very good article.
►Another blogger's review.
Also her updated reviews along w/ a review of a subject:
Update #1/English II; Update #2/Geometry; Update #3/Biology (has tips); Update #4/World History

ALL Curriculum I Use

Apologia Science

"Apologia" - What does it mean?
(pictures are the 1st Edition of Physical Science; links to bookmarks and schedule are to General Science) 
Apologia Science for Jr. High and High School is written by a scientist, Dr. Jay Wile, especially for homeschoolers, and for those whose parents may not know a whole lot about science.  (that's me!)
There is a toll-free number that students can call if they need help.  They'll be transferred to the correct teacher.  =)
1-888-524-4724
I've already called this number many times with questions about the curriculum, and it is now on my speed-dial!  =D

Apologia science is written in a conversational way for the student to understand, so there is no teacher book.  I've heard it seems wordy, but I've read several chapters, and it doesn't seem that way to me.   =)  I especially love that he thoroughly explains the experiments and what they are intended to teach.  I have understood things reading through the first couple of chapters that I never really had before.  After 3 days, my 9^th grade daughter said she no longer dreads science.  YEAH!!!  Two cousins are using it also, and after one day, one told me now she really “gets it” about atoms and molecules.  The cousins and my daughter are all doing Physical Science, so we are doing experiments at my house!  =)
5/5/12 ETA: One of my daughters' friends joined us for science this past year, and she said she never used to like science.  She has asked twice if I'm continuing classes this fall, and her sister will be joining us. =)

Some people call this science “easy.”  Yes, it is very clear, and easy to understand, but not too easy.
Make no mistake; your child will need to study.  Some have even called it “college prep.”  Don’t let this scare you, either.  It is a great course to prepare your child.  It is so clearly presented, they will have an excellent understanding if they read carefully and study well.
I still want to get a couple of the elementary books when I get the money.  Anatomy, and maybe Botany and/or Astronomy.  (10/2011 - I now have Anatomy and Botany!)

This science is taught from a Creationist perspective, and yes, it is mentioned often throughout the book.  That is why the books are titled Exploring Creation through Physical Science/Biology, etc. (I’ve read reviews where some people did not like God being “thrown in all the time”.  I would think from the title they would expect this…)
I do love this because it is teaching my children that God is the reason everything exists, and He knows what He’s doing!  What better way to explain this than through Biblical science!  The teachings not only have thorough scientific explanations, they also help disprove evolution and other misconceptions.  I do not want my kids to be swayed by only being presented one view by the media, which often does not present all the facts...  Too many people believe something because “it was on the news.”  My children should know the Biblical and scientific answers for these kinds of things. 
I’m probably stepping on some toes here!  =)

Another blogger's review.  I like this paragraph: "My daughter used this text last year. While she had been exposed to many science topics through books, short-term studies, classes and workshops, Exploring Creation with General Science was the first time I used a comprehensive program for the entire year. It was also my daughter's first exposure to tests, in-home labs and lab reports. In a way, General Science pulled all her previous science experiences together for a big picture view and preparation for more rigorous study."
All I can say is ditto!  I realized as we progressed into the book (we are now finishing Module 6 of Physical Science), other curriculum are more spiral in their year-to-year approach, whereas Apologia is very thorough within one year.  =)

Here is the link for the General Science that Apologia suggests for 7^th grade, but some use it for 8th or even 9th.
The chapters are called Modules.
You can click on Sample Module for the first chapter.
For other grades, go to Apologia.com, click on Products, Science, Jr. High & High School, and click on the course you want.
(The elementary grades are written by a different author, and the best I understand they are mainly one topic per year. There is Zoology 1, 2, and 3, Astronomy, Botany, and Anatomy - not to be confused with the highschool Anatomy.)

Here is another website.  Apologia does not have a schedule; they just say do a module in about 2 weeks. 
Donna Young has a schedule made out.  Yay!  I have to have a schedule!  Under the link I gave here, scroll down and see the two schedule types and descriptions.  On the right, under Schedule 1 or Schedule 2, click on a Module (chapter) to see the schedule.
This schedule has a few suggestions for various experiments.  These are very helpful.
I punched holes and put this in a binder.

Also on the Donna Young website there are printable bookmarks for the student to use (see links on the right of her website).  One bookmark per module (chapter).  The General Science seems to only have bookmarks corresponding to Schedule 2.
The bookmarks have the vocabulary and abbreviated schedule for each module.  I print mine on cardstock (3 bookmarks to a page), and punch holes on the right side of the page so I can cut off the upcoming chapters’ bookmarks one at a time.
The schedule and bookmark links go with General Science, the first edition.  Also note that each grade seems to have different layouts on the website page.  Probably created at different times.
For other grades or editions, go to DonnaYoung.org, click on Science, Apologia Science, and the course you want.  You may need to scroll down and/or click on another tab to find the edition you want.  Each page for each course is not laid out in exactly the same way.


Here is another link that I have found to be extremely helpful.  A homeschool Mom who teaches Apologia Science in a co-op has written this blog.  At the top, just click on Physical Science, or Apologia Biology.  There are links here that show experiments throughout the year with suggestions.
ApplieJuice.wordpress.com


I'm using the books, not the CD-ROM, and I’m using the 1st edition because I can find it cheaper on Amazon than buying new 2nd edition.  =)
With Biology, we used the Audio CDs since I think the kids need to hear the pronunciations as the book is read.  Also... Since the Biology only had Audio CDs available for 2nd edition, we had to use the 2nd edition textbooks as well.  I knew my mildly dyslexic ds would need this!
If you need Audio CDs, before purchasing a 1st edition textbook, check with Apologia to see if any 1st edition are still available.


There are 5 main components to Apologia Science, but you can do it with just the first 2 listed here:
1. The student text book ($65) has questions throughout the chapter called On Your Own.  The answers to these questions are at the end of each chapter. 
Also at the end of each chapter, there is a Study Guide, much like a Chapter Review.
2. There is a Solutions and Test book,($20) that has the answers to the Study Guide. This book also has the tests and answer key to the test.  If you purchase it new, they include a packet of tests separate from the book.  I'm making copies of the tests from my used book. (this is allowed)
3.  There is also a Companion CD ($15) that has word pronunciation, animated illustrations and I think video clips that go along with the text.  I do not have one of these yet.

~OR~ you can get the Full Course CD-Rom ($65) which replaces 1, 2, and 3!  The text is on the computer for the student to read, and the illustrations, pronunciations, etc. are integrated in the text.
--There are 2 CD’s with the Full Course.  One is the student text with integrated Companion CD, and one is the Solutions and Tests.
--It does not read the text aloud.  If you don’t mind a computer-sounding voice, you can download NaturalSoft Reader (free) to read the text for you.  Or get the paid version.  I like Paul's voice!  =)

4.  If you have a child that is dyslexic, you may be able to receive the audio CD ($15) free.  =)
The audio reads the text only, not the tables/pictures, experiments, or questions, so you would still need the student text.
5.  There is also a tutorial DVD for the computer.  (Computer must be able to play DVDs.)  Price varies, depending on where you buy it.  (about $100-150) 


►Read more about each component here.

As always, products/prices change.  
Before buying, check the info.

The Learnables Spanish

Don't you hate learning vocabulary?
Isn't that the worst part of learning a foreign language? I know that vocabulary lists are not easy, but we have found an easy way to learn Spanish with no vocabulary lists!

We are using The Learnables Spanish curriculum, which can come in a CD-ROM for The Learnables portion of the study or with audio CDs and books.  The Learnables are the colored red and yellow books pictured below, and are the books in which there is no reading.  Only listening and looking at the pictures.
►The other books that include listening, pictures, and reading, Basic Structures and Grammar Enhancement, only come in books and audio CDs. (as of 2009)
We use the audios and book for all of it. (We didn't have a good computer when I first ordered these, but also they're more portable for us since we don't have a laptop.)

It is like a book of flashcards, but you do not look on the back to see if you are correct, because for the first three or four months, you simply listen and look at the 'cards' in the book. You keep up with the native Spanish speaker by listening to what number he is on. So it is like vocabulary, but there is no trying to see if you're right, and then getting it wrong. ("un-teaching" yourself)
After you have listened and learned numbers 1-10, you begin your first lesson.  The speaker says the number of the exercise, and the words and phrases are repeated twice.  The speaker will come back to new words rather quickly.  There are sound effects for some words and phrases so you'll know what action is being done.  By the end of Lesson 1, your first day, you are hearing and understanding short sentences in the present tense, the difference between big and small, and two objects together joined with "and". Keep listening to this lesson for one to two weeks, until you have learned it well.

I have studied with The Learnables curriculum in the past, and I am using it this year with my daughter. After three days, she said when she heard a word or phrase, the pictures were beginning to pop into her mind.

This is a big plus, because many people can speak a foreign language after studying it, but have a hard time understanding spoken words by another person. I know this is true from my own trip to Mexico after a year of learning high school Spanish from a native speaker.  I had learned more to speak than to listen.  However, my teacher's daughter (who also went on the trip) had heard some Spanish at home even though the parents primarily spoke English (her mom is American-born, and since they lived here, they spoke mostly English for the kids).  And although she had not taken a Spanish class and didn't know how to conjugate verbs, or even know how to say some words I could say, she could understand more of what her Mexican cousins and relatives were saying than I could.

The first book, The Learnables 1 (with 4 CDs), is 10 lessons, with 100 images each (some repeated, some combined with other words in other pictures for phrases or sentences), which takes about a week or two for each lesson. Just listen to it a couple of times each day (around 20 minutes each time), only moving on to the next lesson when you are sure you know all the phrases or sentences in your mind. 

The first book can take a total of 10-20 weeks, depending on your background with Spanish.

Below is a partial lesson.  To save time, parts of the lesson are skipped. 
Subsequent lessons add new words and new phrases & sentences, while using the words from previous lessons.  

You will note that in the beginning, the speaker only says the word itself, then adds la or el in front of it.  You may want to ask your child what the speaker does differently when he first introduces a word, then what does he add to it later?  

I find this works better for my kids than just simply telling them. 🙂

Apologies for the poor audio quality!  The CD player sounded loud and clear sitting beside me, but did not record well.  

The Learnables - Spanish | Book 1 - Parts of Lesson 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2BgIlGfjZo

 

This can seem rather dull at first, but as more vocabulary is introduced, the pictures evolve into stories that keep students involved and interested.  

After completing The Learnables 1 (the red book), the student goes on to Basic Structures 1 (105 pages, with 3 CDs), where they get to Read Along with the Spanish CDs and see pictures. These are sentences and short paragraphs comprised of the words already learned in The Learnables. These lessons also are meant to be paced and reviewed. (I think I remember reading in the front of the book that each lesson should be gone over at least three times.) The workbook part of the lesson can't be redone unless answers are written in a notebook, but reading the paragraphs along with the CD can.  =)

This does not seem like enough work for an entire year of homeschool Spanish, but keep in mind, it is meant to be reviewed often before going to the next step.

Total for 1st year = 2 books, 7 CDs.

The second year has an additional book, Spanish Grammar Enhancement 1, (280 pages, with 4 CDs) which is to be used first before beginning The Learnables 2, (12 lessons, with 4 CDs) and Basic Structures 2 (360 pages, with 7 CDs)
The Learnables 2 and Basic Structures 2 are like the 1st year books, but with longer and more complex sentences.

Total for 2nd year = 3 books, 15 CDs

We plan on beginning Spanish Grammar Enhancement 1 near the end of this school year instead of waiting for next fall. 
Didn't happen!  But we'll get it.


The Grammar Enhancement book has many sentences with the same verb, then introduces new ones, then mixes them so the student will learn when to use them.  It does the same for pronouns, prepositions, and singular/plurals.  For Grammar Enhancement, I plan for the kids to listen to about 20-25 pages a day (25 min or so), (and for Basic Structures, maybe fewer pages ? because they look longer) but to do these 2, or maybe 3 days in a row.  Somewhere in the front of the book, it says to do everything at least twice.
These CDs use 6 different speakers.

Pictured at the top of this post are pages from The Learnables 1.  Here's a link to sample pages in the other books.  Click to enlarge.

The computer version sample online (of the CD-ROM version of The Learnables books -- remember, I only pictured the book version here) only shows the first 10 images, which does not really show you how it really works, in my opinion. The pictures do not "come into your mind" because you do not get far enough into the lesson for this to start happening.
Update:  To the right of the current sample shown, you can click on a Level.  Level 1 shows Lesson 4, which is what students would be learning during weeks 7 and 8.  
But you can hear how it sounds, and see how the computer version would work.

See the above video/link to see how they learn, and are learning sentences beginning their first day.  

The books may be on eBay or Amazon. I recommend researching the curriculum site and calling them to make sure you know exactly what you're looking for.

►IMPORTANT -- More about our experience with The Learnables. 
►Other testimonials