Comments on yarns of the heart: Foreign Language Requirements for College

Thanks for the heads-up, Jena. I really want them ...

2009-09-22T23:38:18.546-05:00

Thanks for the heads-up, Jena.
I really want them to learn a foreign language, just because I think it's a good idea - my mom is bilingual and I have a good deal of French (from her) and some Italian also (from living there for six months).
I recently read a book, The Global Student, that blew my mind - I want to go live somewhere else while the kids are young and they can just absorb the language and culture by being immersed in it!

Thanks for this post -
:-)
Karen

One curriculum for ASL is the Signing Naturally se...

2009-09-20T23:51:23.784-05:00

One curriculum for ASL is the Signing Naturally series. It is published through DawnSign Press. That publishing company has many resources which could be useful for learning and practicing ASL. For instance, there is a workbook which goes with the story by Ben Bahan, Bird of a Different Feather. Both have accompanying DVDs.
I expect the college will accept ASL to meet the foreign language requirement. ASL is a true language. If she had learned SEE (or a similar signing system) instead, that wouldn't count because systems such as SEE are not true/natural languages.

Both my boys have shown interest in foreign langua...

2009-09-19T20:34:50.847-05:00

Both my boys have shown interest in foreign language, thankfully. Andy is doing an online course in Japanese, and I'm working with Perry on Spanish. I always LOVED foreign language, so I'm glad they took after me, in that regard!

I took Latin for a year in high school. If I had ...

2009-09-18T22:57:12.622-05:00

I took Latin for a year in high school. If I had had another year of it it would have counted. I took way too many years of Spanish to speak it as poorly as I do. LOL

My daughter is only 4, so we're just getting our f...

2009-09-18T18:13:06.922-05:00

My daughter is only 4, so we're just getting our feet wet with the homeschooling deal this year. One of the thoughts I had about foreign language was to have a Spanish-immersion day once a week. I'd have to brush up on my own language skills, but they could use the brushing up.

We could do our Bible lesson in Spanish that day using Bible Gateway, we could practice writing a letter to a friend who is a translator. Several of the online sites for children have Spanish and other foreign-language sections (French, Russian, German), and our library offers a small selection of children's books in Spanish and a dozen or so other languages.

Math would be pretty much the same in any language, though if you're working on Latin, all those roman numerals might get to be a hassle. :)

Thanks for your thoughts! Do you think Latin coun...

2009-09-18T17:22:57.311-05:00

Thanks for your thoughts! Do you think Latin counts?