Getting Started with Homeschool Language Courses
If you are one of the many parents who have decided to homeschool their own children, then you surely must have your hands full deciding which subjects and classes to include in your own curriculum. This is actually not quite a heavy burden to bear because there are so many sources that you can check out for such a curriculum. Hundreds upon hundreds of websites on homeschooling would suggest that you include the four major subjects in your curriculum. These are Math, History, Science, and English. But are those the only subjects to be included?
This would totally depend on you. Of course you would want your kid to have a well-rounded education, complete with extracurricular activities and such. In fact, the extracurricular activities influence the development of your child's personality during these formative years! Thus, it would make sense to include other classes of the more creative nature. And these can certainly include homeschool language courses.
Most parents are quite a bit hesitant when it comes to including homeschool language courses, simply because the parents themselves do not really know where to start. First of all, as a parent, you do not really have to be fluent in the foreign language you plan to include in your homeschool language program. You can learn this with your child as well! Being fluent in the foreign language is not necessary to teach it effectively to your child. So, if this is one of your worries about teaching homeschool language courses, then you can set that worry away.
Secondly, you need to pick out that particular language that your homeschool language courses would be centered on. If you are just starting to explore the possibilities here, then you can go for foreign languages that are easier to learn. Spanish would make a good head start for homeschool language classes.
Once you've chosen the foreign language, you can then check out your local libraries for sources. Look for picture books that come with pronunciations for basic words. You can even ask the librarian if they have tapes dubbed in that particular language. It would really help to hear a native speaker as well.
The web is also an ultimate source of information for homeschool language classes. Look for sites that offer translation and pronunciation classes as well. Movies and videos dubbed in the foreign language at hand can also assist you in this endeavor. Once you have all of these sources handy, you can go ahead and start conducting your homeschool language classes.
