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Languishing in Languages? ~ Languages On the Go!

2:25 AM, Jun. 19, 2008

You can find tons of "Learn in your Car" language CDs as well as simple CD's to listen in the car. For audial learners, these are great! For visual learners, it's a bit frustrating, and perhaps even a little dangerous, if the learner is also the driver!

We'll be taking a little family trip this weekend, so we're preparing for our down time in the car with several lists of words, Car Bingo, and a few German CD's. Here's a great way to use your summer vacation to increase your language absorption.

Making your Choices

Stay away from full curriculum set ups for your trip. Keep it light and fun, and grab a couple of traditional songs on a cheaper kid CD or folk song collection in the target language instead. You can take a few moments and choose three words per song to listen for. Clap your hands, or make some sort of signal each time you hear one of the words. This increases your and your children's critical listening skills.

Car Bingo

Choose some things you will see on your way - trees, bridge, traffic light, building, cows (they're abundant here in Texas) restroom signs, restaurant, gas station, etc. Look those words up and print them neatly underneath a grid of those pictures. You can have your children cut out the pictures and paste them in a bingo card (we use 4x4, no free space), or even find some car bingo games that are already put together for you, and just label them in the target language. As you drive and mark the cards, the players call out the items in German, or Spanish, or French! For more advanced students, they must make a complete sentence - "The tree is big," etc...

Travel Phrases

We all tire of hearing several phrases while driving: How much longer? Are we there yet? I have to go! I'm bored. We're hungry. Don't lose your cool - be the best mom ever and ...

HARNESS these repetitive phrases by requiring them to be in the target language. Most online dictionaries can give you a pretty good idea on how to say these. Here they are in Spanish:

I'm hungry: .......... ... ..Tengo hambre.

I'm bored: ............ ... Estoy aburrido (aburrida for girls)

How much longer?.. ¿Cuánto tiempo más?

Are we there yet?..... ¿Ya llegamos?

I have to go! ...............¡Tengo que ir!

If you need pronunciation help, check the Flip Flop Learning Website under teaching tips. Remember to have a stake - if you DO say the phrases in English, then you have to... stay quiet for two minutes, or count to ten in Spanish, or.... come up with something that isn't too fun (our funny dance last time actually became desirable, so my kids were speaking English rather than German on PURPOSE, just so they could do a silly dance whenever they desired. Whoops. Live and learn! Please give us all ideas on a good stake that worked for your family!

Enjoy the summer!

I'd love to hear if anyone is able to use these tips, where you went, and any vacation anecdotes. I'll post on our own progress in two weeks' time - I'll miss posting next week, and then again the week of July 14 (baby #5 is coming via C-seciton July 14!)

Thanks for visiting and buena suerte! (Good luck!)

Suzanne Gose (known by her students as Señora Gose) is a homeschooling mother of almost five children - baby number five is due this July. A former public school teacher, she currently teaches over 80 homeschooling students in weekly Spanish classes at Key Curriculum in Bryan, Texas. She is also the author of the Flip Flop Spanish Workbooks and other language teaching tools. You can see them at www.flipfloplearning.com and in the Schoolhouse Store.

Posted in Languishing in Languages?, 2 comments, Link
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We're a little slow and behind

1:31 PM, Jun. 24, 2008, posted by kcmyworld

But we have done some practice this week. We chose 10 words/phrases and agreed to say them in Spanish instead of English. The stake was 10 jumping-jacks for mistakes. I think I've had the most mistakes, because I keep forgetting to say por favor instead of please. Other words for the week: snack/bocado, underwear/ropa interior and kiss/beso.

Not sure what step we'll take next, but don't want to stop now!

Robin

Great work!

10:30 AM, Jun. 25, 2008, posted by senoragose

I'm so glad to read about a better stake! I'll be trying jumping jacks for sure (since we're only 19 days from my due date, I declare myself exempt!) My older boys are crazy about video games, so I'll be looking that up in German, and that will be one of our new words this week. Congrats on getting started - just making an attempt is a gret way to begin! Felicitaciones (Congratulations; feh-lee-see-tah-see-oh-nehs)

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