helping child with Spanish homework

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jd123
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:25 pm

helping child with Spanish homework

Post by jd123 » Tue Jan 24, 2006 6:05 am

My highschool daughter is required to take 2 years of Spanish. She does not like it at all :( . I minored in Spanish in college, and I've even done volunteer work teaching ESL, but she just won't let me help her. I don't think she'll listen to me anymore about how helpful, fun, mind-expanding, (fill in the blank with your own positive adjective) it is to learn another language. I am just her mother, after all!
Any ideas???
Thanks!!

Senorita Daniels
Posts: 202
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm

Post by Senorita Daniels » Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:46 pm

Do you have any students that could help her with Spanish? Maybe working with a native speaker who can also tell her about the culture (in English?) would work.

strider
Posts: 160
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2003 7:52 am
Location: France

Post by strider » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:30 pm

What kind of music does she like? Have you tried playing Cd's in Spanish? (ones with catchy lyrics of course!) What about films? Try watching a film (or the Simpsons, etc) in Spanish. What about getting some comic books in Spanish?

I think you just have to find the the trigger to catch her interest. With my daughter (who loves science) we just had to show her some books about science and engineering in Germany to get her excited about learning German.

jd123
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:25 pm

helping daughter with Spanish

Post by jd123 » Sat Jan 28, 2006 7:18 am

Thank you so much for your wonderful suggestions.

jd123
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:25 pm

helping daughter with Spanish

Post by jd123 » Sat Jan 28, 2006 7:21 am

Thank you so much for your wonderful suggestions. She does have some friends who speak Spanish. I'll look around for the Simpsons in Spanish. Thanks again.

Senorita Daniels
Posts: 202
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm

Post by Senorita Daniels » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:27 pm

A lot of DVDs come with different language tracks, so you could set any one you already have to Spanish. I tried this with a Harry Potter movie, and the voice over actor who read Harry's lines was bass (which doesn't really match a twelve year old character.)

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