Review: Middlebury Interactive Languages–Elementary Chinese (K-2) (TOS Review) #hsreviews #foreignlanguage #bilingualism #languagestudy

My 2nd grader (age 7) has really enjoyed taking Elementary Chinese 1 (Grades K-2) from Middlebury Interactive Languages.

My oldest (5th grade/10 years old) has been taking Chinese for a couple of years now, and has used Middlebury Interactive Languages in the past for reviews also (Elementary Chinese 1 (Grades 3-5)) twice! (Review 1 & Review 2).

This course is at a much more simple level than the one we reviewed in the past.  It took a few courses with me helping, and now he can basically navigate the course by himself.  I also noticed several improvements to the format (that were issues I had in past reviews).  The first is is is MUCH easier to get to the next course.  Straight from the homes screen they have a next lesson choice.  They also show which lesson you should be on according to the calendar, the classes are assigned one a day, 5 days a week.  Previously it was difficult to find which lesson you were on, if you were not following their calendar schedule.  This has been SOLVED!  Yeah! 

Another improvement is that if you use the Table of Contents to navigate lessons, you can easily see which lessons you have completed with check marks by them!  If I remember correctly, this was NOT the case before!  Great improvement!

This more of an introduction class to Chinese, they will be no means be fluent afterwards, BUT they do use games, videos, songs, and immersion to teach the concepts.  There are printable vocabulary sheets, words to songs, translations to the videos (all helpful things for the parent who does not speak the language and is trying to assist in these lessons!). 

There are speaking lessons, however, it is an extra cost to have these checked by a teacher, we did not have this option.  It did help my son to listen, record and listen to compare, however.

I should probably point out that this was used by my difficult child (if you have read my reviews before, you know what I’m talking about).  He has been very excited about this course from day 1 and continues to be so. 

There is a time limit when you subscribe to the course, they are only good for one year from purchase date.  If used regularly they can be completed in much less time (ie this course has 70 days of lessons, 35 each semester) You also have the option to pay more for a teacher or to pay less for independent study. 

Having used several Chinese language programs, I feel this is one of the best for  YOUNGER kids, based on this course for this review.  It doesn’t require the parent to know the language, the child can navigate it on their own (after some guidance), it builds a pretty good base and familiarity with the language…greetings, numbers, characters, etc…  I am happy with it, and so is my husband (who speaks Mandarin).

Middlebury Interactive Languages also offers Spanish, French and German courses.  Course are available in all languages Early Elementary through High School (with the exception of German for K-2). 

It’s definitely worth looking at for your homeschool foreign language needs!

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Virtual Curriculum Fair 2016: Playing with Words–Language Arts and Foreign Language

I have 4 kids, but only 2 are ‘school age’.  My oldest 2 are ages 6 and 9 (or 1st and 4th grade).  I wanted to take this opportunity to share what we use for Language Arts and Foreign Language studies in our homeschool.

LANGUAGE ARTS

4th Grade

It was quite the struggle to find a program that worked well for my oldest son, who HATES to write.  We were very lucky to review a few products that really clicked with him, and we are still using them!

Institute for Excellence in Writing, is my number one recommended curriculum for resistant writers! 

You can read our review of their Writing, Grammar and Spelling programs, all of which we love and continue to use!

Institute for Excellence in Writing - Fix It!  Grammar
IEW - Deluxe Combo Level A
IEW - Phonetic Zoo Level A

I can’t say that these programs have gotten him to LOVE writing (I wish I could), but they have certainly made it a lot less painful (for both of us!).  The spelling program still frustrates him sometimes (he hates to get them wrong), but he is retaining the words, which is GREAT, because previous spelling programs were not sticking.  The Grammar he never complains about, he really enjoys the story that he is writing as he goes along each day (and I often catch him reading ahead!). 

1st Grade

For my first grader, we actually do not spend a lot of time on Language Arts.  He uses ABC Mouse and that touches base on it. 

Some other fun programs that both my kids enjoy for Language Arts are

Grammaropolis and IXL.com

LITERATURE

Literature generally goes along with our science or history studies.  I also allow a lot of free choice reading.  Currently my oldest is participating in The Battle of the Books program, so he has been reading a lot of books for that.  Z is still learning to read.  He uses Reading Eggs and Reading Kingdom (a program we reviewed).  He also really enjoys these Star Wars Phonics Set.

OTHER PROGRAMS WE’VE USED

We have reviewed A LOT of Language Arts programs, it’s impossible to use them all, and though something might not have been the perfect fit for us, these are still high quality programs.  You can find them under REVIEWS

Foreign Language

4th Grade

My oldest son takes Mandarin Chinese using Rosetta Stone.

We have reviewed a few other Chinese programs, but Rosetta seems to work best for us thus far.  There are not a lot of choices when it comes to Mandarin Chinese language learning.

I started making worksheets to go along with the programs, but got so far behind!  You can see what I have made and get them free:

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

We have not started language learning for my 1st grader yet.  We started Rosetta with C when he was 3rd grade, and I think we will do the same with Z.

LOOKING AHEAD

Our plans for next year

I plan to continue with IEW for 5th grade for C.  We will use Ancient History Based Writing Lessons to go with our history studies, but continue with Phonetic Zoo and Fix It Grammar.  We will also continue with Rosetta Stone.

For 2nd grade, I’m considering The Primary Arts of Language from IEW for both Writing and Reading, but I didn’t push writing a lot with C until 3rd grade, so I’m thinking I’ll take the same approach with Z, but follow his lead, of course.  We may also start All About Spelling with him (which is also part of the Reading program from IEW). 

I’ll also have a Kindergartener next year.  He will be using ABC Mouse as well (he does now for PreK) and IF I get IEW Primary Arts of Language, I may try it out on him too (I think he will like the farm theme, he LOVES animals).  I take a very lax approach to Kindergarten though, so I don’t have a lot of BIG plans.  (This is a HUGE difference from when my oldest started Kindergarten!).  We take much more of an unschooling approach in the younger years.

Linking up at the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2016

This year the Virtual Curriculum Fair is hosted by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World, Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses and Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset.

Language Arts: Words Make the World Go Round by  Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
The Language Arts in Our Homeschool and Everything Relating to it   by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Teaching Elementary Latin by Yvie @ Gypsy Road
How to Learn ASL & Spanish in 20 Minutes a Day by Rochelle @ RochelleBarlow Classical Word Study by Lisa @ GoldenGrasses
Language Arts Means and Methods by Laura @ Four Little Penguins
Sprechen Sie.... by Jennifer King @ A Peace of Mind
The Art of Eloquence  by Jennifer King @ A Peace of Mind
Love Languages by Jennifer King @ A Peace of Mind
3 Reasons You Don't Have To Be Afraid To Grade That Essay - And It's Free @ LJSkool
High School Language Arts by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
Words, Words, and More Words by Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
Finishing Strong - Starting Gently by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

Review: Middlebury Interactive Languages (TOS Review)

For this review we have been using Middlebury Interactive Languages, Chinese Courses, Elementary Grades 3-5. 

Middlebury Interactive Languages is a 100% online language immersion program.  For the most part, they speak only in the target language.  We chose Chinese for the review, but other languages are also offered, as well as other grade levels.

My 9 year old used this program typically 5 days a week, as part of his morning computer school work routine.  The program is easy enough for him to navigate himself; I just save a short cut to the desktop for him. 

He navigated the lessons from the calendar section.  This works perfectly if you do a lesson every weekday (it automatically gives holidays and weekends off), but if you miss a day, or only work on a 3 day a week schedule the calendar can get confusing.  There is no way to adjust the assignments (that I could find).  I emailed the company when we first started to ask them if there was a way to change the start day, so that the lessons would line up and they changed it for me. 

The inability to adjust the lesson dates is a bit of a frustration.  For example, we were without internet for 2 days, when we got internet back I asked my son to do 2 lessons a day for 2 days to get caught up.  When I went in to check on him later, he had done 2 lessons as asked, but he did them starting on the current day instead of backing up and picking up where he left off.  (When you log in, the current day is automatically highlighted.)  

The other option is to navigate through the table of contents, but you have to open each file to find the one that doesn’t have checks, and you have to check the file before to make sure that that one does have checks, in order to find where you are and well, he skipped lessons that way on accident. 

The other option is to keep track on paper what lesson your child is on, so they know.  When the lesson is completed there is a check mark that shows up, so that does help.  I don’t know about most 9 year old boys, but, my son just doesn’t pay enough attention to those kind of details.  So, it would be nice to be able to manually move a lesson on the calendar. 

With that aside, my son does enjoy this program. I feel like he is learning, and he is mostly scoring well.  I wish they were able to redo lessons to improve grades (they can redo, but it doesn’t alter their grade).  Also unless you pay the extra for an actual teacher, the speaking portions are never graded, and therefore kind of useless.  There is no way to check tones, or pronunciation, unless you or someone you know is a native speaker.  So, if you are very serious about the language, I’d pay the extra money for that portion (particularly if you are using middle or high school levels for credit). 

My son had a microphone headset to use with this program (one we owned) but the microphone wouldn’t register for some reason, so he ended up doing the program without it. 

The program introduces characters and pinyin, along with pictures.  Often times they are asked to match the characters to the appropriate pictures.  They words are also read in Chinese.  So you get visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning involved. 

The program also touches base on cultural aspects, not just the language, which is also nice!

The program does keep track of grades, which is especially helpful in older grades (when transcripts are needed).  We do not usually grade, but it’s good to see how he is doing, and I like to point his scores out to him and let him know where he needs to work a little harder, and to high five him when he does well.

You need to manually log in to check on your child’s progress.  It’s located under the same log in as the student, therefore they can also check their progress.

We were using a different program previous to this review, and when I asked my son what he wanted to do, he voted to continue with this program. 

The program is 6mos long (a semester), though you have up to a year to complete it.  There are 90 lessons total.

The cost of the program is $119 without a teacher, and an additional $175 with a teacher per student.  They offer courses in Chinese, Spanish, French and German for grades K-12. 

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Chinese Language Learning Resources–Mandarin (MOST FREE!)

Fun Chinese Mandarin Language Learning

iOS Apps (FREE unless otherwise indicated)

Easy Chinese Writing – $1.99
Little Pim Talking Coloring Book – 99cents
Chinese Vocabulary Free
Learn Chinese Free iOS and Amazon
Learn Chinese Easily
iLearn Chinese Characters Lite
Chinese Sentence Builder Free
Mandarin Baby Flash Cards iOS and Amazon and Google Play
Learn Chinese by MindSnacks
Piggy Picnic - $1.99
Monki Hide and Seek – $2.99
Kids Mandarin
Bitsboard – Chinese Flashcards

PodCasts

Kids Chinese Podcasts (has worksheets too)

Mandarin Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk
Mandarin Chinese Lessons with Wei Lai

Amazon Apps (FREE unless otherwise indicated)

Learn Mandarin Chinese for Beginners
Monki Chinese Class and Google Play
Chinese Characters Writing
Learn Chinese Lite – Phrase Book
Language Lu
Simply Chinese – 99cents
Chinese Stories – Elementary, Intermediate


Chinese Mandarin Coach

Google Play Apps (FREE unless otherwise indicated)

Learn Chinese Mandarin Phrases

Learn Chinese Mandarin
Learn Chinese 6,000 Words
Fun Chinese Learning Games
Chinese Writer
Learn Chinese Mandarin
Learn Chinese Characters
Learn Chinese Mandarin Phrases
Learn Chinese 10000 Mandarin
Learn Chinese Pinyin
Kids Chinese Learning Vol 1
Monkey Write – Learn Chinese Lite (Full Version $19.99)
Mandarin Madness – $2.99

Videos & Streaming

Little Pim  - Also on Amazon Prime Streaming

Early Start Mandarin (Amazon Streaming, not Prime)

Ni-Hao Kai-Lan (AP)

Fun Ways to Learn Chinese (AP)

Free from some Libraries

Mango Languages

Hoopla Digital – Language Tree – Chinese for Kids

YouTube

Learn Chinese with Emma
Learn Chinese Now

Software Programs (Fees apply)

Middlebury Interactive
Tell Me More

Rosetta Stone

Online Live Classes from Currclick

Book Curriculums

Better Chinese

 

Online Games

Digital Dialects – Games
Hello-World – Games
Soft Schools – Flashcards and Matching Games

Worksheets

A few Chinese Character Worksheets from Education.com

Make your own Character Worksheets from HanziGrids.com

FREE CHINESE WORKSHEETS from Chestnut Grove Academy

Follow Jen @ Chestnut Grove Academy's board Chinese Language tools on Pinterest.

 Disclaimer:  I have not tried out all of these sources, but have used several.  As with anything, please review it yourself before allowing your child access.  I picked the ones listed either because I’ve used them or because they had good ratings.  I do not guarantee that any of them will work for your family or specific learning needs.   

FREE Chinese Worksheets–Lesson 2

The 2nd installment of FREE Chinese Worksheets are now available!  These are based on the vocabulary introduced in Level 1 – Lesson 2 Homeschool Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese.
You can find the Lesson 1 sheets here.  I recently reorganized them, so there are less files.  I think they will be easier to navigate this way.
We have incorporated the worksheets by doing a lesson and a couple worksheets a day.  We strive for 100% on the lessons and redo them until we get 100%.  We have used several programs for Chinese, I find that the repeating (and it’s so easy to repeat with Rosetta) really helps it stick!!
These worksheets can be used with other programs as well, they are just in order of the Rosetta vocabulary introduction.

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Soon I will make a post of Chinese language resources…so be on the look out!
Don’t miss that post or any more worksheet posting!  Subscribe to my newsletter!  I will begin distribution very soon!!

FREE Chinese Language Worksheets

After purchasing  Rosetta Stone Homeschool in Mandarin, I realized that they do not have worksheets with the program (as they do with other languages).  I decided to make up some practice sheets for my son.  My husband speaks Chinese, and was able to assist me with this project.
We have been doing one lesson of Level 1 a day and one worksheet.  But you can use it however works best for you!  You need not use Rosetta to utilize the worksheets, but they were designed in line with the outline for Rosetta Stone Homeschool Level 1 – Lesson 1.  (More lessons to come).  Each matching and cut & paste activity has an answer key on the last page. 
The activities include writing the character, writing the pinyin, matching the character with the pinyin, cutting and pasting pictures with the character and pinyin and flashcards (with picture, character and pinyin).  All activities include the vocabulary words introduced in Level 1 – Lesson 1. 

Currently on sale for 50% off!

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NOTE:  These worksheets are SIMPLIFIED CHARACTERS, Not Traditional.

Please subscribe to my email list so that you can receive notification when I post new units! 

Lesson 2 is available HERE
Other Chinese Resources can be found HERE

Follow Jen @ Chestnut Grove Academy's board Chinese Language tools on Pinterest.
Follow Jen @ Chestnut Grove Academy's board Chinese New Year on Pinterest.

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Review–Tell Me More Chinese (& Giveaway)

I am always on the look out for Chinese Language Programs for my kids and I stumbled upon this company.  I asked around about Tell Me More and heard good things…so I decided to try for myself.
The Tell Me More programs are geared towards older children (about age 11) through adults.  The programs deal with grammar/verb conjugation and writing, which could prove above the learning level of younger kids.
The disc based program must be operated on a Windows OS, it comes with the program discs, an instruction manual and a microphone headset. 
The headset may need an adapter for newer computers (my newer laptop only has one plug in for the microphone/headphones and you need one with two plugs, but adapters are available for a decent price).  You NEED the headset/microphone to use this program.  I tried it without it, but because it has speech recognition, it would pick up every little back ground noise.  So the headset is a MUST.
After I got the headset situation working (I just used my older laptop).  I still had some difficulty with the voice recognition….so I decided to look around the software a bit more and discovered you can adjust the sensitivity of the software which helped out GREATLY!  At first it only recognized a few words I repeated which was VERY FRUSTRATING.  After adjusting it, I was on a roll!
My husband (who is a linguist by profession) was impressed that the software used sound graphics (not sure what the technical term is) that showed you your voice tones when you speak in comparison to how they should be (what they are when the computer speaks).  This is very important, in Chinese especially because it is a language of tones, having the wrong tone can change the meaning of the word.
When it comes to a program like this, you must remember, you get out of it what you put into it!  I have not been very disciplined about using it on a normal basis, obviously if I want to really learn the language I need to be more disciplined. 
As far as language learning programs go, I really like how this program has the voice recognition.  Your typical DVD’s or CD programs are nice, but you don’t ever really know if you are pronouncing back correctly what you have heard.  That is a major selling point for me.
This program is also reasonably priced, with other similar programs going for over $400, this one is a bargain at a fraction of the cost!
I previously studied Arabic, and really feel that I could have benefited from a program such as this while learning the language. 
I recommend this program to anyone that is willing to put in the time and effort it takes to learn a language!
Tell Me More has graciously offered another program to one lucky reader!  Winner gets to pick the language of their choice (from the many languages TELL ME MORE has to offer).

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