Many of you know that A is about to complete her Sophomore year {just a day or two to go to finish up last minute things}! I cannot believe how fast time flies. One of the many requirements for high school is two years of a foreign language. She started using Timberdoodle's
Fluenz Homeschool Spanish as her foreign language this school year and she says that she enjoyed it and it challenged her to work hard. I like that this is a self-paced course so if you need extra time you have it. I think that is especially important when learning a new language as it will come faster to some and slower to others.
I want to share something with you now that I didn't know when A began this course. Fluenz Homeschool Spanish covers both years of high school Spanish! This is awesome. She thought she had to complete the whole program this year (and so did I) so we were so excited to find this information out. Your student will need to complete Level 1+2 and the first half of Level 3 for their Spanish 1 requirement and the remainder through Level 5 for their Spanish 2 requirement (I hope knowing this helps you!). A is already into the 4th Level so she will take a break and pick back up in the next school year. I will probably have her refresh herself with the material before jumping back in.
A working on Spanish
For those wondering, there were six different language options available for her to choose from: Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese, Italian, French, Mandarin and German. She chose Spanish as we both thought it might be more useful living in Texas.
One of the best ways to learn a foreign language is immersion. Fluenz is specifically designed to help teach common immersion situations in another country. It gives practical and useful dialog that you would use in daily interactions. Fluenz is great because it teaches listening, speaking, grammar, writing and reading in your chosen foreign language. This set up feels like a private class.
Here are the levels. When you click on the level it gives you the level progress, above you can see that Level 3 has 98.3%.
Fluenz Homeschool Spanish is broken into 5 different levels simply called Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 and Level 5. And each level is broken down into sessions. And inside each session are workouts and exercises.
Above you can see the first few sessions for Level 1 as well as content covered.
Level 1 has 30 sessions.
Here is another way to view Level 1. You can see that there are 30 sessions and get the overall topics covered - greetings, ordering coffee at the cafe, ordering at the restaurant, where are they?, on the phone with a friend, etc.
The rest of the topics covered for Level 1 (ending with where is the subway station?). Another thing to note above is that there are progress markers that show you exactly where you are in the program. This is a great feature.
Throughout this program instructors appear in videos to explain grammar. They also define terms and vocabulary and share numerous aspects of the language so students don't have to guess at words and their meanings through content alone.
Each session has a short introductory video for the upcoming lessons. The workouts inside the session introduce you to the new material. Review videos help you learn and retain the information. Many of the exercises and workouts start with a dialogue that the students should play 3 times.
There are 3 ways to watch the dialogues: Spanish subtitles, Spanish and English subtitles, and no subtitles. Again, it is recommended to watch them all three ways.
Above is an example with both subtitles.
The dialogue will then appear in writing, speaking, and listening exercises after this. In the exercises students might have to type or translate a word or phrase or they might see a list of words/phrases/sentences in Spanish and English and have to match the two that are saying the same thing together. I really like all the video lessons throughout that really help break down the information being taught. And all the fun, interactive exercises are a huge part of this program. I would say that this is definitely a thorough program with lots of content.
Another thing worth noting is the ability to sync
across multiple devices meaning you can use it on your desktop, iPad,
iPhone, Android device, etc. The ability to jump from desktop to mobile
device is a plus.
Features of Fluenz - You have access to Fluenz online, Fluenz flashcards, Fluenz commons, Fluenz mobile, Audio component and Fluenz Immersion.
In the audio component you can choose your level and whether you want pronunciation or comprehension.
When making flashcards you can choose the Level, which sessions you want included (including selecting multiple sessions), along with other options.
An example of a created flashcard.
Fluenz License for 3 students
{Above you can see I still have 2 licenses to assign as A is already using the 3rd}
Another huge feature with the Fluenz Homeschool version is that I can use it with 3 students! A has been my only student in this program right now but I do plan to start using this with B in the next year or so as she enters high school. I will most likely use it with C as well. I feel like this feature gives you more bang for your buck with the ability to use this program with 3 students along with the fact that it counts for 2 years of language.
A peek at our dashboard
My dashboard allows me to manage A's progress and track various data (time spent in lessons, percentage of correct answers, amount of exercises completed, overall grade, etc.). I have a little hiccup in my Fluenz dashboard because apparently I made A
the parent when I registered her to begin her class. I don't want to
change this at the moment as I will lose her progress so I will wait
until she completes the course to remedy this. For now, I can just view her dashboard as if it was mine and it has all the information I need. If you are looking for a high school foreign language option for your homeschooler, you should check out Timberdoodle's
Fluenz Homeschool Spanish as it has been a great addition to our homeschool.
Disclosure: Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger. Timberdoodle sent my family Fluenz Homeschool Spanish for a discounted price in exchange for our honest review. All opinions are my own.
