Señora Gose's Homeschool Spanish Blog (aka "Seriously, Suzanne")

As a former public school teacher, the grade on the report card was literally EVERYTHING during the semester each year. That darn two digit number for each classroom subject determined a child's mood, status, equality among peers, and even their treatment, in some cases, from the entire school staff. It was soul sapping and gutting.  So, when I escaped, um I mean,... retired from public school to stay home with our first born baby in 2001, I was determined to not repeat that number ranking game in my own little private Spanish classes. That I taught in the Game Sample...

This is HARD to do. Every year, since 2014 or so, I have held a priority party for my friends. I started with my little ladies' Bible study, because I needed to get my habits in gear, and they were the BEST people to help me stay accountable!  When I spent time thinking about why my priorities did not line up with what I WANTED my life to look like, I discovered the main point of contention included how much TIME I spent on the most important parts of my life. If you want a good relationship, you have to...

As homeschooling parents, we often feel like we're barely keeping our head above water. There's regret peeking around every corner, and guilt-ridden unfulfilled lesson plans in piles and heaps, right next to the living room book basket. It's just part of motherhood - we care, so these are emotions that creep in. What do we do? We do the "basics." We decide that we "just need to push through." Learning slowly becomes a chore, a burden, rather than a delight. AUGH.You know in your heart that NOW is always the time to learn a foreign language, and you WANT to, but...

How do you FIX these stress points during the most problematic parts of homeschooling? 1) Take a one day break (not on a weekend!)     - For this I mean an UNEXPECTED break. My homeschool flow has always been dependent on charts.  I have a chart posted on the wall for the week for each child. We look at the day, the week, and sometimes just the box each school day. If math is the worst subject ever for us, then in order to "take a break," I would walk over to the chart WITH the child, and say, "Let's...

One of the biggest perks of learning Spanish with See it and Say it, is that every  new Spanish word you learn is already meaningful. The photos give a stark visual, and typically SOME sort of reaction in the student's brain, creating a sort of connection to the sound of the word that just reading it doesn't. Some students imagine an item when they read a word, but some don't - the photos help to make the absorption process that much faster, more efficient, and thus more effective for long term memory.So - what does that have to do with...