When I was younger I did community theater plays, and every Sunday after the matinee we all went to “PV”, the local Mexican restaurant. “PV” stood for Puerto Vallarta, but I had no idea.

When I saw the sign, I read it aloud to my friend, “Pu-Air-Toe Vuh-Lar-Tuh”. It was crazy embarrassing. For me, and for all of the friends I was there with.

But things only got worse from there. I couldn’t pronounce anything on the menu. My friends started to give me quick tips before the waiter came back. “j’s are like h’s and l’s are like y’s” they told me.

Of course, then I was overly confident and said to the waiter (very proudly), “I’ll have the en-chee-yadas please!”

To say that I’m a non-Spanish Speaker is to put it kindly. I can’t even keep up when Diego is blinking at us waiting for us to count. I’m that hopeless.

Thankfully, all of my kids have shown interest in learning new languages much earlier than I ever did! But how can you teach a language that you don’t speak!?

Teaching Homeschool Spanish as a Non-Spanish Speaker

(I am so excited to partner with Rosetta Stone for this post! I recieved their curriculum to review and was compensated for my time. I wasn’t required to give a positive review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own. Please see my full disclosure here.)

Why We’re Teaching Homeschool Spanish

You mean, aside from just helping my son avoid the same major embarrassment that I faced in that restaurant? Kidding! (kind of….)

I think it’s really important to teach kids more than one language as early as possible. Kids can absorb so much when they’re younger, and if kids grow up learning more than one language, it makes it easier to learn more as they grow older.

We chose Spanish specifically because it’s a very common language in our area. Several of our neighbors speak only Spanish, and Mr. C really wants to be able to communicate more easily with some of the younger neighbor kids.

Rosetta Stone Homeschool Spanish Methods

Okay, guys, this is why I love Rosetta Stone Language Learning for Homeschool. Their methods are long trusted (seriously, 20 years!?), and they really work.

Rosetta Stone uses an immersion technique, which means that your child will be completely surrounded by the new language that they’re learning without their native language. Because of this, the kids learn more actively.

Basically, when Mr. C gets on the computer for his Spanish lesson, he hears, reads, and speaks Spanish. This is the most effective way to learn a new language, but I would be completely unable to provide this myself as a homeschool mom.

Thankfully, with Rosetta Stone Language Learning for Homeschool, I don’t have to. He doesn’t have to listen to me struggling through trying to pronounce things clearly. Remember that Puerto Vallarta story? It wouldn’t be pretty!

What We Love About Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone Language Learning for Homeschool has helped me add Spanish language into our homeschool without any headaches or stress.

I love that it can be done by Mr. C independently. I’m trying to slowly outsource more of his curriculum since homeschooling A-Man has to be so hands-on.

I also really appreciated that all of the pronunciations are done by native Spanish speakers. The accent can be tricky, so it’s important that kids learn it correctly!

A Quick Tip for Using Rosetta Stone Spanish in Your Homeschool

Mr. C is a gifted learner, and he is a really advanced reader. That is almost always a blessing, but because of it he struggled a bit in the beginning. See, he was trying too hard to read the words out phonetically, so he wasn’t saying them correctly.

I’ve told you before, this kid is a mini-me.

So my big tip? If your kiddo is struggling with trying to read instead of listen, turn your computer away! Mr. C instantly does better if we turn the computer away from him the first few times that he hears a new phrase.

Connect With Rosetta Stone

You can get Rosetta Stone Language Learning for Homeschool from Rosetta Stone and start teaching Spanish in your homeschool this school year! They also have a free trial that you can sign up for. You can also connect with them on Facebook or with their newsletter to stay up to date!

About Kaylene

Kaylene George is an autistic self-advocate, author, and mother of five, including one autistic child. She realized her own autism as an adult shortly after her son received his initial diagnosis. Suddenly the parts of her that seemed so “weird” to society had an answer. Since then, Kaylene has passionately shared about her experiences with autism from both sides of the great divide between parents and autistic self-advocates on AutisticMama.com.