Exploring Spanish! Session A

Want affordable Spanish classes for your homeschooled children? Live in Orange County, California? Consider Exploring Spanish!

A six-week course for homeschooled children, Exploring Spanish incorporates music, visual aids and games in a relaxed and fun home environment. And thanks to a small class size, each student gets the opportunity to practice speaking Spanish and pronounce it correctly. At every class, students receive homestudy assignments, vocabulary lists and reading suggestions. By session end, your student(s) will feel more familiar and comfortable with the Spanish language.

Exploring Spanish is divided into: Young Explorers (K-4th grade) and Older Explorers (5th to 7th grade). Older Explorers involves more workbook activities. However, if your older student wants to join his/her younger siblings in Young Explorers, that's perfectly all right. The grades are just guidelines.

Please note: Session A begins Thursday, August 23, 2007, and ends six weeks later. Registration for the classes is closed, but email Exploring_Spanish@hotmail.com for information about our next upcoming session in November.

About the teacher: Raised by Argentine parents, Ms. Veronica Maria's first language is Spanish. She also studied the language in high school and college, and lived in Argentina briefly. As a freelance editor and writer, Veronica Maria also works as a freelance Spanish/English translator. The homeschooling mother of three, she knows the benefits of home school classes set during the day. She teaches Exploring Spanish from her home in Southern California. For details, class location and registration information, please email Exploring_Spanish@Hotmail.com.

Welcome! Bienvenidos!

Want affordable Spanish classes for your homeschooled children? Live in Orange County, California? Consider Exploring Spanish!

A six-week course for homeschooled children, Exploring Spanish incorporates music, visual aids and games in a relaxed and fun home environment. And thanks to a limited class size, each student gets the opportunity to practice speaking Spanish and pronounce it correctly. At every class, students receive optional homestudy assignments, vocabulary lists and reading suggestions. By session end, your student(s) will feel more familiar and comfortable with the Spanish language.

Registration for upcoming session A is now closed.

Classes begin Thursday, August 23, 2007.
Young Explorers, A: 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Older Explorers, A: 11 a.m. to noon

Please email Exploring_Spanish@Hotmail.com for class location and registration form. The form and check must be received by Exploring Spanish before the first class --- but will not be cashed until after the first class. Please note: Checks are not refundable after the first class.

Exploring Spanish is divided into: Young Explorers (K-4th grade) and Older Explorers (5th to 7th grade). Older Explorers involves more workbook activities. However, if your older student wants to join his/her younger siblings in Young Explorers, that's perfectly all right. The grades are just guidelines.

About the teacher: Raised by Argentine parents, Ms. Veronica Maria's first language is Spanish. She also studied the language in high school and college, and lived in Argentina briefly. As a freelance editor and writer, Veronica Maria also works as a freelance Spanish/English translator. The homeschooling mother of three, she knows the benefits of homeschool classes set during the day. She teaches Exploring Spanish from her home in Southern California. For details, class location and registration information, please email Exploring_Spanish@Hotmail.com.

Older Explorers

Older Explorers is a beginning Spanish course for fourth graders through seventh graders. The philosophy behind Exploring Spanish is to make learning a second language an active and fun experience in a home environment.

Please note: Parents are required to remain at Exploring Spanish and are responsible for the safety and well-being of their child(ren). That said, parents should feel free to bring reading material, knitting needles, etc., while they wait in a comfortable adjacent room.

Materials: The Older Explorers class combines seatwork and conversation in a relaxed environment. Once the roster is filled for a class, I'll email the parents about the book they will need to purchase. (The book choice varies, depending on the ages of the children.) At the end of each class, the student will receive an optional homestudy assignment and reading materials.

Supplementing Your Child's Learning: We strongly urge you to go through the materials in your child's binder every week, so you can help reinforce the classroom learning. Because you will be nearby during your child's class, you will hear the pronunciations of different words and be able to assist them in their practice. It is up to your child and you to extend the lessons learned in the class to maximize their retention. Make sure to make it fun, though!

If you would like to supplement your child's learning at home, we recommend:

• the "Teach Them Spanish" book series (School Specialty Publishing)
• the Spanish Reading Comprehension Series (School Specialty Publishing)
• "First 100 Words in Spanish" (Usborne)
• "Usborne Internet-Linked Spanish Dictionary for Beginners: Latin American Edition" (Usborne)

Many local libraries also have a nice-size collection of Spanish readers in their children's section. The newest books now also are bilingual with Spanish on one side and English on the other.

For details and registration information, please email Veronica Maria at Exploring_Spanish@Hotmail.com

Young Explorers

Young Explorers is a beginning Spanish course for kindergartners through fourth graders. However, older students are always welcomed to register as well. And because Exploring Spanish is set in a safe home environment, parents can always see and hear their children from the adjacent room.

Please note: Parents are required to remain at Exploring Spanish and are responsible for the safety and well-being of their child(ren). That said, parents should feel free to bring reading material, knitting needles, etc., while they wait in a comfortable and relaxing adjacent room.

Materials: The philosophy behind Exploring Spanish is to make learning a second language an active and fun experience. All your student needs to bring to the first class is: a three-ring binder, a pen/pencil and enthusiasm! At the end of each class, the student will receive coloring pages, print-outs, booklets and/or other items to put in the binder. By session end, s/he will have created their own personalized Spanish dictionary.

Supplementing Your Child's Learning: We strongly urge you to go through the materials in your child's binder every week, so you can help reinforce the classroom learning. Because you will be nearby during your child's class, you will hear the pronunciations of different words and be able to assist them in their practice. It is up to your child and you to extend the lessons learned in the class to maximize their retention. Make sure to make it fun, though!

If you would like to supplement your child's learning at home, we recommend:

• "The Complete Book of Spanish, Grades 1-3"
• the "Teach Them Spanish" book series (School Specialty Publishing)
• the Spanish Reading Comprehension Series (School Specialty Publishing)
• "First 100 Words in Spanish" (Usborne)
• "Usborne Internet-Linked Spanish Dictionary for Beginners: Latin American Edition" (Usborne)

Many local libraries also have a nice-size collection of Spanish readers in their children's section. The newest books now also are bilingual with Spanish on one side and English on the other.

Courses: The following classes are offered periodically. Check the sidebar for the current class schedule.

• Young Explorers, Part A:
  Numbers & Colors
  Shapes & Sizes
  Days & Months
  the Body
  Clothing
  the Family
• Young Explorers, Part B:
  Transportation
  My Community
  Life on the Farm
  Forest Animals
  At the Zoo
  At the Beach
• Young Explorers, Part C:
  Around the House
  Daily Life
  Basic Conversation
  All About Pets
  At the Supermarket, I
  At the Supermarket, II
• Young Explorers, Part D:
  Basic Conversation
  Describing Things
  Weather
  Celebrations
  Illness & Health
  Vacation

Please note: The above coursework is always flexible and subject to be slightly altered due to holidays and the students' enthusiasm for a topic.

For registration information, please email Mrs. Veronica Maria at Exploring_Spanish@Hotmail.com.