Our former home school school had a nice perk: they offered each family six free curriculum items to borrow. The first year, I checked out PowerGlide Spanish, some consumables, a spelling curriculum, and a science textbook.
The second year, I passed on PowerGlide, spelling and the science textbook. I borrowed only the consumables. Much of what they offered– it being a school-based program– was so schoolish.
We took a year off, and I found I didn’t miss anything I had borrowed in the past.
The following year, we went back, and I got Rosetta Stone. (They stopped offering the consumables by that point.) J– being a visual learner– hated it and begged to quit. Since he was already learning Latin, I agreed. The younger two really were too young to understand what R.S. was asking them to do, so nothing much happened with it. This year, I had some computer glitches that prevented us from using it for much of the year.
But we’ve just bought the new Rosetta Stone 3.something. The homeschool version. And wow! It’s much better.
O (now eight) and M (almost seven) are both flying through it and really learning. The newer version is very clear in its organization, and the lessons are so stepwise. The kids can see where they are, and the lessons are short enough to make them feel like they are accomplishing a lot. There is also more available for writing and speaking, although I can’t get the speech recognition part to work.
I’d have to give the new Rosetta Stone a thumbs up.
Learning As We Go 