Middlebury Interactive Language - Elementary Chinese 1 Review

One subject that many homeschool parents struggle to include in their curriculum is a foreign language.  Lydia has been begging to learn Chinese, and I have been very worried about attempting this with her.  If you are not already fluent in the language yourself, it's a daunting task to try and teach someone else a language you are not familiar with.  So we were both very excited to get the opportunity to review the Elementary Chinese 1: Grades 3-5 online language program from Middlebury Interactive Languages.

Elementary Chinese 1: Grades 3-5 ($119 without teacher, $175 with teacher per semester) is on online, interactive program that provides a fun introduction to learning the Chinese language.  Instead of simply showing students a picture of an item and then giving them the word with translation, Middlebury Interactive Languages goes above all that with an approach that allows the children to even forget that they are learning.  Through a series of stories kids learn legends from Chinese culture, which enables students to learn vocabulary and basic grammatical principles.  Each lesson includes games and other activities including practicing vocabulary by recording what the student is saying.  There is also character writing practice, games and even online assessments to allow you to track your child's progress.

Middlebury Interactive Languages Elementary Chinese 1: Grades 3-5 has an easy to use program format that allows students to work with the program independently.  Lydia has easily been able to log into her account and follow along on the calendar for her lessons.

She can easily track her progress even when she gets a little behind because it shows at a quick glance what lesson she just finished.  

Lessons are short and also very easy to use.  Depending on where you are in the lesson, a student might be reviewing phrases or practicing using the language by recording themselves saying basic words.  Quizzes and interactive questions are graded immediately so that she knows if she answered correctly.

We do have PDFs printed of some of the lessons, as well as the stories.  Lydia can refer back to them since she does practice writing the characters at the end of each session.  One of her favorite games/activities in the lessons is character building online.  It's basically like putting a puzzle together.  What a great way to begin remembering the characters.

I wasn't sure how Lydia would take to Elementary Chinese 1: Grades 3-5.  But she has done incredibly well, and I have been impressed with the ease of use for her.  

Elementary Chinese 1: Grades 3-5 is one subject that I do not have to fight to get her to complete.  I have been very impressed and actually considering signing Caty up for the Spanish elementary program.  She has been asking to learn more Spanish and With this extremely easy-to-use program, I feel very confident in teaching foreign language.  

I really like that Middlebury Interactive has found the right balance between foreign language cartoon and still allowing kids to have interactive fun to learn a language.  Middlebury Interactive Languages has really taken the guessing game out of teaching your child a foreign language with this approach.  

I love watching Lydia enjoying her daily lessons.  I can't wait to continue to watch Lydia's progress with the program.

Several members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to try all the programs that Middlebury Interactive Languages. Take some time to see all that Middlebury Interactive Languages has to offer by visiting the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog and see how they enjoyed using this program in their homes.