This page offers out-of-the-box, creative options for inspiring right-brained children to learn a foreign language. Click on the image for a link to the product. Longer reviews will have its own tab. I would love to hear your recommenda-tions by using the comments section at the bottom of the page!
Minimus Pupil’s Book: Starting out in Latin
Minimus Secundus Pupil’s Book: Moving on in Latin
by Barbara Bell (Author) and Helen Forte (Illustrator)
Cambridge Latin Course
by North American Cambridge Classics Project
For Latin, my right-brained learner really enjoyed Minimus. Minimus has little colorful cartoons throughout the book with a running storyline about a family and its cat and mouse. We casually went through Minimus (it’s fun to listen to the accompanying CD and hear the Latin spoken with a British accent), and now we are going through Cambridge Latin 1 by the same publisher. It’s going really well. Very whole-to-parts plus there are pictures! (Although in Cambridge Latin, the pictures are black and white.) ~Kim
The Learnables
Basic Structures
by Harry Winitz
International Linguistics Corporation
My artist son used the listening program levels 1 and 2 for Japanese and my writer daughter used the listening program levels 1 and 2 for Spanish. She also used the Basic Structures for levels 1 and 2. Each level is considered a year of high school foreign language. It gave them a solid beginning. I think it especially developed their ear to the language quite well. ~Cindy
Japanese for Young People
by the Association for Japanese-Language Teaching
We looked quite a long time for an effective high school level Japanese instruction series. My artist son was very drawn to Japanese-endorsed materials. How this is set up is very pictorial, clean pages, and straight-forward. The downside is that it’s all in Japanese. My son ended up tutoring with a Japanese friend to get the most out of it. There are three levels of student books, and also a Kana and a Kanji workbook. My adult artist son still uses the Kanji workbook as a reference to practice. ~Cindy
Signing Made Easy
by Rod R. Butterworth and Mickey Flodin
My builder son wanted a hands-on language. We wanted to find a resource to learn sign language that was meaty, yet could be learned by himself. Most of the learning comes from the pictorial signs shown on each page, and at the bottom is a verbal description of the sign. The book shows you how to give signs and receive signs, which are both important. He used this in middle school and it really motivated him to learn, which he did quite well because of the effectiveness of this resource. ~Cindy
