Spanish Language Learning for Fun

Ian and I have been on a Spanish kick lately. We have watched Disney* cartoon after Disney cartoon on Netflix. All of them that we have looked at so far have Spanish audio, and we have been turning on the English subtitles too. We have only been watching the ones that Ian is already very familiar with so he always knows what’s going on, even if he can’t read the subtitles fast enough. I figure this is the way babies learn. Slowly, bit by bit, infants learn what’s going on, and then they begin to recognize words and patterns. Every time someone points to a ball, the child hears the word ball and begins to form connotations between the object and the word. I figure we can learn a second language the same way, and we are having a blast at the same time! We might get serious about it someday, but for now, we will at least get used to hearing the rhythms and learn a few words in the meantime.

*Update on 1/11/2017. I no longer watch Disney movies. When Maleficent came out, I watched it and loved it. A few weeks later, I bumped into a guy who was caught up in all kinds of Jewish mysticism. He was convinced his beliefs were true (aren’t we all), and I made a deal with him that I would go home and look up a character named Lilith if he would agree to read his Bible. I might write more about it someday, but suffice it to say that Disney has been sneaking demonic things into our children’s classics, and I was totally unaware. So, yeah, no more Disney. I realize that to the pure all things are pure, but I don’t like the idea of consuming movie after movie produced by people who are willing to spend that much time researching the dark things of this world.

Unschooling Science Ideas, Anyone?…Anyone?

Okay, a question for my homeschool friends: I have a friend who is beginning to homeschool two of her girls, grades 5^th and 7^th, I believe. One of her girls is exempt (in the public schools) from having to learn science and history. It has something to do with a 504, which, I admit, I did not look up, so I have no idea what it is. What I did look up was this: unschooling science ideas. I was going to move to history after that, but I had no luck whatsoever with the science search and became frustrated. I thought it would be cool to give my friend a general idea of what unschoolers do for science and history, so she could work them in somehow even though they aren’t required. All I found where specific activities, mostly written by people who were bragging about what their kid learned on that specific day. I realize unschooling is supposed to be totally based on the interest of the child, but what if your child isn’t interested at all? What then? Surely there are things the parent can do to nudge the child toward learning science. What would those things be? All I can think of are watching documentaries and reading books on specific scientific ideas, perhaps a book about birds or rock formations, etc. Also I thought a book of science experiments might be handy to have around. But other than that, is there something a parent could do to make the study of science more readily available to their child? For history, again, all I can think of are documentaries and books. Luckily, historical fiction would be somewhat educational as well. I’m not an unschooler, so I’m clueless, but I think it would be nice to compile a list and have it available on my blog, so that other clueless people could begin to unschool with history and science, if they so desire. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I will pass the ideas on to my friend, and if I get enough response, I will repost, using all of your ideas, so that we can have a proper list all in one place.