Anyone do languages?

[homeedmam11]

Hi,

We are thinking of getting a french teacher for our daughter, she has mentioned she would like to do this, and a home edder (been there and done that) said she thought it may be a good idea as her kids all loved learning languages. My daughter is 8 yrs old. Does anyone else use a tutor for languages, would you recommend it?
Thanks

My 12-year-old daughter loves languages (she's just completed a three-week exchange with a family in France!) and has tutors for both French and German. A good, kind and reliable language tutor is worth her weight in gold. It's important to find one who can commit to regular lessons over a long period of time, at least a year but preferably longer; and to ensure that you can make a similar commitment to her (once your daughter has started learning a language, it would be unfair on the little one to stop).
Home edders have an advantage in finding and keeping a good language tutor because their children are free for lessons when other kids are at school. But the cost is high. If you can arrange to share lessons with other home ed children, that will substantially ease the cost; and ask the tutor always to set homework, so that your child is also learning in her own time, not just the tutor's (you can be your daughter's language assistant and that's fun!). But perhaps start off with two or three trial lessons to see how your daughter copes with a foreign language; she's still quite young.
Hot tip: kids seem to learn languages most easily in early morning lessons and they're a great way for home edders to start the "school day."

Thanks lastsummer.:)