At the beginning of the school year, I purchased (together with another homeschooler) the complete Rosetta Stone Hebrew language program.  I called support three different times to be sure that it was okay to buy the program together and share it, and was told it was fine.  The program is set up for use on two different computers and each computer can accommodate five different users.  So we each have it registered to one of our computers, and can each use it for up to five children. 

We didn’t get this installed until October, but since then, the kids have been getting so much out of it!  We bought the complete program, which consists of three levels that will supposedly take you through a basic level of conversational fluency.  Dd14 finished level one in ten days, and I was amazed that she could construct basic sentences in such a short time. 

I really like how Rosetta Stone structures their learning – you can click on a sample lesson on their website if you want to try it.  It’s easier to see than to describe, but basically it’s like this:  you’re shown four pictures on the screen, all somewhat similar and somewhat different.  You’ll see the word or phrase describing one of the pictures on the screen and simultaneously hear the pronunciation of each word. Then you’re asked to say the phrase that matches the phrase (and your pronunciation has to be fairly accurate to get it right).

This gets the child immediately immersed in the language, just as if they were living abroad. The phrases and pictures get more complicated, and you can’t progress to a higher level until you’ve reached a certain level of understanding. Each child has their own account and comes back to where they were up to when they sit down to work on this.

I’ve been very happy with this program and have been meaning to write about it since it’s such a great way to learn.  It’s so easy and fun for everyone.  It’s pretty pricey, but I bought it with a friend when it was on sale, so the amount we each paid for all three levels was about what we would have on our own paid for just the first level.   

I just got an email that for Cyber Monday (today), they’re having a great sale on all of their programs (they have probably just about every language that you’d want to learn!), so I thought I’d pass the information on for anyone interested so you can save some money!   The promo code I was sent is nfcyb (I don’t know if you need the code or not, and this is not in any way linked to me) and it’s good until midnight tonight.

Avivah