Foreign languages were important in Charlotte Mason’s curriculum. Of course, she lived in Europe with many languages in close proximity. The first step is to choose a language. If one of the parents, grandparents, or close friends has another language then that might be a good choice for your family to start with. If you or your spouse are fluent in a language, you teach it in the same way that you taught your child English.

If there is no second language in your circle of close acquaintances, then choose one. Many people choose to start with Spanish. French was Charlotte’s choice for a first foreign language.

The steps in learning a language are:

1. Listen to the language. Even if there is no other language in the home, you can purchase or borrow from the public library cassettes.By listening to songs, stories, and movies in the target language, you are training the ear to understand the language. This may start at birth or toddlerhood. There is no excuse for not going this far with a language. If you do nothing else in your home in this area, listen to music in another language! My very favorite is Un regalo de arrullo para ninos for Spanish. Or Vieilles Chanson de France is a lovely CD if you want French.
    
2. Speak the language. Now the rest of the steps are more difficult for those of us without a second language. Learn to speak phrases and sing songs in the language. For young children, try KidSpeak. For older children and yourself, try Pimsleur Language Programs which is available in your choice of many languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, etc. One of my older sons is very motivated to learn Chinese so we purchased Pimsleur’s Mandarin course.
    
3. You may label objects around the house and in nature so the child starts learning how to read the language.
    
4. Learn to read and write in the target language. Do copy work, and later dictation, in the target language. Translate books from English to the other language and vice versa. In the recent Disney movie, The Other Side of Heaven,  (based on a true story) the main character isolated himself with an English Bible and one in the target language. He would read a Bible verse in English and then in the other language until he had a command of the language. Books on tape in the target language will help the child in steps. Have him or her follow along in the book while listening. Start with simple books.
    
5. Read books and narrate in target language. Charlotte suggests starting over with another language once you are well into step 4. You continue with the first foreign language at the harder levels but start with step one on a second foreign language. If this is all too overwhelming, then just do the very easy first step and let your child’s ear become accustomed to a target language. It will prepare him/her for acquiring the language later.

Many times, coops will have someone with another language who will share her talents with the group by teaching a weekly class during the coop. Some home educators will get together with others and hire a tutor to teach a language to a group. There is much we can do if we see the value in learning a language.