Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I think he could catch up with one skipped year and summer review, if he plans on taking four years in high school, I’d just repeat Spanish 2 in 9th. So 2-3-4-AP plan. Unless he really wants to get to AP Span lit. If you think he’d rather be done with world language after 11th (cuz he wants all the AP science classes or whatever), I’d do 3-4-AP-nothing.

The AP class doesn't cover Spanish lit? (We are not there yet but when I was growing up, AP definitely covered it.)

They're now split into 2 APs - Lang and Lit. Lang has the rep for being slightly easier, so it is usually taken first or only.

Anonymous wrote:If he gets annA in Spanish 2 this year, I don’t think he’ll be able to repeat the glass.

Even if he skips a year? I guess he may be able to manage Spanish 3 in 9th, but I know the schools keep telling you to not do this. So they'll just grudgingly allow you anyway? What's the alternative if he gets an A and skips a year, besides starting a new language?

Anonymous wrote:While I think he could catch up with one skipped year and summer review, if he plans on taking four years in high school, I’d just repeat Spanish 2 in 9th. So 2-3-4-AP plan. Unless he really wants to get to AP Span lit. If you think he’d rather be done with world language after 11th (cuz he wants all the AP science classes or whatever), I’d do 3-4-AP-nothing.

The AP class doesn't cover Spanish lit? (We are not there yet but when I was growing up, AP definitely covered it.)

If he gets annA in Spanish 2 this year, I don’t think he’ll be able to repeat the glass.

We know someone who skipped Spanish in 8th grade and then resumed at Spanish 3 in 9th grade (so didn’t repeat Spanish 2 after taking a year off), and handled it fine.

At my kids’ mcps high school, you need to take Spanish 5 before AP Spanish Lang, so if the goal is to take AP, you’d need to be in Spanish 3 by 9th grade.

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. And by "too much too soon," I meant just regarding taking Spanish 4 his Freshman year of HS, since my understanding is that Spanish 3 and 4 get hard fast. In hindsight, we probably should have started him with Spanish 1A in 6th and Spanish 1B in 7th. He's very academically oriented în general, but struggled some in Spanish 1AB.

There are a couple of ways to “stall” the pace and take level 3 in 9th:
- repeat level 2 in 8th
- skip Spanish in 8th but repeat level 2 in summer school
- take level 3 in 8th and then repeat in 9th
I would wait and see how this year goes and then decide based on grades and interest. I would aim for level 3 by 9th so that he could take AP Spanish Lang by 11th, get the bilingual diploma, then drop Spanish in 12th for another elective if desired.

OP here again. And by "too much too soon," I meant just regarding taking Spanish 4 his Freshman year of HS, since my understanding is that Spanish 3 and 4 get hard fast. In hindsight, we probably should have started him with Spanish 1A in 6th and Spanish 1B in 7th. He's very academically oriented în general, but struggled some in Spanish 1AB.

Anonymous wrote:It's fine to repeat or skip if you don't care about the language and just want to satisfy the legal requirements, but every year from 6th grade on is not "too much too soon" . If anything, it's too late. Language acquisition is primarily achieved in youth.

OP here. Agree in general (and DS is getting exposure to another FL at home, my native language), but learning it in school is also different from actual immersion. I'd argue that even in Europe, where kids start them earlier, it's still English that dominates because of TV and the internet (and not whatever language they learned first.)

Also, if he skips and then repeats, he'd probably still end up with 5 years of Spanish (levels 1-4, with Spanish 2 being taken twice; he can take higher levels if he wants to, but I'm not counting on it.) He didn't start it before 6th grade because... that wasn't an option. I'm not sure doing Spanish 3 or 4 in 9th grade instead of Spanish 2 is going to really make a difference to his Spanish knowledge years from now.

It's fine to repeat or skip if you don't care about the language and just want to satisfy the legal requirements, but every year from 6th grade on is not "too much too soon" . If anything, it's too late. Language acquisition is primarily achieved in youth.

Anonymous wrote:My kids skipped two years then just continued with the progression, without repeating a year. They each did some review in the summer before getting back into the language, and the transition went fine.

OP here. Glad it worked out for you! Yeah, we'd probably try to get him a tutor or otherwise do some review before getting back to it.

My kid started at the beginning in high school, and it was fine.

While I think he could catch up with one skipped year and summer review, if he plans on taking four years in high school, I’d just repeat Spanish 2 in 9th. So 2-3-4-AP plan. Unless he really wants to get to AP Span lit. If you think he’d rather be done with world language after 11th (cuz he wants all the AP science classes or whatever), I’d do 3-4-AP-nothing.

My kids skipped two years then just continued with the progression, without repeating a year. They each did some review in the summer before getting back into the language, and the transition went fine.

If you’re just thinking he’ll retake it in 9th why not just have gone switch to another elective for 7th.

DS is in Spanish 2 in 7th grade and we were thinking that he shouldn't take Spanish 3 next year for a variety of reasons (it would probably have to be at the nearby HS and then set him up for Spanish 4 in 9th grade, which seems too much too soon - in hindsight, we didn't quite plan this properly.)

Could he then retake Spanish 2 in 9th grade? I know they keep telling you NOT TO SKIP A YEAR but life happens. I hope they wouldn't make him restart in Spanish 1 or make him start a new language. That seems... wasteful... it's not an immediate concern and I assume many will advise to "just talk to the counselor," but I don't know his future HS counselor yet, so am curious if anyone has had similar experiences...