Mango Homeschool Edition Review

One of my fears when I started homeschooling was that I had no clue how to teach a  foreign language . I took french in high school for one semester but that was a very long time ago. The only thing I remember was how to make Crepes, so when I was asked to do a review on Mango Homeschool Edition  I jumped at it. Mango Homeschool Edition is a product from Mango Languages.

Mango Homeschool Edition is all about learning a language through speaking it  and using it in conversations. There are lots of great features offered on Mango Homeschool Edition including-

Over 60 different languages
Progress Assessments
Built-in journals, discussions and wikis
Collaborative learning spaces
eNote messaging
/chat rooms
Access to embedded/downloadable content
Support from other community members
Calendars to schedule meetings or study groups

Mango Homeschool is also will be introducing some exciting features like:

Enhanced Tracking and Progress Monitoring – including seat time (for students and parents)
Goals and Personal Lesson Plans (both stand-alone and tied into Mango courses)
Resume and Portfolio Builder

All of the above features are wonderful but our ( Jayden and I) favorite is the voice recognition part of Mango. This is the feature that really helped us the most throughout our learning experience.

You would listen to the narrators voice say the word or phrase. Then you would speak into the computer’s microphone and you would repeat the phrase or word. The program records it and then you can play it back along with the other recording of the narrator. You can actually see where you are saying something right or where you are saying something wrong. Even to seeing where your inflection in your voice should be when saying the phrase of word is possible with this program. I could play back my voice alone and hear how I was pronouncing certain words. For someone with a sometimes heavy southern accent this was really helpful.

Mango Homeschool Edition is suitable for ages 6-adult.  If you have already taken some foreign language you can take a placement test and it will put you on the lesson that is best suited for your knowledge in that language. Like I said above- We had no experience so we just jumped in at lesson 1!

Once you sign up for Mango you are taken to your dashboard.This is where you will will manage your account settings,set up your profile page, and learn how to select a language and start exploring it.

Under those options you will see a green button that says fins  Mango course Now! Once you click this it will take you to this screen where you get to select your language!(see picture below)

After you pick your language that you are interested in it will take you to several other screens that will let you know what you will be learning through the lessons.

There are lots of extras with most languages like printable worksheets, movies ( more will be coming soon that are acceptable for children),and opportunities to chat and ask questions in forums.

It might take you little bit to really get into everything available but it is really worth it once you do.

How we used Mango Homeschool Edition in our homeschool-

I used this with Jayden (3rd grade). He wanted to learn another language and so did I.We decided it would be fun if we learned together. We picked French(Canadian French) for our first language we would learn. We have really good friends who speak Canadian French so we thought it would be fun to be able to speak it to them and be able to understand them. Mango Homeschool Edition is really big on learning through conversation so instead of us just learning only single words , you learn to actually speak to someone in a conversation becasue you learn phrases along with words. This makes it ideal not only students but for travelers too.We made this our afternoon special time for just me and him. We would go through a couple of phrases and then stop.Instead of trying to cover to much we really took our time and practiced a lot. After our lessons we would send our French Canadian friends  a message with using our newly found phrases. We really had a good time with it. Occasionally my husband would come in and listen to us speaking and then he would give it a try with the voice recognition. We always tried to keep it upbeat and fun. I want him to have a good positive association with learning a new language. He actually picks up the phrases quicker than I can and he often reminds me it is time for our french lesson together so I know he is having a  good time with it (trust me , he never reminds me when it is time for writing or math).  Because he is in 3rd grade we have just kept it really low key and fun. I want to lay a good ground work for  when he has to take this for a credit in high school.Our plan is to just stick with it and do a little each day , throughout the week. We are going to let him start doing Facetime or Skyping with our French Canadians friends daughter at least once a week when possible. They are around the same age and she is learning English so they could learn from each other. My plan is to do the same but with our friends. I think it will be a really fun way to solidify what we learn each week and it ia good motivator to keep going on with the curriculum.

I look forward to trying out some of the new features that are coming soon to Mango Homeschool Edition. Once I try those out  I will do an update on this post to let you know how we use those.  We had a really good time , and continue to have a really great experience using Mango Homeschool Edition. I love that we can learn any of the 60 languages that we want to. That is a really neat feature of this program, you are not just stuck with one language – you get access to them all for one price!

I did want to point out one thing I did learn in a webinar from this company and that is the difference between this program and what you may find in your local library. Mango Languages has been around for 7 years. They started as a service through the public libraries and grew their product from there. With the Homeschool Edition program you can continue to go up through the levels and get more and more advanced. With Mango Homeschool Edition you also get access to all 60 languages.With the library subscription you only have access to the first level of learning on any given language.  There are lots of new features that are coming soon with the Homeschool Edition that will make it much better suited to the homeschoolers needs than the current library version. The library version is still a great program so go check that one out too.

Pricing-

1 subscription is $18/month or $125/year total
2 subscriptions is $28/month or $175 /year total
3 subscriptions is $38/month or $225/year total
4 subscriptions is $48/month or $275/year total
5 subscriptions is $58/month or $325/year total

Anything over 6 subscriptions is a special group rate that will depend on the number in the group.

I look forward to seeing how Jayden progresses with his French with this program. So far he has really enjoyed it and has picked it up pretty good. The other day he walked into the kitchen while I was cooking  and introduced himself in French so I can tell he is building his confidence up , which I love to see. If you are looking for a foreign language curroumumn then I want to encourge you to go and check out Mango Homeschool Edition.

Are you ready to go and check out some other reviews and see how other families in the Review Crew used Mango Homeschool Edition? Click in the graphic below and you can go and check them out!