52 Weeks of Family German: Bite Sized Weekly Lessons Designed to Get You and Your Children Speaking German Today! Paperback – March 20, 2013

I bought these books for a homeschool class that I was teaching. The kids really loved it and the lessons are short enough so you won't get overwhelmed. I actually paired a few of the lessons together, since the kids picked up fast and wanted to know more. All in all, it's a great book to have around that gets you started.

Some might complain that this is too basic. But basic is just what I was looking for! My grandma spoke minimal German to my sister and I when I was little (in fact my only two clear memories of it are the words knife and cucumber). But it was enough that when I took German in school, I picked it up really quickly and was able to have full conversations without much effort.It also made other languages easier to learnSo... I obviously want the same advantage for my kids. But I haven't done any foreign language since I tested out the first week of college. I tried getting a couple other books and they were all too hard to actually carry out. This one? This is doable.Each week's lesson is very short and completely doable. Yes, you can look this stuff up online. But the question is, will you? I won't.I keep the book in the kitchen and in the morning greet the children with "Guten Morgan!" and use the week's vocab words. We'll practice over breakfast and that's it.My kids are starting to mix in German words here and there. I've googled some extra phrases and as I mix them in to our daily routines, my kids stop and listen and have me repeat the phrases so they can learn them too.I'm finally feeling ready to tackle Lightening Fast German for Kids. I'm also reading aloud some German language picture books. They won't be fluent any time soon, but the pieces will be there so that if they want to study it later they can learn it more easily.

We bought this to help get our son ready for a trip. It was easy to use and understand. I do speak some German so that may have played a part it it's ease of use. Regardless, is recommend it to others as a good way to introduce the language to children.

This book has so little German in it that my son and I did the first 8 weeks in about 5 minutes! Great idea but not much substance. Don't bother buying it.

Not what I expected. I thought this would feature games and actual lessons. But it just lists like 5 key terms each week and how to pronounce them. Literally that's it. I was disappointed.

It shipped fast but I haven't gotten really into the book. It was just to touch on the basics since I do speak German but have been out of practice. It is a simple book to get you going

Probably exactly right for some families, though many will finish the book in much less than a year, and will wish each chapter included optional vocabulary and content for those who want more.

I have been studying German for 30 years (including 12 credit level of College German) and teaching the language informally for about 15 years. I design much of my own curriculum material, but I am always looking for materials I can use. This book was a great disappointment. I am going to give a few examples of the many errors it contains in the pronunciation guides: If you know any German, you will see why these are unacceptable:Fragen (frah-jhen), Heiss (hiss), eine (in-e)The book introduces a little grammar as a side note - I am afraid that a variety of interesting speech mistakes could easily slip in if a family tried to figure out the grammar on their own from the little offered here.I am giving the book two stars - It is very cute. It might work as an introduction, because you could learn enough German from it to hobble along, but I would worry about quality. A child who starts with this book might have a little unlearning to do when proceeding to more formal study.Personally, I am disposing of my copy.