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  1. ¿Que Pasa?

    December 18, 2020 by admin

    Just before the COVID pandemic set in, we had decided to set a goal of learning Spanish. It’s the second most common language spoken in the US, and seems important to know.

    But in a pandemic? How’re we supposed to do that?

    Luckily, we’re experienced at this homeschooling thing. So we’ve got you covered.

    Our first stop was DuoLingo. Duo Lingo offers language instruction in dozens of languages, from common to more obscure. It’s free (There is a premium level if you are interested in more intensity.) , and it’s super easy. It can start you out at novice, or drop you into a more advanced level. We highly recommend it.

    But there are other ways to pick up and improve your language skills. We’re focused on Spanish, but you can find similar tools for other languages as well.

    PODCASTS:
    There are numerous foreign language podcasts available, for all levels of learners. We’ll just mention a few here today:

    Spanishpod101 produces a few podcasts most weeks, usually vocabulary focused. The range of topics varies a lot, and the sample sentences can provide good practice.

    CoffeeBreakSpanish uses stories and travel to tell about Spanish speaking parts of the world, and to zero in on little points of grammar and vocabulary of interest.

    News In Slow Spanish gives weekly news digests in Spanish. It’s a good way to get used to hearing spoken Spanish in everyday context.

    We’ll come back again later to add more resources for learning Spanish in a future post.


  2. We’re Back!

    March 21, 2019 by admin

    After a three year break from new posts here at TR, we are staging a small comeback! There’s still things to share, things we’ve learned. Our TR Family has been through a tumultuous couple of years.

    Stay tuned and we’ll fill you in on what new things we have found and learned recently as we explore our world. 🙂


  3. Holiday Tunes Update

    December 19, 2014 by admin

    fairy_10_mdWe are huge fans of holiday music.  Each year we try to seek out as many new songs as we can find to further fill out our extensive holiday playlist.

    And we attempt to do it for free.

    That’s right!  There is so much free holiday music out there, that each season we are able to add several hundred tunes to our collection.  You just need to know where to look.

    Free downloads are somewhat harder to come by than they used to be.   The big push to convince people to stream music instead of owning it outright has led many purveyors (like Amazon, for instance)  to offer “playlists” and streams, rather than true downloads.  But they are still out there.

    Here are a few starting places for you:

    Noise trade:  Many artists use free downloads from Noisetrade as a way to gain fans.  And this is no less true for the holiday season.  Head over to the Noisetrade website and type Holiday or Christmas into the search bar.  You’ll instantly see dozens of albums, eps and singles available for free download.

    iTunes:  Each week, the Apple iTunes store offers a free download from one of its many artists.  Stop by and add few free tunes!

    Let us know if you find other reliable sources for free holiday tunes and we’ll add them to the list!!