As a member of the Mosaic Review team I was offered the opportunity to use a wonderful language curriculum with my children.
Spanish for You! foreign language package is a series of courses used for teaching beginning Spanish. It is directed at children in third grade through eighth but we found that even our high school students gained a great deal of expertise by using this package. Each course includes an ebook (textbook), a lesson guide, tons of worksheets, downloadable audio lessons as well as games, activities and vocabulary lessons.
Guidebooks (lesson guides) are broken down into grade levels 3-4, 5-6, or 7-8. They are set up to guide parents or teachers how to teach to the various levels. I reviewed the Fiestas package that covers all three levels with the three guidebooks included. The Fiestas package includes themed chapters, and is based on needing 24 to 30 weeks to complete.
Commons words and phrases along with pronunciation guides and other basics are presented at the beginning of each chapter. The audio files and worksheets are easily matched to the chapter and are simple to use as often as needed.
I like that the course doesn’t have a rigid schedule. By learning basic vocabulary, students start to learn to speak and read…building on top of what they learned yesterday. I also liked that there was a good amount of overlap and review of basic concepts as this helped my students to review and reinforce what they had learned. We found the free sequencing of the chapters allowed both the first time student as well as the older student to work at their own pace.
The digital package had large set of downloadable files (MP3 audio files and PDF files). For me, this was great. I could print out what I needed when it was needed. We didn’t need a textbook for each student and were able to print off the worksheets and activity sheets for the lessons that needed additional reinforcement. I appreciated that the lessons were in audio files as we just gathered around the computer and followed along.
We worked through a couple of levels and found that the activities and flashcards were used by everyone. Each lesson includes vocabulary, phrases, and sentences that would be used as a part of each theme study. The more advanced levels required more work than the lower ones but overall the students were able to work at their own pace.
Just the fact that you can reuse everything for several students makes Spanish for You! a wonderful bargain in my book.
To learn more about this and other products please connect with Spanish For You! on Facebook. This product is available for purchase on their site. I really like that they offer a trial version, a full complete multi grade level and a by level options for buying. Visit Spanish For You! online site for pricing and ordering details.
I wish this had been available when my kids were little and I had know about it. I’m not a teacher but I would of liked to have a program that was like this one for when my children were in little school. It is required to learn a second language now in high school and if a child starts in 3rd grade by high school they should already know and speak Spanish easily. The younger you start to teach a child the better.
I could have used this about 10 years ago–desperately. Had a bunch of Spanish friends back then and it sure would have helped if I could have learned the language–they did try to teach me!!
Absolutely awesome. A second language or third – is so great for kids to know. Spanish would be needed where I live. Thanks for this post…a very informative article.
I whole-heartily agree! it’s a plus 2 b introduce 2 another languages..it sure cant hurt.
Excellent program! I think even I would like to use this to learn a second language..Knowing another language just opens up so many possibilities.
It is important for everyone to learn a second language. In the world we live in we need to be able to communicate with others and Spanish is the language I would choose for my kids to learn as the Spanish population in our country is growing.