Thursday, January 5, 2012

REAL Spanish for the #homeschool classroom #hsreviews

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PhotobucketWe live in a rural area with a large Hispanic population and while we don't have a lot of interactions with the Hispanic community I know as my boys get older there will be more interaction and potential for interaction and I want them to be able to communicate with the community. That said I had about 4 weeks of Spanish back in junior high and a little exposure to the language over the years in different jobs I held, but not enough to really teach my boys much.  When we were given the opportunity to try another Spanish program designed for homeschoolers I thought it can't hurt to try another option.
Homeschool Spanish is a whole Family learning experience with a multi media element.

I received the program as a downloadable product which sells for $59.95 as of this review and includes the the Homeschool Spanish curriculum, an Activity Book, an Answer Book, Daily Curriculum Guide, and the audio tracks as MP3 files. The same package in print retails for $99.95 and all the components listed above in print and the audio files on CD.
The website also includes Culture links so that you can learn more about the culture to coordinate with the language.  The Culture links section is full of activities and links to music that compliments the program.

I printed the Activity book's first 2 chapters figuring we would get through those before the holidays got too crazy. I also copied the remaining books to my Nook to save paper. I also copied the MP3 files to my Nook (I have an older Nook that has an audio player) so we could listen not only during our lesson time but also listen in the van while running errands.
A couple of things I noticed , the audio files move pretty fast and seem to cram a lot into each track. During our table time  I had to pause the tracks often to make sure the boys were saying the words.
I used the Daily Curriculum Guide to mark the audio times on so I could easily find different points in each track.
Overall the program is very flexible and would work well with a large family or a family with a larger age range. I did find at times the lessons were a little above my boys and I needed to have something for them to color or draw as we were listening to the unit.

Do I see value in this product? Yes and yes I do think $59.95 for the download is a good deal. I don't know of many other programs that you get everything including a complete lesson plan guide for under $100.   I definitely see us using this product more over the next year or 2.  If your children are younger than 8 or 9 I would recommend downloading some of the samples before you decide to buy.


PhotobucketCheck out what the rest of the Crew thought of this program HERE

I received a downloadable package as part of the TOS homeschool Crew in exchange for my honest opinion of the product. All opinions and experiences are my own.

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