Homeschool Spanish Curriculum from Speekee

I work with several families who homeschool, so I appreciate how important it is to find the right program to use in a home setting. Recently, Speekee asked me to look at their FastTrack homeschool Spanish curriculum for ages 4-7 and share my impressions. After spending time with the material, I can say it is an excellent introduction to Spanish for a family setting.

The “Home” in Homeschool Spanish Curriculum

Home is the ideal place to learn a language, and the FastTrack homeschool Spanish curriculum takes full advantage of the home setting. Family learning offers flexibility and the opportunity for interactions that are difficult to reproduce in a classroom.

The home setting determines the structure, pace, and content of the Speekee homeschool Spanish curriculum. Of course, you don’t have to homeschool to use this program! It is a fun, effective introduction to Spanish for any family.

See our list of resources with Spanish lesson plans and more elementary Spanish curriculum reviews.

The Structure

Speekee structures their homeschool Spanish curriculum to help children learn effectively. Brief, consistent exposure to comprehensible language is the foundation of the program.

4 short lessons per week for 40 weeks

You have access to all the material all the time, so you can adapt the schedule if necessary.

Video

The first activity each week is a video. Kids need to hear Spanish before they can produce it, so Speekee designed these videos to help children understand Spanish in context. The videos present focused language with lots of visual clues and give kids an overview of the language for the week.

Activities

The activities that follow build on the language in the video. For example, these include hands-on, interactive activities and songs.

Flexibility

The timing of these activities is flexible and parents can adapt them to their kids. If they love an activity, you can do it again and again. If they are ready to move on, there is more Spanish waiting.

Spiraled Content

Speekee homeschool Spanish curriculum spirals content through the 40 weeks, so parents don’t have to worry about repeating and reviewing. The important language will be used again and again.

The Content

The Speekee FastTrack Homeschool Spanish curriculum is relevant and engaging.

Communicative

The Speekee focus is interactive, with an emphasis on comprehension and speaking. In addition, simple writing tasks, such as copying and labeling, support vocabulary learning.

Personalized

The video component engages kids by asking ¿Y tú?, so they can personalize the language and repeat what they are learning.

Hands-On

Kids actively participate in hands-on activities. Spanish is meaningful in a real-life context, and that makes it much easier to learn. For example, below you can see how kids learn mucho and poco with liquid in glasses. After watching the video and hearing the language, you do the activity at home.

Relevant

This homeschool Spanish curriculum introduces language that is relevant to the age group. Children don’t need long lists of overly specific words. For example, the word pájaro (bird) is useful and sufficient, and learning types of birds can come later.

Culture

The curriculum is created in Spain and has an excellent cultural component. For example, in the photo below from one of the videos, you see a family preparing a Spanish omelette. Logically, the vocabulary also includes a few words used primarily in Spain. However, the vast majority of the words are used all over the Spanish-speaking world.

Parents as Partners

The homeschool Spanish curriculum from Speekee understands that parents play an important role in helping their children interact in Spanish.

• First, there is sufficient support. Through video, Speekee provides families the comprehensible content children need to learn.
• Next, they provide fun activities. The program builds on the video content with interactive activities for parents to do with their children. The curriculum taps into one of the advantages of the home setting in that parents are available and eager to engage with their children.
• Also, it is easy. The activities take almost no prep time and use common household objects.
• Finally, it is effective. Speekee realizes that with well-structured material, parents can provide interaction to support language learning.

If you are looking for Spanish learning in a home setting, be sure to take advantage of Speekee’s two-week free trial. You can also follow Speekee on Facebook and Twitter. With FastTrack, Speekee offers an effective, engaging homeschool Spanish curriculum. The program has a winning balance of video, for pronunciation and comprehensible input, and hands-on activities, for meaningful context. It could be a great fit for your family.

Disclosure: Speekee compensated for my time using the material and writing the review. All of the ideas and opinions are my own.