Living next to the Mexican border, it’s extremely useful to know at least basic Spanish. The issue is actually learning to speak and understand Spanish. The practical application is not always easy. There is something to be said about shows like Dora the Explorer as they make is fun and easy to learn Spanish. The Easy Spanish takes that approach to learning Spanish. It’s an immersion program that uses fun storylines, repetitive listening activities, daily vocabulary practice, and various activity-based learning activities to help really cement new ideas into the student’s memory.
One of the unique aspects of the program is that the story as well as vocabulary takes place in both Spanish and English. For the story, listeners are actively engaged with the story because they are trying to determine what the Spanish speaker is saying based upon the responses of the English speaker. (This is exactly what we do in real life around here!)
Another unique aspect of this program is that the author, Marie Filion, has a heart for The Great Commission – sharing the gospel with others. This means that learning Spanish isn’t “just” about learning Spanish. It’s about being able to share the gospel with those who speak Spanish. This means that students will be learning scripture (memory) verses in Spanish.
¡El Español Fácil!, Level I ($139.95) includes:
- 414 page Spanish spiral-bound “textbook”
- 2 enhanced audio cds (contain audios and activity sheets)
The textbook has 36 lessons which can been done in 1, 2, or 3 years for younger learners or 1-2 years for older/independent learners. (For high school students, they recommend doing the whole course in 1 year.)
The appendix includes:
- Spanish phonograms
- Spelling, pronunciation and language rules
- Grammar and other rules
- Sentence structure
- Spanish phonograms for audio practice (from audio cd)
- Some grammar pointers
- Everyday vocabulary
- Extra activities
- Phonogram cards
For Munchkin, I immediately put all of the audio files onto her tablet, so she could easily listen to them anywhere. I also printed out the worksheets/activity sheets that she would need for a few lessons at a time. On the first day, I had Munchkin read over all of the information for the Independent Learner. After reading over the information and seeing the Lesson Planner Template, she asked if I would be willing to create a new lesson plan in a more traditional format as the one in the book didn’t click for her. (She likes to see everything placed in a daily schedule type of format. The planner in the book lists activities followed by the days of the week they are to be completed.)
Since we decided to go with the 1 year plan for the curriculum, Munchkin is spending 1 week on each lesson. On the first day of lesson 1, she listened to the story and followed along to the story in the text. She then listened to the vocabulary. (As she’s completing these activities, she was reading the notes in the text.) She was a bit confused by which activities she was suppose to complete as an Independent Learner. The activities didn’t seem to necessarily line up with what was actually in the lessons which threw her off. While the activity portion was off to a little bit of a rocky start, everything else was clicking for her.
It didn’t take long for her to start spouting off new words in Spanish. With time and lots of practice, Spanish will come more naturally as she continues to study and work through the program.
To see if this program is right for your family, you can check out the samples of lesson 2, lesson 2 story, and lesson 2 vocabulary.
I received The Easy Spanish from Great Commission Languages as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew to help facilitate the writing of a frank and honest review. A positive review is not guaranteed; all opinions are my own.
