I received the physical book, 'Spanish for You! Estaciones'
from Spanish for You!
Recommended for grades 3-8.
Price:
Estaciones Curriculum Package $64.95
Fiestas Curriculum Package $64.95
Books are shipped First Class Mail
PayPal is also accepted.
Packages come with the following included:
*soft cover book or e-book (trial pkgs). Book contains 42 pages and 5 lessons.
*24 week lesson guide for grades 5-8 / 30 week lesson guide for grades 3-4.
*self-checking worksheets (pdf)
*audio files of the whole book (MP3 download)
*flashcard / activity pictures (pdf)
*BONUS audio of native speaker of whole book (MP3 download)
Note: Teacher lesson plans are sold separately and are not included in the packages. They come in pdf format only and are only needed for 'class use'. They have only one available at this time and it's for the Fiestas package. Click HERE and scroll to bottom of linked page to view more information.
What Is This?-
The Estaciones is one full year of Spanish curriculum. It is taught to all ages at the same time and by theme. Here are the different themes to choose from. (I was sent the Estaciones for review so my review will consist of this package / theme only.)
There are printable worksheets.....
lesson guides (for each grade level).......
and flashcards.
A section of the lesson guide is read to the student, and then you listen to the audio with the student while following along in the book. The flashcards & worksheets are printed out and used after the lesson guide. In the book, there are games and activities to do as well.
How We Used The Product-
We used this product several times per week. (It is recommended 4 days per week.) I would read the lesson to my 10 year old and then we would listen to the audio of that lesson. We chose to make our own flashcards. (The picture above is the flashcards that you can print if desired.)
I would have the calendar month in a stack for him to place in order. Once he had them in order, he would read them off for me in Spanish. Another game we played was mixing the cards up and asking him (in english) to pull out the month of June for example. He would then have to find 'junio' and hand it to me, each time saying the month in spanish that I asked for. We did this with the days of the week as well.
We also would ask each other about the weather in spanish. I would ask him how the weather is today and he would answer by saying, "Hace sol" (which means "it's sunny"). We had fun doing this every morning.
What I Thought-
I liked how the program introduced things with pictures. My son is very visual and he learns best with hands-on approach. It was challenging to him to pull out the card I asked for in the stack. That is his favorite game we played. The book is very simple as far as the pictures and display. The pictures are drawn by a child, which I thought was great! They were simple and some were funny.
However, I felt that there is a bit too much information in each lesson. For example, lesson one not only teaches the months, but it teaches the days of the week, weather conditions and verbs. There are only 5 lessons for a whole years course. I just thought that if the lessons were split up into several shorter ones it may have been easier to retain. For example: if lesson one had only the days of the week - lesson two, just the months....etc. But in all fairness, you could spend as much time as needed on each lesson. So adding more lessons would just be my personal preference. Learning so much in one lesson was a bit overwhelming to my son (and myself) so from them on we just took our time and made it through not worrying about the how long it took us. This course is designed for a whole year, so taking several weeks or a month on one lesson would probably be the norm. The layout didn't interfere with learning the language. I am just more of a visual person myself and I feel it would've been a bit easier for us if the lessons were more spread out into more lessons.
Overall, I would recommend this to someone who wants to learn or teach spanish to themselves or their children.
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