Spanish Immersion for kids with Whistlefritz ~ a TOS review

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Disclaimer: I received a Complimentary copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.

Morning friends! Have you ever wanted to teach your young child Spanish or French? If so, I am sure you know that the easiest way to learn a modern foreign language when you are young is through day-to-day immersion. Live and breathe the language just as you learned your native tongue. Whistlefritz includes bilingual foreign language immersion music videos in their Educator's Spanish Collection.

Knowing that research shows the greatest language growth with learning a new language happens in early childhood, Whistlefritz was created by a Spanish speaking mom who wanted to teach her own children to speak Spanish. The Whistlefritz program is a fun mutli-sensory curriculum that uses videos with live speakers, music, and creative storylines. The Spanish is taught the same way that you learned your own native tongue, by using everyday words in context. With games, music, and dance your child will start to learn from live speakers in a playful and engaging process. 

We received the Educator’s Spanish Collection which is geared for kids aged 1-7 and I used the program with Micah, my 7-year-old 2nd grader. The Educator’s Spanish Collection includes:

 Lesson Plans book 

5 DVD videos 

3 Music CDs 

Matching Cards Game 

Translation Guides and extra Lesson Plans are available 

The Spanish program is taught in 40 lessons with an adorable little mouse named Fritzi who guides you through the program. The entire program includes: 

~ 40 scripted lesson plans that provide engaging and fun learning activities. Lessons are easy to use for parents even if you have little to no knowledge of the language. 

 ~ Videos that are short and sweet to keep the child’s attention. They feature native speakers and characters and provide catchy melodies. 

 ~ Music CD’s that offer a great selection of musical styles to get your child moving to the beat. Musical translation guides and a lyric sheet are also available on the website for each of the CD’s. 

~ Memory Matching Cards with approximately 50 illustrated cards for playing memory.

Using Whistlefritz with Micah is super easy! I simply schedule time during the week and follow the weekly calendar that has everything scheduled out for us. On Day 1 I follow the scripted lesson in the lesson plan book and then throughout the week we continue the immersion learning with the music, activities, and videos.

Micah is on the older end of this Spanish for kids curriculum but I like that he has already learned so much in such a short time. Even knowing just a little bit of Spanish is so helpful in his daily activities. I am a huge proponent of learning new languages and I plan to continue using this with Micah throughout the summer as he prepares to take his first official Latin course in the fall. Since older sister, Montana, is also learning Spanish using this curriculum gives both of them speaking opportunities with each other and myself as I know a bit of Spanish as well.

 

Several of my CrewMates also had the opportunity to review this Spanish for kids program along with the Educator's French Collection. Be sure to click the banner below to read their thoughts.

 

Company ~ Whistlefritz 

 Product ~ Educator's Spanish Collection (with ¡Buenos Días! and La Música) 

 Format ~ physical copy 

Price ~ $199.00 

Ages ~ 1-7 years old

 

 Find Whistlefritz on these Social Media Links: 

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 © 2008 - 2022 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author. 

 https://astablebeginning.com

Try a FREE class with Homeschool Spanish Academy

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So, it's May and the end of the line is nearing for the 2017-2018 school year. Have you begun to think about next school year? What curriculum will you use for your foreign language credit? If you haven't given it too much thought yet, let me encourage you to check out Homeschool Spanish Academy.

Let me tell you our top 5 reasons for using Homeschool Spanish Academy next year:

1. Flexibility in scheduling lessons is hands-down one of the best features for us. The ability to choose the time is invaluable because of Mikayla's busy travel season schedule.

2. Quality high school level instruction.

3. Excellent, knowledgeable teachers who are native Spanish speakers.

4. Interactive lessons, that are not boring.

5. Detailed progress reports that give you an overall picture of your students progress throughout the course. 

I'd not be telling you the truth if I didn't tell you that we love it! The flexibility and the quality of instruction my high school girls receive from their instructors is amazing! Recently, our beloved teacher, Nora, retired and is no longer teaching. However, the girls new teacher Bartolome, who took over her classes, is amazing himself! As I plan for next school year I am confident in the fact that Mikayla will continue on for Spanish 2. HSA has exceeded our expectations in a foreign language class.

I hope you'll check them out for yourselves!

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© 2008 - 2018 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.    

http://astablebeginning.com 

Finishing up the year

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***affiliate links provided***

Hi there friends!

We start our school year in the beginning of August so we are finishing up week 16 at our house! Just two more weeks to go to the end of our 1st semester. Wowzers, this year has flown by so quickly! It's getting to be the end of the year and I wanted to tell you again how much both of my girls are enjoying their lessons with Homeschool Spanish Academy.

Mikayla just took a test today and scored a 92% while Madison scored an 89% on her Spanish 3 tests. They are both doing fabulous and I am confident that if Madison was stranded somewhere in a Spanish speaking country she could communicate with the locals. Mikayla is getting there too, but she is just in Spanish 1 learning the basics.

Don't get me wrong though, she does not speak very much English when online in class with her teacher. It's Spanish only right from the start of class. I love that immersion based aspect of the course. Dive right in and the teacher is there for healthy guidance and correction. Just as you correct your young child when they are learning to speak.

I just wanted to let you know that right now, Homeschool Spanish Academy is having an end of the year sale! What better time than now to give the gift of learning a new language.

©2008 - 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author. 

 http://astablebeginning.com

Do you need to go a different direction?

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Hey there friend! How’s your school year going? It’s almost the holidays and I know just how busy things get. Can I offer a little advice as a somewhat season homeschool mom? Give yourself some grace! Even if you are not where you hoped to be in your lesson plans, your kids are learning.

If you need to make the switch in curriculum, now is a good time to start researching and planning for when you start back after the new year. If you are looking for foreign language credits in Spanish, look no further than Homeschool Spanish Academy! My girls are thriving with the program and adore their teacher, Nora. With this program you get one-on-one lessons from your home right through you computer screen. It’s like having a personal native speaker right in your home. And you know what, the teacher actually builds a relationship with your child and knows who they are. You’re not just another client with HSA, but apart of the bigger community of Spanish learners.

So, if you are looking to make a change for the new year, click on over at the banner above {affiliate link} and take a FREE class. I think you’ll love what you see and see the reason why so many families are turning to Homeschool Spanish Academy for there foreign language credit needs.

©2008 - 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author. 

 http://astablebeginning.com

Homeschool Spanish Academy: Taking classes with Google Hangouts ~ a review

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***links in this post are affiliate links.***

Over the last few years that Madison has been using Homeschool Spanish Academy, she has met her teacher, Nora, on Skype for one-on-one lessons. This year, Mikayla and Madison are using the new meeting site on Google Hangouts.

Google Hangouts is very similar to Skype in there video conferencing. Logging into class is super easy because Homeschool Spanish Academy sends you a reminder email for your class the day/night before your class. Just in case you are a busy and forget, you also get an email one hour before class starts. I really love this feature!

Your reminder email has all the details of your upcoming class session including the start and end times along with your teacher information. This is especially helpful if you are utilizing multiple teachers for the course. If you are needing to cancel or reschedule your class there are links right in the email that enable you to do so quickly.

To take classes through Google Hangouts you need to download the program on your computers desktop. It is free and completely safe to do so. One of the best features I think is that you have the option to take your lessons with you on your phone or tablet by downloading the Google Hangouts app. The app is available on both Apple and Android devices so you are covered if you need/want portability.  While we have not tried this feature yet, I know once we hit the road traveling up and down I-95 for gymnastics meets we will be utilizing the mobile app option.

On the girls laptops to log into class they simply just click the click here button in the reminder email. Doing this opens the Google Hangouts where you press the join button. After doing that you are in the classroom where you wait for the teacher. It’s recommended that you log into the class no more than 5 minutes beforehand to wait for the teacher to join the session.

We are excited for all the options that Homeschool Spanish Academy offers while using Google Hangouts. Both of my girls are excelling in their lessons and learning to speak Spanish beautifully!

©2008 - 2017 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.

 http://astablebeginning.com

Getting Started with Homeschool Spanish Academy

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I am so excited this year to have both my high school girls, Madison (11^th) and Mikayla (9^th), taking Spanish lessons with Homeschool Spanish Academy {HSA}! We were first introduced to HSA program in the summer of 2012 and have been in love with it since. Our oldest, Marie also took 2 years of Spanish with HSA too before she graduated from our homeschool, so I guess we are veterans to the program.

Homeschool Spanish Academy was founded in 2009 by Ron Fortin. As an online Spanish Academy, the program offers interactive lessons between native Guatemalan speakers/instructors and students. HSA has programs for every age including elementary, middle, and high school students as well as adult learners. 

Getting set up to start lessons is a breeze! First you need to decide what type of lessons you need and how many days a week you want to study. Because my girls are looking to earn 1 High School credit, we choose to go with the 60-class option that meets for 50 minutes each session. This program retails for $560.00 and is the ideal program for a two semester, full year long course. If you are looking for a one semester option to earn .5 credit, there is a 30-class option that retails for $377.00 as well as a 15-class option, .25 credit, when you need just a little bit extra study for $212.00. Now, don't get scared by that price tag! You definitely get what you pay for with HSA and the one-on-one tutoring without having to leave your own home is worth every penny!

Once you have completed the sign-up process you are ready to schedule your classes. On the first day of your scheduled class, you will get a reminder email about an hour before your class session. In that email, it will direct you to the new meeting platform on Google Hangouts. If you don’t already have it Google Hangouts downloaded a link to do so is provided for easy reference. Once you have downloaded it just run Google Hangouts on your computer or mobile device with either an iOS or Android OS.  

While not mandatory, it’s nice to have a pair of high quality headsets to communicate with the teacher. It really cuts down on little brother and sister noise during class time.

Next week I will go into more depth about how exactly we schedule our lessons out to fit our schedule. So far, we have not had any issues with logging into the new platform for classes or getting our classes scheduled. I personally like to schedule out our whole year right up front so we can keep the same teacher. Once we get our gymnastics and softball schedules we adjust the days and times as needed for our family.

That is one of the many reasons while we love using Homeschool Spanish Academy. Their Spanish courses work around our busy schedule, yet I know my children are getting top notch instruction from native speakers. Something that in my book is priceless!

I hope you’ll join me!

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids ~ a TOS review

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These days it’s almost essential that you know another language. Maybe not fluently, but enough to communicate basically. In our family we choose to learn to speak Spanish after we learn Latin, normally around upper middle school, 8th grade. However, we had the opportunity to introduce Spanish in a fun and exciting way with the Starter Set 1 from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids.

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids was founded by Kit Strauss who was looking for a quality program for her three sons. Her program offers children aged 3 and up and adults alike the chance to learn Spanish in a short period of time in a fun and exciting way through immersion videos. The videos provide a positive way to learn Spanish with a dose of good humor and laughs throughout without having to rely on painful memorization that doesn’t work for everyone.

The complete program was designed so that your students will:

 • succeed in discovering another language 

• become enthusiastic about learning Spanish 

• have positive feelings about Spanish

 • have a good experience that will last a lifetime!

We received the complete Starter Set 1 which includes: 

~ DVD videos for Levels 1-3 

~ Parent – Teacher Guides which include detailed lesson plans and fun, hands-on supplemental activities for reinforcement

 ~ Flashcards and card games for each level 

~ Workbooks for each level 

~ Stickers for each level 

***I want to mention right of the bat that we are currently on vacation and I mistakingly forgot to bring the camera cord to load my pictures. So bear with me for right now and I will upload our pictures early next week when we return home.*** 

Over the last several weeks I have used this program with my three youngest children aged 9,6, and 2. I have a background in Spanish, so this was a fun refresher for me.

The concept of the DVD portion of the program is that of an in-flight movie as you start your journey traveling from Washington, D.C. to Lima(flight 101), Peru on the first leg, then from Peru to Bogota, Columbia (flight 102), and finally from Columbia to San Jose, Costa Rica (flight 103).

The Teacher’s Guide includes everything you need to complete all three levels of flight in roughly 20 weeks. The detailed lesson plans tells you where to start and stop the DVD and which workbook pages to complete when.

Your in-flight entertainment is found in the student workbooks that includes helpful information on the geography and culture of the countries and are designed like a magazine for kids in 3rd grade and up. There is a corresponding workbook for each journey of the flight that includes several activities such as fill in the blank, matching exercises, crossword puzzles, and more. Helpful answer keys are included in the back of each book.

The included color-coded flashcards are great for drilling words or playing games and included both pictures and words. Also included in our set was a set of vocabulary stickers that could be stuck on different objects around the house. The kids especially liked this and helped them relate to the word and put it into context. The stickers are not so sticky that they don’t come off, so that is great for moving the stickers to multiple objects if necessary.

We have all thoroughly enjoyed using this program and working through Flight 101. Now that our school year has started I plan to continue working our way through the rest of the Flights until completion. Having a background in a foreign language helps tremendously in other areas of schooling and life in general. I love that this curriculum gives me the opportunity to provide that for my children at such a young age.

Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of this program by clicking the banner below and reading their reviews.

Company ~ Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids 

Product ~ Starter Set 1 

Format ~ We received the Physical Product, digital product also available

Price ~ $140.25 

Ages ~ ages 3 - adult

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©2008 - 2016 A Stable Beginning. All rights reserved. All photographs, text, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the author.

http://astablebeginning.com