Knowing a second language is a wonderful advantage. At the high school I teach at we have about 60 different languages that are represented on campus through students. I think that is amazing how many languages can be in one school. That also means all of those students have to also know English. But what about the English speaking students? How do they communicate with their peers? I have worked with children and families that speak other languages then me, mainly Spanish, but a few others. It is not always easy to communicate. I always wished I knew more Spanish. Sure I have taking some classes and I have had co-workers help me to learn some, but it is not fluent at all. I have heard before that the best time to learn a new language is before the age of 8. Something about the way a person produces different sounds are set by age 8. So after age 8 it becomes more difficult to make the different sounds that may be in another language. That is why I am happy that Jayden's school provides Spanish instruction daily. He has an actual Spanish teacher that comes in his classroom daily and teaches, right now some basic Spanish. He is enjoying learning a new language, but of course it is not easy. When I saw that there is an online program for kids to help teach them Spanish I thought that would be a good addition to what he is already doing.
Speekee is an online Spanish program for kids. Speekee was developed in 2006 and has worked to build their reputation as a quality Spanish learning site ever since. The Speekee Spanish Challenge is the most comprehensive Spanish learning program for children online. Speekee is designed for children between the ages of 2 and 11. Speekee has some free Spanish speaking videos, but if you sign up for the paid version you get access to many more videos.
Once I got Jayden set up to use the program I sat with him as he logged in. It was confusing at first to figure out what to do. There is just a log in/ sign up box, but no other information on the home page. Once we got in there were lots of videos that you can watch. Across the top of the screen there is a list of others that are online "playing" also. Jayden was turned off pretty quickly. I asked him to give it a chance. He tried watching another video. He usually is one to jump in and try the words, but he really didn't seem excited. It might have been because he really wanted to try another program or because it just was not something that he was very interested in. The screen itself is overwhelming with the video in the middle along with a bunch of screen names where children have either given the video a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Along the bottom there is a line of other videos that you can watch. The videos are completely in Spanish, but I think they repeat the words so much you figure out what they are saying. So that is good, although there are some words that are lost in there. For children under 7 there is what is called a fasttrack learning guide. It tells you which videos they should watch in what order. It also has some suggested activities that you can do at home and flashcards you can print out. But I wish they were things that could be used online instead of printed out.
The next time I had Jayden try out the program he was a little more interested. He sat and watched a few videos. He even began repeating some of the words. He was excited that he already knew a few words from his Spanish class. Evan became interested too and kept going over to see what Jayden was watching. At one point Jayden got up and Evan took over the chair. He didn't really know what he was watching, but he cheered as the video ended. In the help it says there are games to play we could not find them. All we found was lots of videos. Maybe we need to watch the videos and the game is at the end, I don't know, but none of the videos we watched had games at the end. The first time we watched this Jayden was getting distracted and really didn't want to watch. The next time it went a little better. I really wanted Jayden to enjoy this site and boost his Spanish so when he returns to school in a couple weeks he is ready for Spanish class. I will continue to encourage him to try watching the videos and possibly learn a little Spanish, I am hoping as he warms up to it he will gain more knowledge of the Spanish language. I think the site could be a little more user friendly. I'd love to see games that can be played as they learn. Maybe an actual icon on the home page to show the games.
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Thank you to Speekee for sponsoring the review & giveaway
I was provided the above mentioned products in order to provide a review. I was not compensated in any way. All thoughts and opinions are my own and not influenced. disclosure
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