Recently I have had the opportunity to check out Spanish for You!‘s curriculum for homeschooling. I reviewed the Estaciones (Seasons) e-book and all digital files for this product for grades 3-8.

Right now, there are two themed curriculum for sale. You can get the Fiesta (celebrations) OR Estaciones packages. A single grade level costs $39.95, or you can purchase grades 3-8 together for $64.95. From what I have seen of online language curriculum, for all the items and scholastic value, this is a fantastic price. (There is also a third book, Viajes (travels), that will be available soon and has some short units for sale now.)

What you get for the price:

• a soft cover book (trial packages, like mine, come with an e-book instead)
• a 24-30 week lesson guide for the grade(s) you order in PDF format
• self-checking worksheets in PDF format
• flash card pages with pictures that correspond to the ones in the book in PDF format
• audio files in MP3 format of the entire book spoken by a native Spanish speaker from Mexico
• Audio files in MP3 format spoken by an American that is a little slower (great for beginners!)

Disclaimer: To be honest, I had a difficult time with this review, but a large part of it is that I only have myself to test it out with, and so I can’t be fully honest with how effectively it works with the targeted age range.  I also have NO experience with Spanish, except the basics like, “Hola, amigo!” and “Gracias”. While I found similarities with my experience with learning French years ago, second languages have always been a weak point for me-ESPECIALLY when all I have is myself to work with!

Another bummer was that I’m a very hands on person with books and papers, and I only received digital files for this product (like the e-book). I’ve also had limited access to a printer right now. The organization of the files was very frustrating for me to try and figure out, and almost made me give up on giving the product a good try. Fortunately, in the past week, the author, Debbie, has said she’s completely revamped the organization of the digital files, so it should be easier to maneuver through if you download the product tomorrow. Yay! (Debbie is so responsive to feedback and willing to help with the product- a definite plus to this product.)

Knowing all that, don’t discount the value of this product. 

There are several positives.

• The back story to this product is worth knowing: Debbie Arnett, the creator, IS a certified teacher and has experience teaching this curriculum in an Enrichment Home school Coop. She tests out and adjusts all her curriculum through the students (grades 3-high school) there first for an entire school year before placing it for sale. She also studied in Spain. (You can learn more about Debbie here.)
• Each unit includes key building blocks for learning a foreign language, like vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, verb conjugation, and grammar, to help develop their fluency.
• I love that this is designed for multiple experience/age levels, and that you can use the same book, just the different grades of worksheets depending on your students. And if you have an advanced 4th grader, why not just bring them up a level?
• Audio to help with sound and pronunciation (where I struggle the most!) from native speaker from Mexico and by an American. Having the English speaker audio was great because it sounds more like what I would sound like speaking Spanish; it’s slower and less intimidating to pronounce!
• Flexibility: you could take 3 days just to work on lesson 1, Day 1, or you could do 3 lessons in one day. (I was definitely more in the first group!)

Additional things to know before purchasing this product:

• Have a good internet connection to help with downloading the material. It’s a lot of downloading, especially with the audio files.
• Printer: You MUST have a printer ready to handle the load. Or have somebody handy to reload the ink cartridge when you run out.
• You need a computer program that can play all the MP3s for the audio, which I found extremely valuable.
• You need a computer program like Preview (Mac) or Adobe to view the many, many PDFs
• Useful, but not necessary items to make this more interactive and fun could be colored paper (or card stock), dry erase boards/markers.

In conclusion: If you’ve been considering adding a foreign language to your curriculum, Debbie’s Spanish For You! material is definitely worth considering for the unbeatable price for the material you will receive. 🙂

 

It has just come to my attention that APOLOGIA has made a statement regarding the LDS Faith stating that it is not a Christian church. It also makes several false statements on what the LDS faith truly believes. If you wish to read it in its entirety, please click below:
http://blog.apologia.com/blog/2013/04/12/is-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints-lds-mormons-a-christian-religion/#comment-10775

As most of you know, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or as we may be more commonly known, LDS or Mormons. Jesus Christ is the very foundation of our church, as shown by His name in the name of our church. My belief in Christ and the Bible is integral to who I am as a person. I BELIEVE IN CHRIST.

As one could imagine, I am deeply saddened to see Apologia make such statements about us. And as much as I enjoyed this planner, I cannot support a publisher that has made these false statements. I do not know if the author, Debra Bell, also supports this view, but as things stand for now, I will have to look into other planners for now. 🙁

For more information on what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe, please see some of the following statements made from our church leaders regarding our deep belief in Christ as our Lord and Savior.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/being-a-more-christian-christian?lang=eng

http://mormon.org/faq/mormon-christian

If you are homeschooling, you will want this planner.

If you are teaching in the classroom, private or public education, you will want this planner.

If you use a planner at all, YOU WILL WANT THIS PLANNER.

When I was sent Debra Bell’s The Ultimate Homeschool Planner and its companion The Ultimate Daily Planner for Students from Apologia, I’ll admit it. I wasn’t too excited about looking at a planner. After all, I just left the classroom, and the only student in my foreseeable future is just learning to wave “Bye-Bye” and sign “milk” and “more”. Why would I review this planner for homeschooling, especially since I’m not sure I’ll even go that route when my daughter is older?

The moment I opened these planners, I took it all back. I ALMOST – almost – wanted to be back in the classroom so I had an excuse to be actively using these planners. They are awesome, in so many ways. Quick summary:

Lets start with the Pictures and Pros:

Let’s start with the parent/teacher planner.

Things that I LOVE about this planner- It has a lot of fantastic features that you can choose to use or lose. It’s so customizable.

Like to have the big picture far in advance? You can have a very simple day/day plan with this one year planning grid.

Setting individual goals for your children or students, both character goals and academic. As a former English/writing/reading teacher, I loved it when students could apply what we were doing with a book or writing to their own lives- that’s what good readers and writers do to make it meaningful. And often they can use that to set character goals as well as academic. Could you imagine having students set SMART goals at the beginning of a year or grading term and letting them keep referencing them throughout the year to help achieve those goals? LOVE.

I also love that you can put the days/weeks/months/years into the monthly and daily planners. I am one of these people that always had good intentions, but I constantly had to readjust my plans because my kids needed more time or less time to complete our units.

And I love these inspirational quotes and scriptures on the pages.

Of course, as this is an Apologia product, there’s the nice touch of your “spiritual” battle plan.

The reading teacher in me LOVED this reading record list. I used to do this with my students every year when I was a Public Ed. teacher.

At the end of the planner, you have some great tips/lists for things like “Raising Independent Learners” or “Helping Reluctant Readers”.

Now for the student planner:

Several features at the beginning help the student with understanding how to use their planner and set up their own goals of where they are now and where they’d like to be in the future. Fantastic!

I think these features would be perfect if you as the teacher or parent can sit with your student(s) and talk over these goals and ways to make the most of their education.

Again, like the parent planner, these are very customizable by date- no need to waste pages because you skipped a week (or forgot to write things down… because what student EVER forgets to write down their assignments? LOL!).

There are also more scripture quotes and fun facts for students to utilize- I love this trivia!

Plus all the fun extra useful pages of information such as grammar and good writing tips, US facts, maps, and measurement equivalency charts?! I might make a copy of this page and carry it around with me in my pocket since I’ve forgotten most of this. 😉

The Cons:

First, the price can be a turn off- especially for multiple students. The parent planner is $28.00 (though in searching I was able to find it in a few places for a slight discount) and the student planners are $19.00

With all the extra features, both planners are no lightweights. They are fairly bulky and would definitely take up room in any bag/purse/backpack. I would not have wanted to cart this back and forth from the school- I’d probably leave it at school during the week and bring it home on a “planning day” or weekend.

Lastly, if you do have an environment that is purely secular, I could see how many of the scripture quotes and references to “Battle Plans” could be a major turn off, particularly because that takes up a large section of the parent planner.

As you can tell, I really loved reviewing this product and highly recommend it. I feel the pros definitely outweigh the cons, but needed to be mentioned. If you do get this planner, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!