Basketballs aren't for Breakfast (A REVIEW)

My boys have been asking to learn Spanish for quite some time. They have friends that are in the Spanish immersion programs at school, and we live in a town that is predominantly Spanish speaking, so I can see why they sometimes want to learn the language they hear around them a lot. I took a few years in high school and college, so I can help them with a few words here and there, but I was excited for them to get a little more through a fun program from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids. We received the Starter Set 1 that will take the children on a 20-week Spanish adventure. We made it through several lessons during our review period.

When we received the box and opened it all up it looked a bit overwhelming. We received the DVD, 3 student workbooks, flashcards, stickers, and a curriculum guide complete with instructions on where to start.  Once I read the Guide for Parents and Teachers I was starting to see the simplicity of this whole program, and how nicely it is laid out. I was able to start right away with almost nothing I need to prepare except maybe putting the DVD in.

 So, how does this program actually work?

The Starter set 1 is split up into 3 levels. Each level has a Guide for Teachers and Parents, and a workbook. We started with Level 1 which is titled Basketballs aren't for Breakfast. The Guide breaks up each level into lessons, each lesson varying in length. Some are as short as 5 minutes, some up to 40 minutes. Almost every lessons starts out watching a segment from the video. The kids learn vocabulary by hearing and watching over and over again. Most video segments are repeated throughout the lessons. My boys did not mind watching the video several times, and they got something different out of it every time. The kids in the video are easy to relate to.

After the video segment is watched there is usually some sort of activity like the geography, or the workbook, or a game. Sometimes there are several activities. I didn't get a picture of it, but one of the other fun activities that we did during the first few lessons was put vocabulary stickers around the house. In the fridge we put a sticker on an apple that said manzana, or on the bookshelf el libro for book. It was fun to see the stickers around, but I was a little disappointed when I tried to take them off. They didn't peel clean off. I had paper residue stuck to some things that I didn't want evidence of a sticker on. I was a little disappointed in that. I think it's important to use stickers that will peel back off nicely. I can understand the desire to have them stick and stay though. I might have to come up with a solution for the rest of the stickers because my boys sure loved putting those stickers all over the place.

Teachers and Parents Guide

Basketballs aren't for Breakfast workbook

I love when we can weave subjects together! We get a little dose of geography as we work through the lessons with the geography in a Jiffy pages. Every few lessons there is a little tid bit about geography where you either find something on the map, or read something interesting about the location.

Another cool feature of this program is the games. We love to learn by games, and this Spanish program seems to have a few. In the 2nd lesson my boys enjoyed playing "Duck Duck Goose" with Spanish words. They picked 2 words from the flashcard pile, and had to replace the words in "Duck Duck Goose" with them. It was great fun, and all the boys had fun with that. They even wanted to play again.

Playing "Duck Duck Goose" FLK style!

The instructions for the Go Squish Cardgame were also included, but we didn't get around to play it. I thought that we hadn't received the cards for that game, but just missed them (there are a lot of cards in that stack!)

Overall, I think this is a neat program. It is always fun to learn a new language in real life situations. I love that each lesson is simple with a few engaging activities. Learning Spanish with this program is a blast. I hope you found this review helpful. You can find out what others had to say by clicking on the banner below!