The following post is a collaboration between Llamitas Spanish and MommyMaestra. All thoughts and opinions are the personal ones of guest writer, Stacie Farias. This post contains affiliate links.
Parents raising bilingual children: Need an easy-to-use Spanish curriculum that blends culture with language learning? Check out Llamitas Spanish!
It is a great fit for parents who are bilingual and trying to raise bilingual kids, or those who don't speak the language but are still trying to give the gift of bilingualism to their children. Read on to learn more about this program.What is Llamitas Spanish?
Easy to Use Spanish Curriculum
Having almost finished Llamitas Level I with a couple of my six children, I was excited to have the opportunity to review the newly available Llamitas Level II. What was previously Level II is now Llamitas Level III and I was relieved. Taking my 9 and 11-year-olds’ Spanish proficiency into consideration, the former Level II was too advanced for them. It was just too big of a jump from Level I. My personal criteria for picking homeschool curricula is that it must be “Easy + 1” for my children, a criteria I have found again and again to be a good fit for our family since I first heard these words from Andrew Pudewa of IEW. This new Level II is exactly that: Easy + 1.
It is formatted exactly like Level I with a few more advanced activities. There are 6 thematic units encompassed in an all-in-one Activity Book. There are 18 Level 2 Readers which are small books for the children to practice reading. There are helpful links to songs and YouTube videos for each individual lesson and THE clearest audio tracks to help with pronunciation (which I particularly appreciate because other programs have terrible audio). However, my favorite bit about Level II is that it comes with a beautiful picture book of Short Stories.
The Spanish Text of Short Stories
The collection of Level II Short Stories are to help the student “practice the vocabulary, grammar, and phonics from the units” and to ”learn about the Hispanic culture, traditions, and the natural world in Latin America!”
It is written by Llamitas founder Corrie Wiik and María Adelaida Soto Sánchez. I found the short stories (in English and Spanish) to be culturally relevant, appropriate for young Spanish learners, and pleasant. Color me impressed!
What blew me away was the illustrations by Ekaterina Ilina. This is where the color has been hiding! Saturated in the brilliant and vibrant hues of Latin America are stories about the pink dolphins of the Amazon, pineapples, and a quinceañera, among other things. My personal favorite, which will surprise no one, is the story of the monarch butterfly.
Incorporating Different Subjects
You can see from the Scope and Sequence that Llamitas incorporates other subjects into their levels beyond Phonics, Literacy Comprehension, and Grammar. The math concepts include addition, subtraction, odd and even numbers, telling time, among others. Don’t be discouraged if your kiddo is proficient in these concepts because it’s not about teaching how to add and subtract, it’s about listening to math concepts in Spanish and learning the vocabulary that goes with it.
But perhaps the cross-curricular nature of Llamitas is best displayed in their choice of topics for social studies and science. My favorite science lesson is about the monarch migration into Mexico but I love, love, love the lessons on Pura Belpré and Julio Tello. These additional subjects do not replace a social studies and science curriculum, but very nicely supplement one. Level II (like Level I) includes a few picture studies and songs in Spanish to incorporate music and support the themes.
Supplemental Digital Resources
Can I just take a moment to say that the digital resources of Llamitas curates for each unit are remarkable. On days when we don’t have enough time to complete a full lesson, I can pull up any of the Spotify playlists to listen to on-the-go. The SoundCloud audio tracks are crystal clear, which is my biggest gripe about most Spanish curricula.
You can tell when the audio is not from a native or heritage speaker or when the sound quality is poor. This is not the case with Llamitas. The YouTube videos are thoughtfully chosen and I appreciate being able to have something that all my littles can watch to feel like they are participating too.
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Disclaimer: I received a copy of level two for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ~Stacie
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Bio:
Stacie Servantes Farias is an Army wife and mom of 6 with a “very healthy” obsession for Snoopy, Disney movies, Audrey Hepburn, Dr. Pepper, Whataburger, books, and homeschooling. Originally from Mission, Texas, Stacie and her high-school sweetheart hubby live with their kids and dog in a different home every few years, because that is the military life. She has big plans to write a book exploring her theory that La Llorona drowned her children because they would take their socks off all over the house and then would complain that they never had clean socks!
