Name of program: Sing 'n Speak Spanish
Target age: Kindergarten through 8th grade
Amount of materials: Comprehensive
Price: $165-$695 (teacher packages); $4 - $49.95 (support materials)
MommyMaestra Rating: ♥♥♥
The Review
So it's important that you know straight up that I didn't receive one of the complete teacher packages offered by Sing 'n Speak Spanish. Instead, they sent me a sample booklet with information about the curriculum, the Scope and Sequence from year to year, and full double lesson samples from the first five levels, including the corresponding worksheet pages from the workbooks, and a few sample teaching aids.
Sing 'n Speak Spanish has a huge curriculum with 8-9 levels to cover K - 8th grade. Each level covers an entire school year. For example, a Year 1 Teacher Package includes:
Sing 'n Speak Spanish has a huge curriculum with 8-9 levels to cover K - 8th grade. Each level covers an entire school year. For example, a Year 1 Teacher Package includes:
- a teacher manual
- 2 workbooks
- 2 music CDs
- 2 songbooks
- and a huge array of teaching aids, such as flash cards, game cards, and activity cards.
The deluxe package weights around 28 pounds and comes with all the teaching aids already cut and laminated. They do offer an economy package that has all the same items, but you have to cut and laminate the teaching aids yourself. Not usually a problem for homeschoolers who may not use them year after year and therefore don't need to laminate them, and teachers who have helpers and their own laminators.
According to the program features, the program has been in use since 1998 and has been successfully used by many teachers across the country.
I love that the lessons are well organized and easy to use. Here's a sample page of one of their lessons from their year 1 Spanish program...
You can see how you know right up front which materials you're going to need for the lesson, then you can see a quick list of all the vocabulary and phrases/grammar structures you'll be focusing on, and finally which songs/rhymes you'll be using.
The lesson plan itself is all laid out, taking you step by step through the entire class period. I enjoy that you can even find the script for using puppets to engage your young student(s). There is a strong focus on interaction to get children excited about learning. From puppets to songs to games, the lessons are playful but focused.
**NOTE: The program does offer a great set of puppets to go with the skits in the lesson plans. But you can easily substitute them out with puppets you already own. The program says that it uses the puppets to "draw attention, relieve tension, and speed interaction." I think they are a fantastic teaching tool to help draw out children, especially those who may be shy about talking with adults or their classmates.
The lessons include homework assignments. These include crafts and games to play at home, such as making a body parts wheel or mini concentration game cards, as well as simple workbook pages that review concepts and key vocabulary learned in the lesson.
As I read through the Sample Booklet, what jumped out at me was how the lessons progress in complexity. So while Year 1 is focused on basic vocabulary, Year 3 focuses on more complicated concepts such as feelings, pronouns and simple verbs, and Year 5 explores verb conjugation, indirect object pronouns, possessive adjectives and so on.
While parents don't have to be fluent to teach this course, they should have some background in Spanish in order to teach the proper pronunciation to their students.
Overall, this appears to be an excellent program for home or classroom. The comprehensive program makes teaching easy to do with minimal prep work, and it is designed to make learning Spanish fun for children.
Julia Burnier, the director of Sing 'n Speak Spanish, says that most homeschoolers purchase the economy packages, but they often only order workbooks, music CDs, and songbooks because they can't afford to buy the entire package. But she says that either way, the program is effective.
Homeschooler Discount!
Because they are awesome, Sing ' Speak Spanish would like to extend a special pricing just for homeschool parents.
Their Economy Packages retail for $395.00 and include a set of magnetic pockets valued at $45.00 which most homeschool parents do not need. Without the pockets, the Economy Teacher Package retails at $350.00.
We would like to give a special discount to homeschool parents. For homeschooling parents only, they are willing to sell the Economy Teacher Packages (without the magnetic pockets) for $295.00. Just tell them that you that you heard about it on MommyMaestra when you order!!
Disclosure: I received the sample booklet shown above from Sing 'n Speak Spanish for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Please remember, I don't promote products that I feel are not beneficial to my readers or that are poor quality. My readers always come first.