LLamitas Spanish II Review

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?

Llamitas Spanish is a relatively new Spanish curriculum provider for homeschoolers, co-ops, charter programs, and traditional schools. It is secular-based and teaches Spanish with an open-and-go format that even a non-speaker can use with ease. Llamitas’ mission to “provide an academically robust, culturally authentic, and beautifully illustrated Spanish curricula” is definitely something this Latina, homeschool mama can support.

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.

Overall, Llamitas Level II is a beautiful and delightful program that I think any parent can easily use to bring Spanish and Hispanic culture into their homeschool. If it sounds like a good fit for your family, you can learn more or purchase the level of your choice on the Llamitas Spanish website!

You may also be interested in...

• Book Review- Raising Bilingual Children: A Practical Guide
• 28 Bilingual English-Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables
• 5 Things To Consider When Choosing Bilingual Homeschooling
• Barton Reading and Spelling: Expensive, Boring, and Effective

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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!

K-2 Math AND Science Curriculum

The following post is in collaboration with SPORK. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Homeschool parents! If you've been looking for a curriculum that covers BOTH math and science, read on to learn more about SPORK. This K-2 program may be just what you're looking for!

As a homeschool mom, I'm always on the lookout for quality programs and resources that either save me time, or money, or both. So when I was given the opportunity to review SPORK Butterfly Math & Science K-2, a program that combines TWO subjects, I was quick to agree. Here's what I think about it...

Two Subjects in One

I am a HUGE fan of cross-curricular learning. In fact, I would bet that many homeschoolers are. It's one of the things that makes unit studies so popular. For me, it's because I love teaching my children how interconnected the world (and universe!) is. Seeing the relationship between objects and/or concepts is a powerful skill that I want my kids to develop and use as they grow up. Plus, I think it makes learning more fun!

What SPORK is Like

I wasn't sure what to expect from this program. But it turns out, I really do love it. Why? Because of several reasons:

First, the layout/dashboard is simple. There are 18 units with 8 to 12 lessons in each. Each lesson covers a new concept for math and one new concept for science. For example, lesson 15 covers tallying (math) and states of matter (science). I can go into the dashboard, pull up the lesson we're on and click on instructions. From there, it is a simple list layout with links to printables or digital resources for everything we cover.

The layout can be short or long. But each activity is clearly defined in its own highlighted box:

Second, the directions are minimal. This is an activity-based program and my son learns by doing. I don't have to lecture, but we have discussions and I might click a link to pull up a visual to explain a concept, such as states of matter:

The program recommends a schedule of five times a week for 85 minutes. This works out to be about 17 minutes a day. Given that some lessons are a little longer and others a little shorter, this is fair. I don't really pay any attention to the time frame because we just go at a stead pace and try to get one or two lessons done each day. But we probably do about 15 - 20 minutes a day. Days with "experiments" or hands-on activities can take a little longer, but we don't mind if it is something that really engages my son. 

A Variety of Learning Activities

Third (and the thing that I love the most), the lessons are consistent - but diverse! This sounds like an oxymoron, but we start off with a review of the previous lesson and/or previously learned concepts, then move on to learning something new, and then we always end with the Learning Path. 

So let me explain this a bit. We usually do one worksheet that just reviews the skills he has learned. The worksheets are not tedious. Seriously, there is like one question for each concept:

I cannot emphasize enough why I like these worksheets. They don't require my son to do the same type of problem or answer the same questions over and over again like a sheet of multiplication questions. As you can see from the picture above, the problems/directions are brief and require him to do something once (or at most three times as in the last question). These bite-sized problems prevent my son from hating the work because he answers one thing, then - BOOM! - he's answering/doing something different. 

You might think this just wouldn't work, but repetition is built into this program so that he does this everyday. That daily repetition carries over with some older concepts replaced as new ones are learned. This repetition builds my son's confidence and his enjoyment of both science and math. It really is brilliantly done. 

And the new concepts may require us to do a hands-on activity, study and discuss some visual aids, or something completely different, such as one fun activity for learning about tally marks that required my son to watch an animation of cows jumping over a moon and use tally marks to keep track of how many had jumped (I had the option to click on the image and make it full-screen)...

So my son isn't doing only lectures and then worksheets in every lesson. He knows that he will do at least one worksheet, but it's quick and "easy." 

The Learning Path

And at the end of each lesson, my son does his Learning Path. This is an online, game-like series of tasks that my son does. The Learning Path looks like this:

And it can be done with a touchscreen or a mouse/touchpad. Each number takes him to an activity that covers the concepts he has been learning. I know that he's developing those math and science skills, and he thinks he's getting "tech time" and playing games.

If you'd like to try before you buy, you can definitely request a demo from the company. I ALWAYS tell parents who are shopping around for a curriculum to download the samples or request a demo before they buy to see if it is a good fit for their family. Doesn't matter what the subject is, it only makes sense to try it first.

What's Included in the Curriculum

When you purchase this program (only $39!!), you'll get access to the online learning portal. You will have a dashboard, and your child will have a separate one so that they can access the Learning Path. 

I also received the manipulatives kit that provides all the items we need to do the activities. It has a LOT packed into the kit for the price ($45). I think ours had around 20 items and it included everything from a geoboard and rubber bands to base ten blocks to tangrams and a lot more. But if you have all the basic math manipulatives, you might not need to purchase this. It's definitely way cheaper than purchasing each of these manipulatives independently, though.

And lastly, I received three books: 

• The Teacher Resources Book ($35) that contains the non-worksheet printed resources that you may need while teaching, as well as the tests for the end of each unit (don't worry - they're simple!).
  


• The Butterfly Math & Science B ($45) - Student Workbook: Part 1 which contains all of the printable worksheets and activity sheets for units 1 - 9. 
  
  
• The Butterfly Math & Science B ($45) - Student Workbook: Part 2 which contains all of the printable worksheets and activity sheets for for units 10 - 18. 

These books are great if you don't have a printer or want to save on ink. But all of these materials are available for download through the learning portal, so I haven't even used them. For visual aids, I just show my son the screen and we discuss the topic. And if I need a worksheet or resource printed out, I just click the link, open the PDF, and print it. I feel like I save a lot of paper (and trees!) this way. But I also have an Epson EcoTank, so printing doesn't cost me a fortune in ink. If you have just a regular inkjet printer (or don't have a printer), then purchasing these books may be way more cost effective.

You can find all of these and the resources for grades K - 2 here in the SPORK shop.

If this program sounds like a good fit for your child, I encourage you to request your demo and purchase the program for your child's grade!

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