Speekee Spanish

Speekee is a British company that reminds me a bit of Sesame Street. There is a cast of children characters, puppets, and adults. The goal is to teach children how to speak Spanish while having fun and going about their daily activities. 

This is an immersion program (isn't that how we all learned English?) that strives to have fun and show the children repeatedly what each word means. Most experts will agree that immersion is the best way of learning any language. 

Speekee, a purple puppet with yellow spiky hair and an orange t-shirt, is the host of the video series. We were able to try out the new online version of the program. There are ten episodes covering every day activities such as going to the park, going to the beach, cooking in the kitchen, and more.

Each episode has close captioning turned on so children (and parents) can read along in English as well as see how things are written in Spanish. While J7 isn't quite fluent or fast enough yet to read, it was helpful for me to be able to explain to him what was being said. After a while though I did stop reading to him and just explained things a bit. Due to the repetition of the episodes, it's easy to see what's going on and what's happening and make those word connections. 

One thing I really liked about this program were the additional worksheets that can be printed out for reinforcement activities. Each episode had a theme. For instance, the one below (episode one) is about going to the park. There are two worksheets that can be printed out to help reinforce the learning. Each episode had anywhere from two to twelve worksheets. 

Details:

• Online subscriptions cost $7.50 per month 
• There is a two week free trial - go ahead and check it out first.
• This is Castillian Spanish or rather the Spanish spoken in Spain so it will be slightly different than the Spanish most speak here in the US.
• You can also purchase a DVD set which includes 4-DVDs, a CD, and a guide. However, it is a PAL format so be sure your DVD player can support this format before purchasing. It sells for about $150USD.
• Spiral language approach - it continues to build on previously learned material.

Overall I enjoyed this product. J7 thought it was "good" but when asked if he wanted to continue, he didn't think so. While this is geared for ages 2-10, I would recommend it more for the younger age range. I would also recommend repeatedly watching the episodes. Simply going through the ten episodes once will most likely not make your child fluent. After all practice makes perfect!

Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to see what other Crew members had to say about Speekee.

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.