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We love unit studies in our homeschool. Almost every subject taught and learned here centers around them. History, geography, science — we’ve got them all covered. We even find ways to incorporate math and language arts most of the time. But never did it occur to me that we could use a unit study approach to learning a foreign language.
Enter Spanish for You!
Spanish for You! is a theme-based curriculum for grades 3-8. Currently, there are two complete theme packages available — Estaciones (Seasons) and Fiestas (Celebrations). We received the Estaciones theme package for review. Soon Viajes (Travels) will also be available. Each theme provides lessons for close to one year of instruction, working 4 days per week, at a cost of $64.95 for all grades levels or $39.95 for each grade level (3/4, 5/6, 7/8) . Teacher Lesson Plans are an additional $12.95. You can view sample pages of Estaciones here.
Our package included the following:
- Soft cover book
- Audio download of the entire book, plus a bonus audio download of the book read by a native speaker
- 24-30 Week Lesson Guides for grades 3-8 PDF (27-30 wks grades 3-4, 24 wks grades 5/6, 7/8)
- Nearly 200 self-checking worksheets for grades 3-8 PDF
- Set of pictures for making flashcards and other activity materials
With Spanish forYou!, any theme can be chosen; they do not need to be completed in any particular order. This puzzled me at first. Any other foreign language curriculum we’ve tried has been done sequentially, with one lesson building on the next. I was intrigued by how this would come together.
We chose to work in the grades 7/8 Level since Ben has already had some exposure to Spanish and will soon be in grade 7.
Most of this program is found in the downloads, so we began there. Once we had everything downloaded, it was time to begin printing. I created a notebook for Ben, using a 3-prong pocket folder, to store the worksheets for the first 5 weeks of lessons. We also printed out the pages that would be used to make flash cards. Ben was assigned the job of making those.
Once we were ready to go with our flashcards and notebook, it was time to get started.
The lessons are all laid out nicely for you and each weekly plan follows a similar schedule, beginning with the introduction of new vocabulary and phrases, and is followed by daily instruction involving practicing words and phrases, reading the the book while listening to the MP3, translating phrases from English to Spanish and Spanish to English using the worksheets, practicing with flashcards, and playing games. Answer keys are included with the worksheets, so that your student can get immediate feedback.
One particularly fun activity for Ben was keeping track of the weather and documenting it in Spanish. This was a great exercise this time of year because our weather has been so varied — cold, cool, warm, cloudy, sunny, rainy. You name it, we’ve had it. Ben was able to solidify a lot of new vocabulary this way and it was so much more fun than just memorizing it by reading on a page. And because we used a daily weather chart, he also had plenty of exposure to the names of the days of the week (more unit study goodness).
Another activity he enjoyed was spelling aloud using the Spanish alphabet. This not only was a great way to practice spelling, it was perfect for aiding in learning those “extra” letters we don’t have in English. We even learned a fun song to help him remember how to pronounce each letter. Ben enjoyed transferring this skill over to other lessons, often spelling history and geography words with the Spanish pronunciation of letters (even more unit study goodness).
Both Ben and I found Spanish for You! to be a refreshing new way to learn Spanish. It made sense to us, because we tend to think in themes. It was simple to implement, taking only about 20-30 minutes a day to complete a lesson and because it used many different tools — speaking, writing, audio, reading — he was never bored and really looked forward to each lesson. Most lessons were done independently, which is always a plus for me. Only time will tell, but I believe that the use of themes will help him retain what he has learned as well. It’s working well so far.
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