I think I am one of the few that just doesn't grasp how the Speekee TV Spanish program works for children, even though it has been deemed the best Spanish program for children.About Home School ReviewsCurriculum, teaching aids, online resources -- they abound for the Home Schooling family. Budgets are usually tight, making each purchase count. Home School Reviews come from our Shiloh Home School, as we check out some of the resources available to home schooling families, giving detailed, comprehensive descriptions of the product and our honest opinions about the quality of the product, based upon the price.
Despite my reservation, Miraclegirl lovesthe Speekee videos, part of the Fast Trac program for home schoolers, which we were given an opportunity to review.
The program is a 40 week program that delivers a weekly email with a link to the next video to watch, with 4 additional days of activities and video clips the parent can use with their child to reinforce the video lesson.
While using our trial, I would often ask Miraclegirl, "what are they saying?" or "What does that mean?" and her response is always, "I don't know" so I'm not sure how much she actually learned, even while she was highly entertained.
She has asked daily to watch it, but remains non-committal when I ask her what she is learning, what words mean what, or what she likes about it. If I was paying $7.50 a month I'd be tempted to cancel, simply because it would seem like my money was accomplishing very little.
If however, I had the additional $7.50 a month to spend, I might keep up the subscription as a supplement to our regular Spanish home school curriculum we will be using. On it's own, I just am not convinced as to what it did for her. As a supplemental aid, I think it would help other curriculum be substantiated.
Miraclegirl's Take:
I just like the movie.
When asked, "Has it helped you learn Spanish?"
"I don't think so Mommy. . . "
Pros:
~ The videos, while a bit "annoying" for an adult to hear in the background, are exceptionally attractive to younger children.
~ My 4 1/2 year old and een 1 1/2 year old could sit glued to three episodes at once and not grow bored.
~ Spekee TV provides additional print out resources and activities for parents to do with their children as an aid to the videos.
Cons:
~ My daughter did not pick up that much Spanish other than counting.
~ It's yet another screen time program which we try to keep limited in our schooling.
~ The additional activities require frequent printing.
We give it an overall rating of 3 out of 5.
The initial review of the program as well as additional reviews can be found the the TOS Speekee TV blog post.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this product for review purposes, made possible by:
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