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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Middlebury Interactive Languages - Elementary Spanish 1: Grades 3-5 - Review


Teaching a foreign language is something I worried about when I first started our homeschooling journey. I'm sure I wasn't alone in those feelings. Thankfully I was blessed to be able to find some pretty great resources to help my children. Just recently my youngest daughter had the chance to review Elementary Spanish 1: Grades 3-5 from Middlebury Interactive Languages. This was a great opportunity for her and it took a ton of stress off of me. 


Elementary Spanish 1: Grades 3-5 is an introductory Spanish course that provides a fun, interactive experience for a student’s first exposure to the Spanish language. The content for each unit is based on an authentic story, myth or legend from various Spanish-speaking cultures. We felt that the stories were a fun way to keep my daughters attention and keep her interested in what she was learning. 

The purpose of the program is to get your child comfortable with the sounds and rhythms of Spanish; to learn simple Spanish phrases; begin to read, write, speak and listen for meaning in Spanish; and recognize distinctive practices and products of Spanish-speaking cultures.

How we used the program

For the purpose of this review my daughter logged on and completed a lesson at least three times per week. The course was broken into 16 units:

Unit 1: Family
Unit 2: Numbers
Unit 3: Greetings
Unit 4: Adjectives/feelings
Unit 5: Food
Unit 6: Community/professions
Unit 7: Body
Unit 8: Review
Unit 9: Animals
Unit 10: Colors
Unit 11: Clothes
Unit 12: Weather and Seasons
Unit 13: School
Unit 14: Calendar
Unit 15: Months
Unit 16: Review

Each unit was then broken into 6 lessons. Each lesson contains fun and education portions such as:

  • Stories
  • Games
  • Activities
  • Songs
  • Quizzes
  • Assessments
  • Speaking Labs

One of my daughter's favorite part of the course was a part called Speaking Lab. In this part my daughter had the chance to listen to different Spanish words or phrases and then record herself saying the same words and phrases. She had a blast with the portion of the course. I felt like it was wonderful for her to be able to hear how she was saying the words. There were many instances where she wouldn't like how she said it, so she would try over and over again until she mastered it. That alone was awesome practice for her. 

  

One of my favorite parts of the program is the gradebook. In this section I can pull up a list that will show me my daughter's scores for all lessons and quizzes. This is a wonderful way for me to be able to check her progress and make sure she is staying on track with the program. From there I can also view all of the activities and even see the problems that were marked incorrect. This is nice, because it allows me to go back over these problems with her. 

Final Thought

As a homeschool mom whom very much desired to have my daughters learn a foreign language, I'm very pleased with this program. It wasn't only fun but it was also engaging, effective, and easy to use. Best of all is that it requires minimal effort on my part. My daughter can work independently and I absolutely love that. Although, I did also have fun participating in the program with her. I have to admit, I learned a ton of Spanish myself from the program. This to me was a win-win. I foresee us continuing with this program and can't wait to see what else my daughter learns. If you are looking for a high quality Spanish program than I definitely recommend you check out Middlebury Interactive Languages. 

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