Our Family

Our Family

Friday, January 21, 2011

TOS Review: Speekee

Speekee logo
Speekee is a Spanish language learning course for young children ( approximate ages 2-10.) Speekee was created by specialist linguists and musicians and uses a spiral learning immersion approach to teach. The lessons are spoken completely in Spanish but captioning is available in both Spanish and English. It uses real Spanish children in real Spanish locations and essential words with lots of repetition. The main character is a cute, lovable puppet named Speekee. Speekee makes learning fun using catchy songs and stories and activities that are interesting to children.

Speekee
Speekee used to be only available on DVD, but they have recently come out with an online version Speekee TV. There are 10 episodes currently available that you can watch straight from your computer. It is also possible to watch it on the Wii if you have WiFi and the Internet Channel on your Wii (note: captioning is not available at this time on the Wii.) The episodes range from about 16 to about 20 minutes each giving you over 150 minutes of learning time. With each episode there are downloadable worsheets to go along with the episode. Since it is taught in a spiral method it is recommended that you watch each episode in order. The titles of the episodes are:
El parque
El cafe
La casa
El zoo
La clase
El mercado
La estacion
La playa
El jardin
La fiesta

A subscription to Speekee TV is $7.50 per month and the first two weeks are free. There is no minimum subscription time. You subcribe securely using Paypal and cancel any time you would like.

My children (1 1/2, 3. 5, 7, 9) loved Speekee the first time they watched it. We watch Speekee TV together every school day after our Bible lesson. The time frame of each video is long enough to teach them but not too long that they get bored. It is very engaging and is featured around places and things that children naturally enjoy. The songs are very catchy and before the end of the first video the children were singing along (quite honestly I find the words to the songs popping into my head several times a day too.) Even the little ones have an understanding of the Spanish words and are using them during the day. Lily (1 1/2) said elephante when she saw a picture of an elephant yesterday, lately every time I ask the boys a question they don't know the answer to I get a "No lo se" for a response, but I also am hearing, "Te quiero" quite a bit. Our favorite episode was El zoo and we have watched that one several times (I had a hard time convincing the little ones we could go on to the next video.) The downloadable worksheets are a good compliment to the lesson and are age appropriate. We have truly enjoyed learning Spanish with Speekee.

Speekee is based in Europe and teaches Spain Spanish not Latin American Spanish. I don't think that makes much of a difference but some words, phrases, and pronounciations may be a little different in Latin American Spanish. It is very helpful to watch these videos with your child instead of letting them watch on their own. That way you know what they know and can answer questions, and there are several places in the videos where Speekee expects your child to repeat the phrase that was spoken. Also, as of right now there are only 10 videos and I am not aware if/when more will become available although I would love to see more made.

If you are looking for a fun way to introduce Spanish to young children in your life, I would definitely give Speekee a try!

To see what other crewmates are saying click here.

I received a complimentary subscription to Speekee TV for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. I received no other compensation.

1 comment:

Jim said...

¡Hola Lisa! Thanks you so much for your comprehensive review of Speekee. Great image of you all watching it together. Love to you and the children from Spain... Jim (the one in Speekee)