Schoolhouse Review Crew: Spanish For You!

Spanish For You! is a year long Spanish curriculum that allows you to teach grades 3-8 all at the same time.  With Spanish For You!, students will learn how to read, write, and speak Spanish by listening to audios, completing worksheets, playing games, and making and using flash cards.  Instead of being taught by grade levels, Spanish For You! is taught around a theme.  Currently, you can choose from Fiestas (celebrations) or Estaciones (seasons), with a new book, Viajes (travels) releasing this summer.  Over the last several weeks, I have had an opportunity to use and review Estaciones with my 3rd and 5th grade boys.




Spanish For You! packages come with:

• a soft cover book or ebook
• 24-30 week lesson guide (PDF files)
• student worksheets with answers (PDF files)
• 2 sets of audio files: one of the author speaking and the second a native speaker from Mexico (MP3 download)
• flashcard/activity pictures

You can purchase grade levels separately : Grades 3-4, Grades 5-6, Grades 7-8 for $39.95 each or purchase grades 3-8 together for $64.95.

It does not matter which book you start with.  The books can be done in any order and the more you do, the better your student will be able to communicate in Spanish.  Each book teaches key foundational concepts: grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and conjugation consistently from chapter to chapter and book to book.  Students learn all of the different components and how to put them together in a variety of way, similar as the author says to using "building blocks."

See a sample of Estaciones here.
See a sample of  Fiestas here.

For purchasing information, click here.

The first thing I had to do to use this curriculum was download all of the files.  Most were in zip files and were easy to download and extract.  The audio files took a little bit longer to download than the others.  Since I received the Spanish For You! book also as a download, I put it on my iPad so we would not have to print it out or read it on the computer.  I chose to read the lesson plans off of the computer, and printed off the student worksheets we needed for lesson 1 and the flashcards.

Lesson 1 of Spanish For You ebook on the iPad

Spanish For You! has lesson plans for 4 days per week which worked great for us because we "do school" Mon-Thurs.  We spent less than 30 minutes per day working on our lessons.  The lesson plans tell you exactly what you are supposed to do each day so all the teacher has to do is follow along with the lesson plans.  Each grade level completes the same listening exercises and worksheets, although the activities vary slightly to be age appropriate for each group.  I used the lesson plans for 3-4th grade and had my 9 year old complete those worksheets while my 5th grader completed the 5-6 grade activities.

I really like the concept of Spanish For You!  Especially in a homeschool when you are teaching several different ages all at the same time it is very convenient to have them learning the same things but also have the different worksheets for the different grade levels.  I like that you have the ability to choose which book you want to begin with rather than having to complete them in a certain order.  I LOVE having the audio files come with the program.  Although I have some Spanish in my background, I am in no way fluent and the playing the audios so the children can hear what it is supposed to sound like is a big plus.  You do not have to have any Spanish in your background to be able to teach Spanish For You!  It is all laid out step by step and you can learn right along with your student.  All of the worksheets are in black and white which really helps with the cost of printing.  You can go through Spanish For You! at your own pace.  After 6 weeks we are just finishing up lesson 1.  I think I could have spent extra time each day and completed 2 days worth of activities in one, but I am not in any hurry and like taking a relaxed approach.

I wish the worksheets had page numbers.  The hardest part of using this curriculum for me was getting it organized.  I printed out all of the worksheets for lesson one and then had to try and put them in order which took me a little while.

I would love to see Spanish For You! for high school as well.  My 16 year old is interested in taking Spanish next year.  She did some of the 7-8th grade worksheets, but it would be great to have a high school option.

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