But any words of mine pale when compared with real proof:

(click on the image to watch the video)

These two budding linguists are watching Speekee TV.

THEIR SPANISH IS GREAT!

My thanks to Krista Guerrero of Intellectual Baby, LLC

To this:

And back to this again:

Establishments in the Old Quarter of Arcos de la Frontera who choose to take part in the annual May Crosses event, are, for a couple of days, given a large plastic cross peppered with many small holes.

You will notice that squeezed into the cross is a squashy green substance. I don’t know the name of that stuff but, when wetted, it serves as a kind of bedding for the flower stems which nestle into it so they don’t fall out. Once the flowers go in you get a rather beautiful effect such as the one shown in picture two above. And then it’s a case of whatever decoration you surround your cross with.

This year our family chose something of a flamenco theme for the cross we decorated:

courtesy of: http://azaharsemanasanta.blogspot.com.es

All good fun!

This is also Antonio:

Yes, in Speekee there are two Antonios.

Real names? Antonio and Antonio. We might have renamed one of them for the sake of avoiding confusion, but then Speekee likes to keep it REAL. Authentic. Genuine.

So Antonios they remained! (And so far, no confusion that I know of).

We are still visiting an authentic Spanish classroom this week.  Our studies included drills on school supply names and colors, such as “Un boli rojo” (a red pen).  While learning to ask if someone has an item for us to borrow, we played along with a cute worksheet titled “What’s Missing”.  For example, I would ask my child (in Spanish) if she had any glue that I might borrow. Then she would answer (in Spanish) based on which items were displayed on her paper.  My 3 year old enjoyed having her own copy so that she could play along as well.  We also worked on terms for family members, using a word find that we printed off of the Speekee site and also some printable photos of the children’s family in the episode clip. Once my 10 year old knew the terms, we also used them in regards to our own family.  My 3 year old loves the movie clips and catchy songs.  My 10 year old enjoys the creative ideas for practice and review.

Kimberly
http://welovetohomeschool.blogspot.com/

Speekee fans might recognise these two: Joe and Maggie, the siblings who appear in each episode. We see them immersed in Spanish culture, having fun at the fair, at the zoo, in school etc.

Seven years have passed since their arrival in Spain.

Maggie is a fine linguist, and Joe is a budding actor.

¡Perfecto!

Only a one hour drive from Malaga we were able to take a trip there last weekend – arriving on Friday night, climbing all day Saturday and Sunday, and getting the flight back home from Malaga around 9.30pm Sunday evening. ¡Perfecto!

Finished in 1905 the walkway was constructed to provide access to the workers who were building the hydroelectric power plants at El Chorro. A railway tunnel also runs through the rock of the gorge, peeking out from time to time. The walkway gained its name after the visit of King Alfonso XIII around 1921. It is built of a thin layer of concrete resting on steel rails, and despite having many holes and being generally in a poor state of repair, seemed to me to be in pretty amazing condition given its age.

There are many climbing routes in the gorge but these are less popular than they once were with the focus of climbers shifting to crags such as Frontales and Las Encantadas outside the gorge. In fact, we travelled through the gorge on Camino del Rey, but our destination was the crag of Los Cotos, at the North end of the gorge. To get to Los Cotos you take the walkway until a path leads down through a tranquil orange grove and easy river crossing, after which a tunnel under the railway takes you to the base of the climbs. I say an easy river crossing, but by the time we made the return trip the river was much higher (I guess some water had been released from the dam above) and the crossing back was more exciting.

A steel wire runs above the walkway, and equipped with a climbing harness this allows you to navigate the walkway “via ferrata” style. There are a couple of steps where the concrete has fallen away and I was glad to be clipped into the wire:

Thanks to Maggie at Casa Magel for looking after us in El Chorro.

This week we are still visiting an authentic Spanish classroom.  We worked on “Who is it?” and “It is…”, also “Who are they?” and “They are…”  This activity uses a cute worksheet in which the Speekee actors’ faces are blurred out a little and your child guesses who they are.  I thought this was a neat idea.  We also watched a Dino and Lupi sketch a few times, before muting it and attempting to speak the dialogue on our own.  My favorite phrase is “Te quiero (I love you)”.  My 3 year old has so much fun watching the Speekee videos.  My 10 year old enjoys the extra activities, like acting out various scenes and dialogues.

Kimberly
http://welovetohomeschool.blogspot.com/

Perhaps the most obvious addition is the “Sign out” link which now appears in the top right hand corner of Speekee TV:

A lot of people told us that it was inconvenient to enter their username and password each time they use Speekee TV. So now the system will keep you automatically logged in. If you do want to log out then you just need to click “Sign out”.

This week we started the lessons on “La Clase”.  We watched the video and enjoyed seeing inside a Spanish classroom.  We drilled on introducing ourselves with either “I am …” or “My name is …”.  We also practiced handing each other items while taking turns with “Toma”, “Gracias”, and “De Nada”.  My 3 year old preferred to watch the short clip and say the phrases along with the Speekee children.  This week’s lesson also includes a short song to introduce us to several prepositions and school supply terms.  We all found ourselves singing along with the captions turned on.

Kimberly
http://welovetohomeschool.blogspot.com/

The first of these is let loose on the main street in town at 12pm, and then another is released at 3pm; by which time the alcohol has worked its magic on so many ‘brave’ onlookers that they fancy their chances as amateur bullfighters.

They say every picture tells a story. Here’s one showing yesterday’s action:

from: http://nostalgiabajolaluna2.blogspot.com.es

You get the idea, don’t you?

Bull chases young men down street for a while.

It’s a day of high excitement, loved by my kids!