Times Educational Supplement, April 2007
By Joanne Jones. Copyright TES.
This superb language learning pack made me long to have my own pre-schooler so that I could begin using it immediately. Speekee is designed for pre-school and primary school children to begin learning Spanish through a total immersion experience with no English spoken at all, designed by professional linguists and educators. The colourful combination of puppets, interesting locations and authentic Spanish children is at once captivating and compelling.
The course consists of 10 episodes on three DVDs with familiar settings such as the park, the café and in the home; a 34-track audio CD with a wide variety of catchy songs; and a comprehensive accompanying booklet (for adults) which gives outlines of each episode with key vocabulary, ideas for extension and practice, lyrics for all the songs in Spanish and English and a mini English/Spanish dictionary.
Using principles of accelerated learning and multiple intelligences, the course covers a good range of useful Spanish words and phrases that children are encouraged to listen to and repeat. One particularly useful extra is the subtitles which can be selected for the adult watching/learning and teaching alongside the child. This language course would be ideal used in a home or pre-school setting and also would be extremely valuable in the lower end of the primary school. If you are considering teaching Spanish to young children, this should go to the top of your wish list.
