This school year we have been focusing on Spanish for our foreign language using a bunch of little resources. I was very excited when I was chosen to review El Espanol Facil Junior Level from Great Commission Languages. I had actually looked into buying this particular curriculum last year but never did. Great Commission Languages creates Language courses in order to provide people with resources that they can use to further the Great Commission. A quote from their website, "Great Commission Languages (GCL) officially released our first product in December 2004. Owned and operated by Marie Filion Sherwood and Peter Sherwood, we are a homeschooling family (since 1996) committed to providing quality language products to both the homeschooling and general education community. We personally are evangelical Christians (see our Statement of Faith); our products are unapologetically written from a Christian perspective. Extensive cultural information, as well as scripture verses in the foreign language in question, is provided with all our products in the hopes it will assist those desiring to carry out the Great Commission. Having said this, we would also like to point out that our products are not Bible curriculum per se, and the scripture memorization components are optional." I love the heart of the authors on this!
El Espanol Facil, Junior level is a 34 week curriculum created for K-3rd graders, and can be used for as many student at a time as you desire. When you purchase you receive a spiral bound guide that contains all 34 lessons, a list of activities for each lesson, and samples of the weekly coloring pages. You will also receive two discs. Disc one has the audio for lessons 1-12 and disc two has audio for lessons 13-34. Both discs contain accompanying worksheets for the lessons presented. You can access these on your computer. Students will complete coloring sheets, and worksheets for each lesson as well as create a Libro Soy Yo book. There are also a variety of activity suggestions and lapbooking ideas tied to the book The Ultimate Lapbook Handbook. The junior level focuses on vocabulary, phrases, and proper usage. Formal grammar is introduced in Level 1.
Now perhaps you are wondering how it worked for us? I will give you a rundown of how we are using El Espanol Facil! We do Spanish first thing in the morning after breakfast. This is one subject that is done as a group, and everyone gets involved even the littles. I created a binder for the two big kids divided into two sections, Coloring/worksheets, and Libro Soy Yo! Each day we listen to the audio for the weekly lesson. The audio is a short story between Belicia and her dog Chichi. It is done in part Spanish part English! After the lesson a list of vocabulary words from the story are repeated with their English translation. I had the kids go through all the vocabulary audios every morning after listening to the lesson. So this week they listened to week 1-4 vocab words. I also have them repeat the words after they hear them. We then do 1 of the listed activity choices. The kids especially like the week we learned Hide and Seek in Spanish(Las Escondidas). We played Las Escondidas, counted in Spanish, and the person searching said Donde Estas! I also like the section called Cultural Notes that gives some cultural info each lesson.
The kids working on their Mi Hermosa Casa page!
I'm happy to report that we all love El Espanol Facil(The Easy Spanish) Junior level! If this curriculum interests you be sure to visit the Great Commission Languages website where you can learn about all the Spanish and French curriculum they have to offer. El Espanol Facil Junior can be purchased directly from their website for $69.95+SH!
El Espanol Facil, The Easy Spanish Junior was given to me free of charge in exchange for honest review. No other compensation was given.
Don't forget to visit the Homeschool Crew blog to see what other thought about Great Commission Languages products. Crew members had a chance to review both their Spanish and French curriculums.
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