Learn Spanish Online

Homeschool Review Crew

Have you ever thought of learning a foreign language?  I have wanted my kids to become fluent in at least one other language besides English before they leave our homeschool.  So the opportunity to learn Spanish online was one we definitely wanted to take advantage of.  Thanks to Excelerate SPANISH we now have a one-year online membership to their Excelerate SPANISH streaming programs.  Available to us to learn Spanish online are both levels one and two. 

There are two different levels of the program.  Level one and level two both are available together or can be purchased separately depending on your needs.  We get access to both programs but are starting with level one.  In addition to online streaming, there are textbooks and workbooks that can be purchased as well. Though the program can be done with them it can be done without them as well.  It can also be purchased as a DVD set for those who don’t wish to stream it.

Something I’ve appreciated since we did not receive the textbooks and workbook is the online help.  Online help can be found on Quizlet.  They offer help with vocabulary, flashcards, games, and other practice helps.  This program is completely free and so fun!  I love that it is set up so I don’t have to search out the topics and words we need but rather is organized by the lesson and level of the Excelerate SPANISH program so it really is easy to learn Spanish online without textbooks.

About the Program

This is an online streaming program.  That isn’t unique in and of itself as there are becoming more and more online options for school.  What makes it unique is the way it teaches and how you then learn Spanish online through it.

The unique teaching style is teaching Spanish through stories.  I being a literature buff love this!  But even more, I love that it can connect and engage with kids from all different learning styles.

Each level has 24 lessons.  So theoretically if you did one lesson per week you could complete both levels in one year.  This is then two semesters of learning.  

If you have an advanced child or someone who really wants to learn quickly it could be done in less time. 

Each lesson is around 30-35 minutes long for the online portion.  If you choose to add in some other information or use the Quizlet site then they might take longer.  See how we’ve been using it under our thoughts section. 

How it Works

You watch basically a classroom of children learning Spanish.  Through this, you, in turn, learn as well.  The lessons use fun hand gestures and movement to drive home the information.  Besides the hand gestures, you get action skits, stories, and full sequences to help you remember and learn.  This is all taught by a homeschool mom with years of teaching experience.  

In her introduction to the program video, she says that kids will learn the best if they participate and do what the classroom children do.  If the children in the video stand have your child stand etc.  

A few of my kids thought that this was foolish and they’d look silly but soon they too got in on the fun!

As for what they’re learning.  It’s not just colors and numbers.  This teaches them advanced vocabulary and uses a unique teaching system that I haven’t heard of before.  The program is TPR, Total Physical Response, which allows them to use movement and their whole bodies.  So each vocabulary word and definition has a unique movement that will be taught with it to help the learning process.

I do like that each lesson builds on the other.  Even in Spanish 2, she is asking them to remember and use the words and actions that were learned in Spanish 1.  

Our Thoughts

I took two years of Spanish in my junior high and high school years in my tiny tiny rural school.  The teacher on the Excelerate SPANISH program reminds me of my Spanish teacher in school.  Not that the teaching method is the same but that now I think all Spanish teachers look like this.  Maybe an unwritten rule or they naturally gravitate?  I don’t know but it has definitely made me smile and giggle a few times.  I’ll have to tell my old teacher when I run into her next time.

We have enjoyed this program.  Some of my kids try to pretend that they’re not interested and they really don’t want to learn but I find them doing the actions and laughing along with everyone else!

For our family, it has worked really well for all ages to watch this together.  This is ten kids ages 3 up to 14.  The baby is not quite a year and normally can be found playing on the floor.  Since she only says a handful of English words I haven’t heard any Spanish ones coming from her yet.  

We have laughed so much with this Spanish program.  Seriously.  It’s not that it’s laughable but that the way it’s taught is so fun and enjoyable.  I’ve even found myself learning some words I didn’t know before.  And it’s fun to watch my kids light up when they can talk to each other even in small bits of Spanish.

How We’re Using

We are doing one lesson per week to have this take us a full year.  Normally this means we watch the lesson on day one.  Day two sends us over to Quizlet to see what we can find to do over there. 

Then on day three, we watch the lesson again.  I find that repeat watching really helps us to remember and cement everything in our brain.  We tend to only do a four day school week with one day of errands being run and homeschool coop. 

For this program three days a week seems to work well.  If one of my kids has soemthing they’re struggling with I’ll print off some fun activities for them to do from Quizlet and they can work on that on the fourth day.

My older kids like to get on the computer and do the matching game.  The younger kids have more trouble with it because they don’t read the Spanish words well yet. By younger, I’m talking six and three here.  

I really like how she adds the words together immediately to make sentences. So as they learn the vocabulary they are also learning sentences that mean something, not just words strung together like the sky is blue.  All the while they’re doing actions for each word or phrase so they’re moving the whole time too!

Learn More

You can learn more about how to learn Spanish online and Excelerate SPANISH by reading all the blog posts linked up on the Main Blog Post on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.  They can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.